Black Sesame Ice Cream

One of my more sentient (read *sober*) friends managed to take proper photographs of the food on the night. So as a tribute to her self control, and in the interest of keeping a proper record of the night, here is a closer look.

Also, here is a recipe for that black sesame seed ice cream, the total yield is around 1.5 litres (had to do it in batches in my machine)

5 tablespoons of black sesame seeds
500ml double cream
250ml milk
250g sugar
8 egg yolks

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan, be careful not to burn, then grind as fine as you can in a coffee/ spice grinder. Pour milk and cream into ta saucepan and add the powder, heat very slowly to infuse, stirring and not quite bringing to the boil (about 20 minutes). Whisk the sugar and egg together, when combined and smooth add a little of the hot cream to temper then pour the whole mixture into the saucepan and heat slowly constantly stirring until thick. Cool and pour into ice cream machine.

This is soooo good, very rich and sweet, like halva or something. But as David Lebivitz says, all you need is one perfect scoop. I served mine with the Oreo Chocolate Blackberry pie (Oreo cookie cheesecake base with chocolate custard and blackberries) and drizzled with a little pomegranate molasses to cut through the richness. Yum!