Pomegranate Ice cream

Valentine's day is for flowers and cakes and ice cream. I prepared Gulabjamun and Turkey biryani as a special treat for hubby. As I have posted the recipes for above earlier, I thought of giving out some healthy as well as a romantic post during this day. How about some sparkling ruby red pomegranates in your ice cream? Here is an ice cream made of pomegranate. Enjoy! Happy Valentine's day!

Pomegranate fruit split open. Always buy pomegranates that weigh heavy.

The pomegranate juice is extracted now.

Pomegranate ice cream before freezing.

Pomegranate ice cream.

Ingredients:

pomegranate - 2 (big)
sugar - 2 tbsp
condensed milk (sweetened 14 oz can) - 1 1/4 can
whipped topping (8 oz pack) - 2
rose essence - 3 drops

Method:

Wash the pomegranate. Slit it and open. Carefully gather the plump seeds in a bowl. Keep a handful of them aside for garnishing. Apply 2 tbsp sugar and squeeze the juice out of it by hand. Don't use mixer or blender, as it will grind the hard seeds also. Remove the seeds. If necessary apply a tsp of sugar to the left over seeds and extract as much juice as possible.
We may need a cup of pomegranate juice.

In a mixing bowl add the condensed milk, rose essence, 3/4 of the juice and fold in the whipped topping. Transfer to a lidded container suitable for freezing.
Add the left over pomegranate juice little by little to give a swirl effect. Keep frozen for nearly 4 hours.
Garnish with some un-squeezed pomegranate before serving.

Pomegranate ice cream is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Makes nearly 15 big scoops.
This ice cream will be very fluffy and easy to handle.

Note:

1 large scoop will be less than 100 K cal.
We can use bottled pomegranate juice also, but I will recommend the freshly squeezed ones only to get the fluffy ice cream.
The hard seeds that we get (after extracting the juice) can be dried and used in cooking.
The hard skin of the pomegranate can be dried and powdered for medicinal purposes.
I formulated this pomegranate ice cream recipe after some iterations.
In USA the season for pomegranates is during October November and December.

Vanilla Ice cream

I got this recipe from my younger brother.When hubby presented me this beautiful ice-cream scoop(one of the gifts for my birthday), I couldn't control my eager to try Venkatesh's recipe:)  He is our favorite ice-cream maker and I like that homely version very much:). He is good at making jellies too:) Though he is much younger than me, he pampers me with this ice cream once in a while.  At that time he would hurry to the near by shop on Fridays to buy a small pack of this ice cream mix (which we later found out as custard powder) and prepare the ice cream in a jiffy. Hubby and myself think that this resembles an ice cream sold in Kalimark shop in Palayamkottai. At that time, they  used to make their ice cream and beverages on their own. The good thing about this ice-cream is the less calorie count (when compared to my other versions). But we have to beat the mix in a blender multiple times to get that fluffy ice cream.

Home made vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

Milk (full fat) - 2.5 cups / 1/2 liter
custard powder - 2 tbsp (vanilla flavor)
sugar - 1/2 cup (or) 3/4 cup
condensed milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
butter - 1 tbsp
vanilla extract - 2 drops

Method:

Bring to boil 2 cups of milk.
In the remaining 1/2 cup milk  add sugar, condensed milk, vanilla, custard powder and mix well.
Add this mixture into the boiled milk.
Start heating in low fire. It will become somewhat thick. Take care not to burn it at bottom.
Switch off , add butter, essence and let it cool.
Place it in freezer. Then after 30 minutes take out and beat it in the mixie for a minute or more.
Freeze it again for 30 minutes and beat for a minute in mixer.
Then freeze it for 4 hours or till it sets completely..

Tips:
For more creamy ice cream, add 4 oz whipped topping before freezing.
By this we can reduce the usage of blender. I just blend it for 1 minute and only once before freezing.
But if we can't get the topping, then do the blending twice or thrice or more till its hard to churn.