Liquorice ice cream

Recreating a famous local dish – Malcolm Bain’s liquorice ice cream.

By Liane Arno

SOME of you knew Malcolm Bain.  Long story but when we owned the Royal Mail Hotel at Archies Creek I painted my VW Beetle post box red and even popped a crown on its bonnet.  Needing the best of care of course we went to Mark Robertson to get it serviced.  Knowing that he knew a thing or two we asked him if he knew any good chefs.  He immediately referred us to Malcolm Bain and a recent article in the Bass Coast Post.

Malcolm was a larger than life character who, like all brilliant chefs, could be a bit snarky from time to time.  I think it was an even split between me loving him and getting grumpy with him.  He refused to put food into the sealed containers that I supplied at great expense!  Instead he covered everything in many layers of gladwrap.  At the time the council had instructed us to make sure everything went into the sealed containers so every evening I would go into the cool room and swap the gladwrap for the containers.  And every morning he would get grumpy at me for doing so. 

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And so the cycle repeated itself.  I felt dreadful when I realised, after he had died, that crippled with arthritis it was far too difficult for him to open the tightly sealed lids.  But he never told me.

The saddest thing in his passing is that I never learned his greatest recipes.  His mother Annie kindly gave me his cooking books as she felt he would have wanted me to have them.  However, I remembered that he said that you couldn’t trust chefs as they always left out their secret ingredient!

One of Malcolm’s great hits was his liquorice ice cream.  It was so delicious that I would try and convince out customers of their absolute need to extend their tummies even further after a wonderful meal of Malcolm’s to try his liquorice ice cream.  In this way, you see, I would get to lick the spoon afterwards!

I am not 100% sure that the following is an exact replica of what he used to make – but I reckon if he could he might give me a thumbs up for this one.
Blitz:

• 120g of soft liquorice (this is half a packet of the Darrel Lea liquorice you get in the supermarket).  Just do a little bit at a time as otherwise you will end up with a congealed mass.

Combine in a pan:

• 1 cup of milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Blitzed liquorice

Heat over medium heat until the liquorice has added some colour to the milk (it won’t melt completely) and it is almost boiling.
While the milk is on the boil beat:

• 5 egg yolks until they are frothy

Slowly add:

• About a third of the milk mixture to the eggs while you are beating them.

Then pour the egg mixture into the pan with the rest of the milk mixture.
Once again on a medium heat bring the temperature back up until you form a custard like consistency.  Be careful not to bring the heat up too high – that is unless you like scrambled eggs!
Pop the mixture into the fridge for a few hours to chill.
Add:

• 2 cups thickened cream to the chilled mixture

Pop into an ice cream machine and churn until it starts to freeze.
If you don’t have an ice cream machine don’t despair!  There are two ways to go.

The Fun Way (particularly if you can get someone else to do it)

1. Pop the chilled mixture into a resealable bag and squeeze as much air out as you possibly can.  Make sure it is well sealed.
2. Put this bag inside another resealable bag once again squeezing out the air and making sure you have a good seal.
3. Then get a bigger bag which you need to fill with 4 cups of crushed ice and 4 tablespoons of course salt.  You are putting in the salt to lower the freezing point.  Then put in the bags containing the mixture.  Squeeze out all the air and seal tightly.
4. Put on some gloves (or wrap the bag in a towel).
5. Put on KC and the Sunshine Band and – Shake Shake Shake your Booty (or in this case the bag).
6. Massage the bag to make sure the ice is surrounding the mix all the time.
7. Depending on how vigorously you shake it will take up to 10 minutes.  Why not share the love and set up a congo line to do it!

The Boring Way

1. Pop the chilled mixture into a resealable bag and squeeze as much air out as you possibly can.  Make sure it is well sealed.
2. Lay it flat in the freezer until solid.
3. Take it out of the freezer and chop it into pieces that will fit in a food processor. 
4. Blitz and pop into an airtight container.
5. Freeze.

Bombe Alaska made easy

Bombe Alaska
So now I had five egg whites.  Matt suggested I make a Bombe Alaska.  I had never made one before and checked on recipes.  It said I needed cake.  I couldn’t be bothered with that.  So here is what I did.

1. Mix the five egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  Slowly add in one cup of sugar which you have blitzed for a few seconds until it looks like icing sugar.
2. Put a nice ball of ice cream in the middle of a plate.  Spoon the egg mixture on top.  I used my little blowtorch and give my concoction a quick burst of heat and some colour but if you pop it in the oven under the grill for a couple of minutes you should achieve the same thing.
3. Eat your piece of heaven.

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