Pear Compote with Elderflower and Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 200 g ripe elderberries
• 2 pears
• 10 g cornstarch
• 200 ml red wine
• 100 g sugar
• 0.5 Vanilla pod
• zest of lemon (one strip)
• zest of orange (one strip)
• 2 cm cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 0.5 l milk
• 0.25 l heavy cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 7 egg yolks
• 200 g sugar

Instructions

1. 1.

   Wash and dry elderberries. Peel, halve, core pears and slice into rounds. Whisk cornstarch with 2 tablespoons red wine until smooth. In a pot caramelize sugar over medium heat, deglaze with remaining red wine and bring to boil. Add the whisked starch mixture to thicken, simmer gently for 4–5 minutes. Stir in split vanilla pod, citrus zests, cinnamon stick, elderberries, and pear slices; steam briefly until tender. Season with lemon juice, let cool slightly, then remove spices.

2. 2.

   Serve, e.g., with vanilla ice cream.

3. 3.

   Slice vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out seeds, whisk into milk-cream mixture and bring to boil.

4. 4.

   Beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy in a bowl.

5. 5.

   Pour hot milk into yolk mixture, return everything to pot, remove vanilla pod, stir over low flame with wooden spoon until thickening; never let it boil.

6. 6.

   Strain vanilla custard through sieve, cool over ice water while stirring occasionally.

7. 7.

   Transfer cold custard to ice cream maker and churn until set. (If no machine, pour into shallow metal bowl, freeze, stirring every hour during first hour).

8. 8.

   Yields about 1 liter of ice cream, roughly 16 servings (~5 cl each).