“There is a country in south America that is called Uruguay, where my grandma was born. Not only that, but it has some of the most delicious peaches to be mouthed. The best variety is called “Rey del Monte” and they come from Bella Union (Artigas) and are available only during the last two weeks of January. The truly luscious ones come from dry summers with lots of sunshine, when taste concentrates so scrumptiously that they make you silently faint with pleasure as the juices drip from hands, lips and heart.
My Grandma - Tatá or Chucha, as we called her - was one of the hurried types. She walked fast around her house in the old city of Montevideo, as she sewed, cleaned or read, talking to herself, doing as many things as she could on the long hot summer days..
Only when these peaches were at their best, she would peel six of them with her fingers, roughly mash their tender flesh with a fork, and add them to 35 ounces of the best Conaprole double cream, cold and beaten with a wire whisk until it was stiff. The mix would go into the rectangular tins used for ice cubes and into the humble freezer of her fridge that - white when new - had turned into an ancient suspicious yellow, with a big metal-handled door that made a great click when closing it. She would serve it with a very light syrup that had been slightly burnt, giving it the most interesting and romantic taste.
Nowadays, after so many years of cooking with fires, I like to serve the ice cream with some extra fresh peaches that I open in half with my fingers and burn very fast on a griddle with sugar and butter. The technique requires them to be glazed only on the open side, so they remain raw and slightly warm. When I lay them by the scoop of ice cream on the plate, they look like the most passionate, elegant, glazy, moist brides, in slight summer dresses, with an array of green from the fresh hand ripped mint. Yes, I fall in love every day.
I can only thank life for having nested me as a child in this beautiful, tiny country with such a loving Grandma who taught me taste and left me, as inheritance, a reverie of ripe peaches that no other child has ever had.”
Chef Francis Mallmann, Argentina
Ingredients
8 ripe peaches, 6 for the ice cream, 2 for serving
1litre double cream
Knob of butter
Fresh mint for garnish
The recipe needs no knife, only your hands, a fork and a whisk. You can use any freezer container or a loaf tin lined with baking parchment.
Method
Mash the peaches with a fork.
Whisk the double cream until stiff.
Fold the peaches into the cream and put into the metal ice cream tray/tin in the freezer.
When ready to serve, heat a knob of butter in a griddle pan. Break two peaches in half and sprinkle the flesh with brown sugar and place flesh side down in the pan to caramelise for a couple of minutes.
Serve next to the ice cream with ripped mint.