This beautiful Persian ice cream is both a visual and a culinary delight.
This morning at our local market in Bermagui I spotted a most unusual item - a small glass tube of saffron. Talking to the woman at the stall I discovered she produced saffron on her property near the little town of Brogo on the Far South Coast of NSW. Like all good small producers she was passionate about her product, explaining the hard work it was firstly to establish the saffron crocuses and then the actual picking of the tiny pistils.The whole process is very much a labour of love. It brought back memories of Iran and an amazing saffron ice cream I first tried in Shiraz. The golden colour was extraordinary and the different textures and flavours were a delight. I was inspired to recreate this ice cream using our local saffron.
You can also find the recipe in my Persian book 'Pardiz'.
- Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons of pure cream
- 500 ml full cream milk
- 100 gr caster sugar ( super fine sugar)
- 2 organic egg yolks
- Saffron ( from Brogo if you can get it)
- 50 ml good quality rose water
- 50 gr pistacchio slivers
- rose petals to decorate
spread the cream on a sheet of greaseproof paper and freeze
bring the milk and half the sugar to a gentle boil
beat the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar until light and fluffy
add a little of the hot milk to the eggs then pour all the egg mixture into the hot milk, let it thicken on gentle heat
in your mortar add the saffron and a pinch of salt and grind until you get a fine powder
add the saffron and the rosewater to the egg mixture
in a small pan gently toast the pistachio slivers
mix them through the cream mixture and let it cool
once cool take the cream out of the freezer and cut it up into little pieces
transfer to your ice cream machine and churn until frozen ( if you do not have a machine just put in the freezer in a bowl and mix the cream from time to time until frozen)
decorate with rosepetals
