Treat Your Lady: Old Fashioned Rum & Raisin Ice-cream

Treat your lovely lady to a home-made ice cream delight

My lovely lady was gifted an ice cream maker for Christmas this year which means that the task of making said ice creamy treats has fallen in my lap. The first - and rather successful attempt I might add - was a rich Rum & Raisin delight. So good, in fact, I thought that I might share the recipe with you.

A delicious treat for the weekend

Old Fashioned Rum & Raisin Ice Cream 
Makes approxiamtely1 imperial pint or 8 scoops

300ml Unhomogenised organic milk
1/2 Cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla pod (split with seeds scraped)
1 egg (beaten)
250ml pure cream
Approximately 60ml Appleton Estate V/X rum (allow an extra tot or two for the chef)
3/4 cup Raisins

1. Place the freezer canister of your ice cream maker in the freezer over night (for at least 12 hours at minus 15-20° Celsius).
2. In a saucepan add milk, salt, sugar and vanilla pod (including seeds - it's black gold!) over a medium heat. Heat until milk it almost comes to the boil being careful not to let the mixture stick.
3. Reduce heat. Gradually add half of the milk mix to your beaten egg stirring constantly to avoid cooking the egg. Add the milk/egg milk back into the pot. Stir regularly until the mixture slightly thickens - you're basically making a custard.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow to cool. Place the mixture in the fridge and chill well - preferably overnight. 
5. Soak your raisins in rum. Appleton Estate V/X is my pick for a full flavoured rum at a good price point. I always have a bottle of this on hand. Soak for at least 6 hours and chill in your fridge as well. 
6. Once the custard is well chilled remove the vanilla pod and beat in cream with a wire whisk. Add the Raisins and about 30ml of the raisin infused rum. 
7. Pour the whole lot into your ice cream machine to churn and allow to freeze.

Depending on the quality of your machine you may need to pour the thickened mix into a container and place into the freezer to firm up a little. Enjoy the ice cream on its own, in an affogato or perhaps in a boozey spider - simply add a shot of rum into an old fashioned milkshake or sundae glass, a scoop of rum & raisin ice cream and top with Bundaberg root beer. Yum!  

A Rumbunctious Mistress

Never trust a man who wears a hat indoors

Rum and I have an interesting relationship. I mean every man has their type right? Scotch will always be my first love - the spirit I'll write poems for, take out to fancy dinners and moonlit walks along the beach. Scotch, well, she's a classy wee lass.

Rum, on the other hand is my mistress - it's all heated, passionate flings. It's slightly subversive and sometimes I come out the other-side feeling a bit dirty. In saying this, these are qualities I admire - not abhor - when it come to rum. My kind of rum is easy and cheap  - the sort you don't feel like you need to dress up for or take to a swank uptown joint to enjoy her pleasures. What's more she could be a local - the girl next door.

More and more these days I see bartenders go for high falutin' rums from exotic shores - rums that boast aging in ex-Cognac barrels and distillation from virgin sugar-cane honey (why would I want an affair with a virgin?). Yes, I'm talking about luxury rum brands like Ron Zacapa - brands that have elevated the rum category to the prestige Cognac and Scotch. Whilst I admire their work and the craftsmanship (in this case it's actually craftswomanship) of the product it's not personally what I'm after from my rum.

Call me base, but I'm after a hot spirit - something with a bit of fire, funk and an abundance of in-your-face character. She doesn't need any class and she speaks with an Australian twang. I'm talking about Inner Circle. 

Inner Circle pre-1986 bottlings

Coming in three bottlings: Red Dot (40% abv); Green Dot (57.2% abv) and Black Dot (75.9% abv), Inner Circle is a pot still Australian rum brand  that we can be proud of. Unfortunately, it's actually a product of Fiji - fortunately it's still pretty darned good.

I realise that championing this style of rum may be controversial, but it's this high ester spectrum of the rum category which I think is often maligned. The rum 'stink' of this unctuous spirit can be smelt the moment you pour it into a glass. Molasses, cut grass and coco fill the air and it's this aromatic quality which makes Inner Circle an amazing weapon in the mixologists' arsenal.

Cocktail historian and Author David Wondrich, who was recently visiting Australian shores thanks to the Mixxit team, is also a hugh fan of this style. He laments the loss of old skool, pot still Jamaican Rum 'redolent of funk' and recommends that Inner Circle Green Dot is the best substitute in historical recipes that call for this style. But give it a whirl in more modern recipes too. It can boost the aroma and add a depth of character in Tiki styled drinks in particular.

I guess the other reason I'm waxing lyrical about this product is because I recently came into possession of a couple of  pre-1986 bottles of Inner Circle - the original CSR produced rum that was made right here, where I live and work, in Pyrmont, Sydney. In fact, the Bartender magazine offices, as some of you might be aware, are the in the old cooperage for this very rum brand.

The two products pictured above are the 'Black Dot' and the 'Red Dot' (37.2% abv and 75.9% abv respectively). They offer a very different taste profile from today's Inner Circle, but you can see the family resemblance. The original is slightly less aromatic, but displays an almost nutty sherry-like nose with a sweeter more syrupy palate and some pleasant citrus notes almost reminiscent of Havana Club Barrel Proof, but with a heavier, lingering, cocoa finish.

A fantastic rum that unfortunately is now extinct (except at my house) - at least evolution has given us a throwback with Lion Nathan's Fijian produced, 'Australian' rum - Inner Circle (mark II).