A Fig Deal! Caramelised Fig & Honeycomb Ice Cream

It's fig season and that makes me very happy! Figs are my favourite fruit and when I chanced upon some fantastic figs at the local Woolworths (not sponsored) I bought three punnets. However I was going out a lot that week and didn't have time to eat them. So wanting to keep them in their prime I decided to make one of my favourite ice cream flavours-caramelised fig and honeycomb! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

This ice cream is based on the Maggie Beer Burnt Fig, Caramel and Honeycomb ice cream. Dare I say I like this even more because I really added lots of luscious figs to this. Also, did I mention how easy and well priced it is? I made around a litre of this and it was divine from beginning to end. I sort of knew it would work because when are caramelised figs not amazing?

Sometimes you just get an instinct for food, people or places. Laura and I recently went on a food adventure and we had the address of a restaurant we wanted to visit. When we arrived to the street where it was located we couldn't find it. We stopped at the kerb and googled it. Apparently it was still open. "We'll drive past again," Laura said. I pointed at the sign. "There it is! But....errmm it looks like it is a supplements store now! Weird?" I said. The restaurant had two signs and it wasn't clear which business it was.

We walked in. The lights were on and the tables were set with placemats and cutlery. But there was construction where the heat lamps would have contained food and the fridges were completely empty. It was like they hadn't quite moved in yet but the restaurant had been around for months.

Now I have this thing where I try and make everything pleasant or not awkward-it's from trying to be polite and to put people at ease. However the gentleman that came out from the back looked none too pleased to see us. "Ermm are you open?" I asked him. "Yes," he said unsmiling. "Takeaway only," he added a moment later. The air was suffused with tension with every word and look. There was no smell of food, nor was there any signs that it was a restaurant apart from the placemats. Had we stumbled upon something else entirely?

Laura and I looked at each other communicating through our eyes. "Ok great!" said Laura, "We'll come back another time!" and we got out of there quickly. We never did ascertain what that shop or restaurant was. We just know that we didn't want to eat there nor did they want us to!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever walked in somewhere and felt unwelcome? Or that there was something not right? Do you go with your instincts? And do you like figs?

Caramelised Fig & Honeycomb Ice Cream

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus freezing time

Cooking time: 10 minutes

• 400g/14ozs. figs, ripe
• 1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar
• 600ml/20.1flozs. cream
• 400ml/14flozs sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
• 80g/3ozs. honeycomb, crushed

Step 1 - Halve figs and sprinkle sugar over the cut figs. Grill or blowtorch until toffee'd on top. Cool. Put side half a dozen or so of the best looking figs to place on top.

Step 2 - Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add condensed milk and whip until soft peaks. Pull the soft caramelised figs apart with your hands and stir through the cream along with the honeycomb (set aside a few shards to decorate on top).

Step 3 - Spoon into a freezer proof container (I used a baking tin) and top with the reserved fig halves and honeycomb. If there's some juice on the tray drizzle this over too. Freeze completely. I served these in brandy snap baskets.