I have been in South Africa for six years now. I came here to do my PhD and liked it so much I stayed on to do a post-doc. It really is an amazing country with diverse landscapes and diverse cultures. I could write a ten page testimonial about why it is great here but those of you that have been to SA will already know what I mean and those of you that haven’t should really get on a plane and experience it for yourselves rather than listen to me wax lyrical about how awesome it is. Sadly, next week I will be leaving South Africa and so to make the departure a little bit less sad, I thought I would make some ice-cream (that always cheers me up!).

The flavour I decided to go for is based on a desert I had when I was a kid. I have no idea how old I was but I remember going round to one of my parents friends houses for lunch and having the most amazing lime and blueberry cheesecake. Given that it was probably over 20 years since I ate this fabled desert and I still fantasize about it, I thought I should bite the bullet and try and re-create it with a Triple Motion twist.

Unfortunately the day I decided to crank there was not a lime to be found anywhere in Stellenbosch. This required emergency recipe intervention and so I ended up using preserved lime juice to flavour the mix and then because I found I needed  bit more citrusy zing I added lemon zest. The recipe for the lime and lemon ice-cream was then as follows:

• 8 tbs lime juice
• zest of 1 lemon
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups cream
• 2 cups full-fat milk

I though possibly mixing the blueberries in with the citrus combo might homogenize the flavours too much so instead I just softened the blueberries in a pan with a little sugar, crushed them to release the juices and then stirred through the ice-cream after it was cranked and ready to go in the freezer to finish setting.

The cranking its self took a REALY long time (nearly an hour), and it was not even that hot. Not sure why this was but we kept our selves amused by drinking wine and taking in the view so it was not all bad. I was pretty pleased with the end result – good distinction between the clean lemon and lime flavours of the ice-cream and the slightly sticky much sweeter blueberry swirl. I think it still would have been better to go with 100% lime rather than the mix but that is probably just because I am a purist like that!

I have been fairly quiet on the Triple Motion blog for a while now.  I feel slightly embarrassed that I let life get in the way of a good cranking session and so as part of my mid-year resolution I am determined to make a mends. I was not really sure what flavour to go for to break the ice-cream famine so I went for something which is very close to my heart…coffee.

As a researcher who works in a university environment, coffee is an integral part of my day. In fact, I often muse that no science would ever get done if coffee was taken away from academics as it seems that the best ideas come up over a ‘cup o’joe’. Anyways, I am fairly particular about my coffee and try and maintain a certain standard. I have never drunk instant coffee and since at Christmas Dr Big D bought me a kick ass Kitchen Aid coffee grinder, there has been no stopping me. I usually buy my beans from a local coffee retailer who roasts on site daily and sells around 20 single origin varieties. I have been very impressed with their offerings but when the opportunity came along to take my coffee obsession to the next level, and roast my own beans, I jumped at the chance. I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to get back into ice-cream making too…from green bean to ice-cream…let the adventure commence!

The coffee roasting

The coffee roasting master class was led by Alsino who is a friend of my house mate. He is an advocate of the ‘dog-bowl’ method which as beautifully rustic as it sounds. Essentially what you need is:

• A metal dog bowl
• A paint stripping heat gun
• A wooden spoon
• Around 200g of green coffee beans

The process then is pretty simple. Put the beans in the bowl (Honduras beans in this case), crank up the heat gun and get stirring. The trick is to hold the gun close enough to the beans to get them hot (3-5 cm is best) but not so close that they burn. You need to keep siring all the time so you get a nice even roast.  Fairly soon, you start to get some smoke -this is totally normal but if indoors it could get a bit overpowering (go outdoors or near to an extractor fan). After about 5-10 min (depending on how close you hold the heat gun) the beans start to go a golden brown and shortly after that you hear the ‘first crack’. The best way to describe this is like popping corn. Once all the beans have ‘cracked’ everything goes quiet for a while and then you hear the ‘second crack’.  This is a bit like the sound of a snapping match. At this stage we pulled out as we did not want a really deep, bitter flavour to develop but you can carry on until you start to see some oil form on the surface of the beans (see below). At this point you should defiantly stop or you will just get burnt beans. Once you have finished the roasting it is best to try and cool them down as quickly as possible. We did this by pouring them from the dog bowl into a colander a few times.  6-8 hours later (or less if you were impatient like me) they are ready for grinding and drinking.

NOTE: I was going for a Vienna roast suitable for espresso here  but if you wanted something milder you could stop at the first crack (called City roast) or darker when the oil comes out (called French roast).

The ice-cream

For the ice-cream it was the traditional Russell mix base:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of strong coffee (made in Bialetti)
• 2 cups cream
• Top up with full cream milk

As there were plenty of people on-hand the cranking was over pretty quickly and before we could say cappuccino it was ready.

The flavour was pretty good and the texture nice and smooth. I think it could have coped with a bit more coffee maybe but then I am addicted so I would say that!

SANAE IV research station is located on a small nunatak called Vesleskarvet, in Western Dronning Maud Land. Although the building its self is rather impressive, it is but a tiny spec on the immense landscape of the Antarctic.

