A couple of weeks ago, my little sister attended a ‘Durian Party’, hosted at one of the universities. It wasn’t really much of a party like the name suggests, but more of a marketing strategy smartly implemented by a company that imports and sells fresh prepacked durian. And no, it wasn’t free flow like i had initially and wishfully thought, they charged by the half kilograms.
So she came back with her hands full of durian, a kilogram and a half of durian to be exact. We were beyond excited. Durians, fresh durians. In Melbourne. For all the excitement and anticipation these yellow fleshy seeds created, one bite was all it took to burst our bubbles. They were good but just not great. To be fair, they were probably as good as one can get outside South East Asia and our tastebuds have long been spoilt from the years of having endless variety of durians to choose from.
Well, in any case, our disappointment didn’t last long when we decided to not let the durians go to waste and churn up some durian ice cream instead.
An acquired taste for some, a blissful indulgence for others. There’s just simply quite nothing like the durian in the world. It’s really one of those things where you could do as much research as you want about it, get your adventurous friends, who have tried it on their trips to South East Sian and lived and tell the tale, to tell you all about what it’s like, and still nothing will prepare you for your first taste of it. And trust me on this, you have to try it. Don’t you at least want to know what the whole obsession people of the South East Asian region have with it’s all about and why it’s hailed as the King of Fruits?
Anyway. The durian ice cream was just out of this world. Rich, creamy, smooth, it was almost as orgasmic as consuming the durians themselves, only so much better.
By the way, i found that six hours of sitting in the freezer after churning was when the ice cream was most scoopable right out of the freezer. The texture was just perfect. So as strong as the urge might hit you to have the ice cream straight out of the machine after churning, be patient. Six is your magic number. Wait for it and you’ll be duly rewarded, i promise.
Oh before i forget, it’s gonna be awhile before my next post, seeing as how i’m heading back to Singapore this Saturday. So from now till then and possibly the week after, it’s gonna be busy busy busy. I’ll try and post when i can. Meanwhile, have a great week ahead. I know i will 
Durian Ice Cream
Ingredients
6 medium sized durian pieces, seeds removed
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup single cream
- Pour 1/2 cup of cream into a large bowl and sit the bowl in an ice bath.
- Beat the eggs with sugar in a medium bowl till light and well combined.
- In a medium saucepan, heat milk with remaining cream till just before boiling point. Gradually pour milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking quickly. Then pour the combined mixture back into the saucepan.
- Over medium heat, stir custard constantly with a wooden spoon till custard becomes thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Turn heat off and pour custard into a sieve, over the bowl sitting in the ice bath.
- Blend the flesh of durian with salt in a food processor, in batches. If puree becomes too thick, add a couple spoonsful of custard to puree. Add durian puree into custard and stir well. Let the durian custard sit in the fridge, in an airtight container for at least six hours, before churning with an ice cream maker. Makes one glorious litre
