Melon Icecream

Somehow, I seemed to reminisce school days today. I don't know what was the beginning, but then all of a sudden, I felt very nostalgic. Our school wasn't that great, we had separate shifts for girls and boys but then I had a bunch of awesome classmates that made up for all the shortcomings. We had a lot of innocent fun in all ways and thoroughly enjoyed our limited freedom in whichever way possible. A lot of laughs, snide remarks, comments, leg pulling, and what not? Girls, I really miss those days. I have kids now but still whenever we get together possible, we talk and laugh so hysterically that our kids feel their moms have gone mad! :) Can't help it though... I've never seen my mom get so excited about being with her friends, so when I am really enjoying my time, I feel nice. I want my children to also want to have their little bunch of friends, who can always come around at a time, if not all but some, and have an unrestricted time of laughter and chatter to forget all the mini pressures of the world chores.

Sigh... I think it is time to ring up my school mates and tell them loudly that it's time for our next meet up!!! :) One thing with nostalgia has to do with ice cream. Whenever we get a chance to sneak out of the school campus (definitely high risk!), we used to gorge up on some ice cream and sneak in back.

Image: Google

Once I got the hang of making ice cream at home, I have always wanted to try out much more flavors. Will definitely post some of them that I have made slowly and steadily. Despite the glitches in the smoothness of the ice cream, nothing can beat the feeling of eating ice cream made with your own hands. I have recently got myself an ice cream machine, but yet to open the box!!! Hopefully, soon!!!

I got this recipe from a cut out of one of the BBC Good Food issues that I had. It just asked to you "melon", so I went ahead and used the big cantaloupe melon (Shamaam, as called in Arabic) that I had in my fridge and make this ice cream. Do refer to the notes below for a better tasting one!!!

Melon Icecream

Makes 1.5 litres (approx)

Recipe Courtesy: BBC Good Food magazine

Ingredients:

3 tbsp custard powder
1 tbsp sugar
600 ml milk
150 ml single cream
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
200 gm condensed milk
750 gm ripe melon, deseeded, flesh peeled, and pureed

Method:

Blend the custard powder, sugar and 2 tbsp of milk to make a smooth paste. Boil the remaining water in a saucepan and heat until almost boiling, then gradually add it over the milk and mix well.

Bring back to boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then stir in the cream, condensed milk and vanilla essence. Pour this into a plastic container and freeze till half set - around 2 hours. Take it out from a freezer and transfer to a larger container. Beat until smooth, using an electric beater.

Add the melon puree, whisk again and put into a plastic container. Freeze till done. To serve, keep it out of the freezer for about 15 minutes, scoop using an icecream scoop and serve!!!

Notes:

1. If you are using Shamaam like I did, ensure that you peel the skin thick, otherwise it leaves a slightly bitter after taste. Despite this, the ice cream was wiped clean by my colleagues, even though my brother and daughter didn't have it much due to the slight bitterness. I am not saying it is a bad thing, it did taste nice and I liked it!

2. As per the article, it says that this ice cream would stay good for 3 months. Mine lasted less than a week.