It is this landscape that I have been privileged enough to be working in for the last few months and where I go, my trusty triple motion crank follows.

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Close your eyes and think about Antarctica. You will probably think of ice-bergs, pack ice, icy waste lands…generally a whole lot of icy thoughts. This is for good reason as 90% of the world’s ice is found on the continent.

As part of my work a researcher at the University of Stellenbosch, I am privileged enough to visit this icy land periodically to undertake biological surveys. When I got word that I would be heading South this year, naturally, the first thing I packed to take with me to this land of ice was my trusty ice-cream maker.

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Although I have only been a bonefide cranker for a few months, I have followed the antics of the Triple motion crew for several years now. Each new entry seems to be an exploration of the wonderful world if iced deserts, tantalizing the taste buds and exciting the soul. The bank of recipes which has been accumulated is impressive and a little daunting!

One hot evening in South Africa I got that ice-cream feeling and decided that rather than try and come up with some cutting edge recipe, I would expand the boundaries of ice cream making in other ways. Instead of  taste adventures, I thought I would build on the trend set by the Ice Cream in the Clouds adventure and take my churn to places that no churn has been before. With this lofty goal in mind I set off to…the beach.

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Once upon a time, some Triple Motion crankers had a crazy idea…the conversation went something like this:

Jen:      ”Hey Dave I’m coming to the UK, lets make some ice-cream”

Big D:    ”Sounds good. What did you have in mind?”

Jen:      ”How about cranking on top of a mountain in the Lake district?”

Big D:   “It rains an awful lot in the Lakes you know.”

Jen:      ”When has a bit of rain ever stood in the way of a Triple Motion ice-cream adventure?”

Big D:    ”Ok, lets do it.”

What I didn’t realise was that Dave had decided we should make icecream up Scafell Pike (the biggests mountain in England). Fortunately Peter jumped at the chance to advance the ice-cream cause so we had a good team for the challenge.

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South Africa is a great country. One of the many reasons for this is the abundance of public holidays bestowed upon its people, my favourite of which is National Braai day. For those of you who do not avidly follow the Triple Motion website and so missed out on the ‘Triple motion reaches the Southern hemisphere’ entry, a braai is a national pastime here that involves making a lekker (nice) fire and slapping a few hunks of meat on it. In the UK we would call it a BBQ, but they seem to occur so infrequently, the term has fallen out of common usage.

Anyways, I digress. So the 24th of October is National Braai day (although you may have seen it advertised as Heritage day too) and I thought there was no better way to celebrate than with a batch of ice-cream. I debated for a good long while about what flavour… maybe Wors (sausage), or perhaps biltong (dried meat). Intriguing though the prospect of meaty ice cream was, I thought best not inflict this on the wider populous just yet, so instead I thought I would go for something to fit the balmy public holiday weather. Hence pear, ginger and lemon was born.

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As a kid, I never liked pancakes -they had too much grease and too much egg. The thought of the annual ritual of Pancake Day filled me with dread. You can only imagine how happy I was to discover the Triple Motion buttermilk pancake! These fluffy little nuggets are a joy to eat and I can (and do) eat them for any meal of the day and as often as possible.

I would not want to mess with something as fine as the classic TM buttermilk pancake, but when by total accident I happened upon this variation, I was so pleased with the result, I thought I should share it…

Although the soft fluffy texture of the TM pancake is on of its main attractions, after a weekend of excess, I was feeling like dinning on something a bit more wholesome and so swapped half of the regular flour for oat flour. My plan was to add lemon and raisins but Iwas foiled by my store cupboard and had to use finely chopped apricots instead.

The final recipe was as follows:

• 1 cup butter milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarb
• 2 tbs oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• handful of dried apricots

The above were all mixed together in the standard way so there were still some of those vital lumps that allow air expansion.

I served them up with a drizzle of honey, some strong coffee and some South African sun.

I would not put these in a head to head contest with the classic TM pancake, but if you ever hanker for something a little different, I can heartily recommend trying out this alternative.

I was first inspired to have a go at making this ice cream when I went to my local food market and saw the most fantastic display of squashes and pumpkins. It was like something out of a harvest festival – all the colours of the rainbow and textures from as smooth as a babies bottom to as wrinkly and gnarled as grandmas elbow!

Having had a ponchon for pumpkin for a few years now, I had already worked my way through a range of recipes including: pumpkin curry, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin soup, pumpkin mash and pumpkin pie (the latter was expertly made for me by Big D when he cam out for grad at the beginning of the year). I decided that it was time to take things to the next level and try pumpkin ice cream…

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After some elegant shipping arrangements the ice cream maker so kindly procured for me by the triple motion crew (see last post for detailed thanks) has finally made it to South Africa. Yippee!

However, in order to get it here within my luggage allowance I had to co-opt some help in the form of my good friend and fellow Antarctic traveller, Brian. What better way to thank him for his efforts than to make a batch of ice cream.

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