A few months ago I made a day trip to San Francisco for work (I don’t recommend this if you live east of the Mississippi as I do…) and after the business portion of the trip was complete I was able to meet up with a good friend of mine who lives there for dinner.  Dinner was great and we were chatting along so that time was passing by quickly and all of a sudden I could see a lightbulb go off in his head: he suggested that we try to go to a place in the same neighborhood for ice cream before it closed.  This being a good friend of mine he knows that ice cream is my favorite so we walked as quickly as we could to the ice cream joint with what sounds like a man’s name, Humphry Slocombe.

Unfortunately we were too late, they had already closed for the day, but I peeked in to see what I was missing: flavors with names like Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee, Secret Breakfast, and Malted Dulce de Leche.  I knew someday I would return to sample these delicious-sounding flavors in person.  In the meantime when amazon recommended their cookbook to me based on past purchases I added it to my wishlist and was generously gifted it for my birthday last month.

I knew which flavor I wanted to test first.

If you’ve looked at this blog before you’ve maybe noticed that I like Thai food and curries of any ethnic origin in general.  Peanut sauce is the bomb.  Peanut butter curry ice cream?  What a great idea!

It sounds like it might not work, but it totally does.  It’s sweet, but not overly so and the curry gives it a nice punch.  So until I can make it back to San Francisco I look forward to at least trying more of Humphry Slocombe’s recipes!

Peanut Butter Curry Ice Cream (slightly from “Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book” by Jack Godby, Sean Vahey, and Paolo Lucchesi)

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup smooth peanut butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoon curry powder (vadouvan curry, finely minced, if you can find it)

Fill a large bowl or pan with ice and water.  Place a large, clean bowl in the ice bath and fit the bowl with a fine-mesh strainer.

In a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until hot but not boiling.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla until well blended.  If you’re using curry powder (not vadouvan), whisk that in now, too.

Remove the cream mixture from the heat.  Slowly pour about have of the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.  Transfer the yolk mixture back to the saucepan with the remaining cream mixture and return it to medium heat.  Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula and being sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan so it doesn’t scorch, until the liquid begins to steam and you can feel the spatula scrape against the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the custard from the heat and immediately pour it through the strainer into the clean bowl you set up in the ice bath.  If you’re using vadouvan, stir it in right now.  Let cool, stirring constantly.

When the custard has totally cooled, cover the bowl tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.  When you are ready to freeze the custard, transfer it to an ice cream maker and spin according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Eat immediately, or transfer to an airtight container, cover, and freeze for up to 1 week.