ES DUREN | DURIAN ICE CREAM

Durian.. Oh durian.. I miss you so much!

When I was a little kid, we have this birthday dinner parties at home and after dinnertime (around 10 - 11 PM) the adults would say "Hei, let's get some durian!". And the kids would be so excited to jump in the car because we get to go out on a drive past our bed time to get some durian! We'd drive for about 10 - 15 minutes and we'll get to the area where people are selling fruits and durian on the sidewalk. We finish our parties around 2 - 3 PM :) And then everybody heads home ;)

It's almost impossible to find some good fresh durian here in Holland. I can only find frozen durians in the asian store, and most times, they are good but not great. So it's better to make something else out of it. 

The recipe is an easy one, basic custard ice cream recipe. Normally a custard-based ice cream uses only egg yolks, here I uses both egg yolks and whole eggs. When you incorporate egg whites, you can get volume and lighter and fluffier ice cream texture. 

I didn't realize it when I was making the picture but I guess I was shaping the ice cream to look like durian? I was actually just trying to make ice cream scoops with two spoons.. What do you think? ;)

Tools

• 1 sauce pan
• Hand mixer 
• Ice cream machine

Ingredients

• 350 ml milk
• 150 ml heavy cream 
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 200 gr sugar
• 600 gr durian, separate the seed from meat
• 1 vanilla pod
• 200 ml cream, whipped with a sprinkle of sugar 

Method

• In a saucepan, add in the milk, heavy cream, seed of the durian and vanilla pod. With a medium heat warm the milk until bubbles appear on the side of the pan. 
• Remove the pan from the heat, take out the seeds and slice them open and return back into the pan. Let the milk infuse for 20 - 30 minutes. 
• Whip 200 ml of cream until stiff peak and set aside in the fridge.
• In another bowl, whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar until the mixture is thick and pale. Put a strainer on top of the bowl and gradually add the warm milk.
• Deseed the strained vanilla bean and add to the custard mixture, discard the durian seed. 
• Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, stir continuously and cook the mixture until it reaches 70 degree Celsius or until it coats a wooden spoon. 
• Strain the custard into a bowl and let cool, outside for 20 minutes and refrigerate it for 1 - 2 hours. If you have cooking thermometer, I find it best to let the mixture to cool them until 5 - 10 degree Celsius. If you have space, put it in your freezer, it will speed up the cooling process.
• When the mixture is cooled, fold in whipped cream and mix well. 
• Prepare your ice cream machine and pour the mixture in. Churn for maximum 45 minutes. During churning, you can also add the meat of the durian for extra texture. Just using the seeds will add so much durian taste in your ice cream!
• After you finish churning, move the ice cream mixture to an ice cream box and let it set in the freezer for another at least 4 hours.