Rose Pistachio Ice Cream

I had inspiration for this recipe when I was thinking about flavor combinations for Valentines Day. I used to live near a middle eastern grocery store in Los Angeles, where they sold a wonderful ice cream with the same flavors. I am not one who loves strong herbal flavors in my sweets, but done just right, the flavor combinations can just be magical. You will need an ice cream machine, and this only makes around a pint of ice cream. Feel free to double recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup of whole milk

1 cup of heavy cream

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of rose petals for food consumption (do not get ones from backyard or florists, they have chemicals and can make you very ill) - if you don’t want too much rose flavor, only use 1/4 cup

1/3 cup of finely chopped pistachios

In a saucepan mix milk, cream, egg yolks and sugar. Make sure you whisk well. Put saucepan on stove and turn on medium/low heat. Use a wooden spoon to continuously mix everything to cook the eggs and thicken the custard. Once the mixture has thickened - about 8 minutes - (it should coat the back of the spoon) add the rose petals, stir gently. Take custard off heat and cover for 20 minutes. Strain the custard from the rose petals and in case there are cooked egg bits. Add the pistachios and refrigerate the ice cream base for at least 6 hours before putting into your ice cream maker. Follow manufacture instructions for how to churn ice cream. It only took me 12 minutes to churn ice cream.