Say you don’t have an icecream maker. This is an old-fashioned way of making it, and it will take you what seems forever to make. You might weary of stirring, having to constantly stir to prevent lumps, and to get it thickened to custard material on low heat. But patience is a virture, and you might be glad for your patience.
I put coconut and a vanilla bean in this as it was coming together. It looks like hot cereal; and if you look closely, there appears to be a horse in this picture– How did that happen…? Is that neat or what.
Here’s what you do if you don’t mind stirring forever. Don’t worry, you won’t age a bit in the process.
(I got this from a French chef but I do not know his name… but try to be a little patient… I cannot take the credit for this.)
If you have a coconut, grate it and pour three cups whole milk over the coconut flakes into a bowl and let it set for a while. The milk must be hot but not at boiling temperature.
Heat four cups whole milk with four well-beaten eggs in a heavy saucepan; heat on low heat and stir constantly. Low heat will actually thicken the milk mixture, and stirring it constantly will help it along, not only keep it from burning when the mixture becomes thickened.
Immediately, I cut open a vanilla bean, peeled it out with a knife, and added one teaspoon of Madagascar vanilla.
When it comes to a thickening stage, pour in the milk from the strained coconut that you used a seive for; you will have to stir to the thickened stage that you seconds ago had, because this will set you back minutes, again, but this is necessary.
At this point, go ahead and add some sugar, little at a time, for desired taste, still stirring. Sugar added will help it come back to its final thickened stage.
It is wise to tell you that if you did not begin this having had a coconut, and you opted for the convenient package of flaked coconut, instead, finding out that the flaked coconut strained from the setting hot milk poured over it did not give it a full-strength coconut milk flavor, go ahead and open a can of coconut milk that you previously purchased from a store shelf. It helps having four hands. Pour in just a little canned coconut milk, little at a time, taste-testing it just so it does not weaken your icecream consistency. Did I already say that patience is a virtue?
After all is said and done, cover with wrap and put in the freezer for two hours. After the timer goes off, take out of the deep-freeze, whisk, place back into the side kitchen deep-freeze and have a little more patience before it can be scooped into individual bowls.
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