Marguerite Patten's pistachio and pineapple ice cream

Method

• step 1

  Skin the nuts by putting in boiling water for about 1 minute then pull away the skins and coarsely chop.

• step 2

  Put the marshmallows into a basin. Strain the pineapple, keep 150ml of the juice and add to the marshmallows. Stand basin over a saucepan of hot, but not boiling, water and leave until just dissolved. This can also be done on the defrost setting in a microwave. Allow the mixture to cool.

• step 3

  step 3

  Finely chop the pineapple rings, add to the marshmallows with the nuts and sugar. Whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks, do not over-whip. Whipping is not necessary with an ice cream maker. Fold into the other ingredients. Either spoon in the ice-cream maker and freeze or put into a dish and place in the freezer.

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  Variations: other fruits and nuts can be used. The marshmallows can be dissolved in vermouth, instead of fruit juice.
  Raspberry Ice Cream: dissolve the marshmallows in 225ml fresh raspberry puree, add the sugar and cream as above. Other soft fruits can be used in the same way.
  Recipe taken from A Century Of British Cooking by Marguerite Patten, published by Grub Street, hardback at £15.00