Simon Hopkinson’s book Roast Chicken And Other Stories is deceptively good. It’s a slim volume, serif, centred text dotted with the odd illustration, full of proper dishes. No celebrity chef “lifestyle” photos to draw you in, no ordering by season or supermarket for busy people – Hopkinson drops you right into alphabetical, ingredient-led cooking at A for Anchovy. There isn’t much hand-holding in these canonical, mostly French recipes – it’s taken as read you know what side of a frying pan is up – but his confidence in his instructions is infectious enough that you feel tackling even crème renversée à l’orange (an orange creme caramel) would be practical. It’s the same kind of intimate, personal cooking that I loved in Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat and Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries, and I thoroughly recommend it. (Although any book with a chapter on Custard would be hard to frown at.)
The Chocolate chapter needs no glossy food styling to make your mouth water. Thus far, I’ve tried the chocolate malt ice-cream below. It is, as Hopkinson points out, full of “sickly” ingredients (and I even left out the Baileys). It’s made in the same way as any normal custard ice-cream, except the egg yolks here are beaten with chocolate malt powder instead of sugar. Some kind of alchemy happens – the malt deepens the creamy milk chocolate into a very adult, very naughty flavour. Make it with the best milk chocolate you can and it’s the gastronomic equal of a dirty weekend in Paris. (Use Dairy Milk and you’re wearing Playboy bunny ears in a cheap motel.)
P.S. My DeLonghi gelato maker died the death yesterday, just as it was churning a vanilla ice-cream to which I was adding caramelized pecans and a salted caramel swirl. Words fail me. Back to the frozen-bowl Cuisinart it is then.
Chocolate malt ice-cream
Adapted from Simon Hopkinson
Serves 4
- 150ml double (heavy) cream
- 150ml whole milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 100g best milk chocolate (Lindt Excellence Milk, for example)
- 50g Ovaltine or Horlicks powder
Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan until not quite boiling. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the malt powder until combined and a little paler. Temper the eggs by slowly pouring the hot milk mixture onto them, whisking continuously. Return to the pan and cook over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until thickened. Take off the heat and add the chocolate in squares, stirring again until melted. Chill thoroughly (at this point you can add a tablespoon of Baileys if you like), and then churn in an ice-cream maker.
