Eating Tales

Way back in October I went and heard Ruth Rogers speak at the Cheltenham literature festival. I’ve heard and know of The River Cafe but I’ve never eaten there before, nor did I know of its history, until I went to hear Ruth speak. The story of The River Cafe is intriguing. I was particularly inspired by the fact that Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers set up the River Cafe as friends and with no formal chefs training and twenty-two years later they are still going strong and have gained an outstanding reputation. She spoke particularly on their new book The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook, a collection of 200 traditional and regional recipes from their extensive travels through Italy, cooking with friends, chefs and winemakers. Of course I bought the book and got it signed. Whilst signing the book Ruth said to me ‘do you like to cook?’! To which I replied ‘yes, I love to cook’ whilst my head was telling me to add ‘would I be able to come on work experience at The River Cafe?’ but I didn’t pluck up the courage!!

I got home and tried two recipes, the Italian focaccia bread, which was a total success and the Pumpkin Gnocchi, not so much of a success. The pumpkin was so wet that I ended up having to add far more flour than stated in the recipe.  The gnocchi didn’t end up tasting much more than a raw ball of dough. Extremely unappetising. In fact probably one of the worst things I’ve ever made and tasted! But I’m sure with a good pumpkin it would have been delicious.

This Christmas I received an Magimix ice cream machine, a totally brilliant invention and it does not require any freezing of bowls in advance- which is great, because our freezer does not even fit the old ice cream bowl part that I have in.  From turning the machine on it is ready to make ice cream within 5 minutes! Then, once the mixture is in the churn, it is frozen into ice cream within about 20 minutes.

The first batch of ice cream that I have made in the machine is the River Cafe Caramel ice cream found in their Classic Italian book. ( Gelato della caramello) This is apparently the most popular ice cream they make at the River Cafe. It is a bitter caramel ice cream, in fact it tastes rather similar to creme brulee.

For 10

1.75 litres double cream

450ml full-fat milk

20 large free-range eggs

350g caster sugar

For the caramel

300g caster sugar

120ml water

In a large thick-bottomed pan, gently heat the cream and milk to just boiling, then remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs with the sugar for about 5 minutes, until pale, thick and creamy in consistancy. Pour a little of the warm cream and milk micture into the eggs, stir to combine, then add this mixture to the remaining cream and milk. Return the pan to the heat and cook very gently, stirring constantly to cook the eggs but prevent them curdling. When the mixture has thickened and is almost boiling, pour it into a bowl and leave to cool.

To make the caramel, whisk the caster sugar and water in a small thick-bottomed pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn up the heat slightly and boil until the sugar turns from toffee to almost black caramel- but do not let it burn. Immediately remove from the heat and add the caramel to the cooled custard (carefully, as it does spit imensely!), stirring with a whisk until everything is comnined and is a beautiful dark rich colour. Allow to cool, then pour into an ice cream machine and churn until frozen, or freeze in a container, stirring occasionally to break up the ice crystals as it freezes.