Seville Orange Ice Cream. 20 November 2005

That's the date when my dad passed away. It is now 7 years after and I have three children. But my dad didn't live long enough to meet any of them. What a pity. 

Aurelia knows abuelo isn't alive. I told her 2 years ago that he died when she surprised me with a photo in her hands of him kissing my forehead the day of my wedding. It was a gentle and full of meaning kiss from a father to his daughter, who was saying good bye to Spain five months after the wedding. 

Aurelia keeps asking me questions about why, how or where he died. I hear she tells her friends when they come over that her "abuelo ate too many cigarettes". One day Aure said that it wasn't fair he died without playing with her first, at least once! 

I remember when on the 18th of November of 2005 my mum called me just before dinner "You should take the first flight available because your dad is very sick and…"my mum said. I couldn't listen or understand the rest of the conversation because I started to have anxiety. I had to be in Spain as fast as I could, well, as fast as the planes could! 

I felt very impotent because it was not easy to get out of Solomon Islands (there were only two flights available a week). The travel agent managed to change my flights from the 15th December (I planned to spend Christmas there) to the 19th of November. As you can imagine, the journey was a nightmare. 

Despite of arriving in Spain 32 hours after my mum's call and planning to go straight to the hospital from the airport, I didn't make it on time to see him. I was standing at the arrival gate of the aeropuerto de Barajas in Madrid, carrying in my hand a big beautiful wooden stick made specially for my dad in Honiara, when I met all my siblings; they were waiting for me but I couldn't walk to hug them. I was in shock. They took me home and then to the crematory. 

I went in 2004 to Spain for my dad's surgery and when I kissed him good bye, I felt terribly sad. That was the last time I saw him and I have felt guilty for many many years after he died.

This orange ice cream brings me fond memories of those wonderful summers in Punta Umbria with him. I loved this frozen dessert of delicious orange ice cream served inside of an orange; but it wasn't any orange, it was a bitter orange from Seville. In Andalucia, these orange trees line the streets of many towns and they have a short season (around the middle of December).

I still have the unique smell of the orange and the sweetness of the ice cream in my mind…or it is from my dad? 

Recipe of Seville Orange Ice-Cream from Casa Moro cookbook: 

• 1 vanilla pod
• 220g caster sugar (to taste)
• finely grated zest of two Seville oranges
• 7 egg yolks
• 300ml milk
• 600ml double cream
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 200ml orange juice.

Make the custard: 

1. Halve the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into a large bowl. Add the sugar, orange zest and egg yolks, and whisk until pale and fluffy.
2. Place the milk, cream, vanilla pod and cinnamon in a saucepan and simmer gently together for 5 minutes.
3. Slowly strain the hot liquid into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan, put over a medium to low heat and whisk until thickened but do not allow it to boil.

Cooling

1. Remove from the heat, pour into a plastic bag and place over ice to cool. As the mixture cools, add the orange juice to the bag and stir.

Churning

1. Each machine has different timing but the consistency should look more or less the same, like in the photo.

In the container

In the freezer

1. Cover the ice cream with some baking paper to prevent any crystals on the surface.

Enjoy it!

1. I like to serve it in the traditional way: in a hollowed-out orange. Aurelia thought it was a funny ice cream. I added a bit of dark orange chocolate to go with the ice cream.

Buen provecho!

PS: I made this dessert for the first time with a guest from Nick's work who was here in Manila to help with the typhoon Yolanda. The guest loved it but Nick and I knew it wasn't very tasty. You should have a go because I have had it many times and it is delicious.

In my mind I recognise I didn't use the right orange juice and I used light corn syrup instead of sugar. I also followed Nick's advice of being more adventurous with my homemade ice creams and trying new flavours. Bad idea, I should not have listened to him!

But in my heart, I blame the oranges and Manila: they were not from Seville and I wasn't in Punta Umbria.