Rhubarb and passion-fruit ice cream

Prep time: 1 hour 25 minutes, plus churning and freezing time

Makes about 1 litre

Every so often I make an ice cream that’s so good it’s like nectar. In the past pink-grapefruit and basil was my number one, but this has knocked it off its perch. A tropical fruit and an old-fashioned English fruit, you wouldn’t think these two would have much going for them in combination, but you can taste both distinctly here; they come together well and neither dominates. I can’t encourage you enough to make this.

INGREDIENTS

– 625g rhubarb

– 185g caster sugar

– 4 large passion fruit, pulp and seeds only (about 8 tbsp – you can also use M&S sachets of passion-fruit pulp) – 6 egg yolks

– 450ml full-fat milk – 150ml double cream

METHOD

Heat the oven to 180C / 170C fan/gas mark 4.

Trim the rhubarb and cut it into 3cm lengths.

Put this in an ovenproof dish with 75g of the caster sugar and two tablespoons of water. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes. The pieces of rhubarb should be tender but have kept their shape. Once it’s cool, lift the rhubarb out with a slotted spoon. Pour the juice into a saucepan and reduce by half by boiling.

Put the passion-fruit pulp and seeds in a food processor and whizz. This will make it easier to sieve out the seeds. Push the pulp through a sieve and put the seeds in one bowl and the pulp in another. Purée the rhubarb pieces with the reduced rhubarb juice in the food processor as well.

Beat the rest of the sugar together with the egg yolks until the mixture is pale and tripled in volume.

Put a large bowl into a sink of water and chuck a load of ice cubes into it.

Heat the milk to just under the boil, then slowly pour it on to the whisked yolks, stirring all the time. Rinse out the saucepan that you heated the milk in, then put the egg and milk mixture into it. Set over a very low heat and cook, stirring all the time. Don’t boil the mixture or the egg yolks will scramble.

Cook until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If you run your finger through it you should be able to create a channel that doesn’t close. Take the bowl out of the iced water and pour the custard into it. Put the bowl back in the iced water and leave the custard to cool, stirring every so often.

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, then fold it into the custard. Add the rhubarb purée, the passion-fruit purée and 1-2 tablespoons of the passion-fruit seeds.

Churn in an ice-cream machine, or freeze in a shallow dish in the freezer, removing the mixture three times during the freezing process and whisking it with electric beaters.

Whichever method you’ve used to churn it, put the ice cream in a container, cover it and freeze it overnight. You need to take it out of the freezer about 15 minutes before you want to serve it.