Business brought me to San Francisco last week and gave me the opportunity to get the lay of the land of this beautiful city so that I know where to take my parents when they come visit us next March for my mums 70’s birthday. My mums birthday wish is to celebrate her 70’s birthday in San Francisco. I “inspected” some fancy hotels – Hotel Vitale being my favorite one – as well as some very nice restaurants and liked the Slanted Door at Pier 1 a lot, but there are still a lot of restaurants to check out, like The Water Bar, Yank Sing, Ozumo or maybe even the French Laundry.

I also had the opportunity to stay an extra night and spend some time with my friend Irina.

We had a great dinner at the very desired Kokkari (Greek) restaurant, took at nightcap at the Clift Hotel Bar and the next morning  visited the Marine Mammal Center which rescues injured, abandoned or sick sea lions and seals, rehabilitates them and sets them free again.

We also checked out Sausalito and had a great lunch at the Barrel House Tavern, right on the water with a beautiful view onto the San Francisco Bay.

Then it was time to leave San Francisco and get back to Seattle to pack my bags for another business trip this time to Portland. Once returned I enjoyed some outdoor time in 60 degrees weather which also stimulated me to make this fabulous Passion Fruit Ice Cream.

You don’t have to buy passion fruits to make this ice cream, it comes out perfectly fine with passion fruit pulp or juice, depending on what is easier for you to come by. In Seattle its very tough to find Passion fruit and they are also very expensive. We do though have a Brazilian supermarket which carries passion fruit pulp and passion fruit juice at a very reasonable price. This ice cream is a little bit on the tart side, which I love, but if its too tart for you just increase the sugar from 1 cup to 1.25 or 1.5 cups of sugar. You don’t necessarily need an ice cream maker, I just throw the cooled off liquid in there for a good 15 minutes and let it chrunand then pour it into a long and skinny cake form and freeze it overnight, but you can skip the ice cream maker and put it into the freezer once the liquid cooled off sufficient (you don’t want to melt your freezer with the hot liquid).

Passion Fruit Ice Cream (5-8 portions)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 large egg yolks
  1 1/2 cups passion fruit pulp or juice

Directions:

1. Combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar and  passion fruit pulp (or juice) in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm.
2. Place the yolks in a small bowl and, while whisking constantly, add about 1/4 cup of the cream mixture to the eggs and stir until smooth.
3. Gradually add the yolk mixture to the saucepan, again whisking constantly.
4. Cook, stirring often, until the mixture coats a wooden spoon.
5. Let cool to room temperature and then cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Freeze in an ice cream machine or freezer.

Guten Appetit!