Strawberry ice cream and the palace guard

We visited Buckingham Palace on our European trip. My sweet friend Paige was our guide for the day.



On our way out of the palace three guards were wandering the gardens in the full get-up. We were lucky enough to get a photo after waiting in line for about 10 minutes - it was wall to wall tourists clambouring for a pic with the fuzzy-hatted men. I'm not normally into these kinds of photos, but I was seriously taken with these uniforms. I'm pretty sure my face didn't give the game away, right?

We were wandering towards the exit and overheard a conversation one lovely guard was having with a group of three tourists.

Tourists: "So you work here do you?"

Guards: "Yes. We enjoy it so much we like to take in the gardens after a shift."

Tourists: "Oh, isn't that lovely. Could we get a photo?"

Guard: "Of course! Come stand next to me so we can get the pond in the shot"

Tourists: "Oh no, we want you to take one of us."

Woweeeeeee.

I nearly spit out my mouthful of water and had to scurry away. The laughter was uncontrollable.

Luckily, on the way out of the grounds, we stumbled upon a little ice cream stand and handed over way too much cash for a teency tub of strawberry perfection. Matty is actually quite the ice cream connoisseur and declared it some of the best ice cream he'd eaten. I'm inclined to agree, but my competitive streak kicked. I think the recipe below comes pretty close to the regal treat of last August.

Ingredients

250ml milk
250ml cream
5 egg yolks
100g sugar
pinch black pepper
400g strawberries

Bring the milk and cream to the boil. Combine the egg yolks and sugar and whisk until pale and creamy. Add 1 cup of the boil milk mixture to bring the yolks up in temperature. Add the yolk mixture to the pan and turn heat to low. Stir with a spatula until the custard comes to 80 degrees celsius.

Remove from the pan and strain into a chilled bowl. Refrigerate until cool.

Meanwhile hull the strawberries and blend in the food processor. If you like, you can strain through a fine sieve to remove all the seeds (it's a nice touch). Add the pepper to the strawberries.

Add the strawberries to the custard and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions. Freeze until firm and enjoy!

PS. I was also going to add some rosewater to this ice cream (hence the bottle in the photos). I turned the bottle upside down into the custard and found I had about a 1/4 teaspoon. No matter - perfectly good without it.

PPS. Did you notice how I just "PS"ed a blog post? Like it's a letter? Dear Diary, I do wish I had a pony. PS. Now.