Fruit sallad with cinnamon-star anis syrup and homemade vanilla ice-cream

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This fruit sallad can be prepared a day in advance; letting the fruit lay in the sirup will only enhance the flavours. The vanilla ice-cream can of course be bought already made, but nothing beats this homemade version, and you can prepare it way in advance as it can be kept in the freezer for up to 1 month! This is a great finish to a friday menu starting off with dates with blue cheese and parma ham followed by a cauliflower crust pizza.

Serves 4

For the fruit sallad:
1 dl water
1 dl caster sugar
1 star anis
1 cinnamon stick
1 of each of kiwi, banana, orange, apple, mango and a bunch of grapes

1. Add water, sugar, star anis and cinnamon stick to a pot and bring to the boil. Set aside and let cool.
2. Peel and cut the desired fruits into pieces of similar size, mix with the sirup and refrigerate for minimum two hours.

For the ice-cream:
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
300 ml full cream milk
3 large egg yolks
85 g caster sugar
285 ml double cream, chilled

1. Put the milk into a pan and add the vanilla pod and seeds. Bring the mixture almost to the boil, then remove from the heat, cover and leave to stand for about 20 minutes.
2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until well mixed. Sieve the milk mixture to remove the pod and add the milk to the egg and sugar.
3. Cook the mixture over a gentle heat in a bain-marie (put the bowl over a pan of gentle simmering water, but do not allow the bowl to touch the water) stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil! Once thickened, transfer the custard to a clean bowl and allow to cool.
4. With a whisk, stir the cream into the custard. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.
5. Freeze the mixture in the ice-cream machine, then transfer to a container and leave in the freezer for minimum 4 hours.

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