What is a sign of a great cookbook? To me, a great cookbook has a worn-out binding, a frayed cover and food-stained pages. That indicates that the cookbook is in use, rather than one that is just admired. On my shelf no book is more worn-out than this one: Frozen Desserts. I have owned it for over ten years and have used it extensively at every job I have had. The recipes are reliable and tasty and even work well in a commercial ice cream maker. I bought some plums to make ice cream the other day and turned to this book for guidance. I’ve used their recipe for plum ice cream on my dessert menus before. It calls for rosé wine, but I usually substitute with plum wine. This time I replaced it with créme de cassis. It ended up giving it a richer flavor as well as a much deeper color. Make sure to use dark-skinned plums for the best color.

Plum Cassis Ice Cream (makes 1 quart)

1 pound black plums
1/2 cup créme de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur)
1 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Wash the plums, remove the pits, then slice each into eight pieces. Place in a small pot with the créme de cassis. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the plums are soft - about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Bring the cream just to a boil. Whisk the yolks and sugar together in a bowl, then slowly pour in the hot cream while continuing to whisk. Add the cooked plums. Purée both together until completely smooth. Chill completely before processing through your ice cream maker.

Pastry chefs always seem to get stuck with more extra work than others in a typical restaurant kitchen. Someone in the dining room was served the wrong entree? Give them free desserts. Need something extra for a VIP banquet for 300 people tonight? Have the pastry department whip up several hundred petit fours. It takes superb organizational skills and excellent improvisational skills to be a pastry chef which is probably the main reason they are able to handle such things. Here is maybe the most common example: the chef approaches the pastry chef and says, “I have 3 cases of something that’s going bad - use them up.” That’s an easy one, just make some ice cream.

I always like to think that anything can be made into an ice cream, so whatever extra ingredients you have on hand can be used to whip something up. Since I’ve been making many marshmallows lately, especially for the FiFis last Tuesday, I’ve had lots of extra egg yolks lying around, plus some lemongrass, heavy cream, and even some toasted coconut from something I can’t remember. That sounded like a winning combination, one that I may have even tried before, so I made it using my basic recipe. It had a very smooth, warm tropical flavor and the lemongrass gives it that extra something that you can’t quite put your finger on. If you have an ice cream maker and want to try it, just use your favorite vanilla recipe and substitute plenty of fresh lemongrass and toasted unsweetened coconut for the vanilla. Strain it out and proceed as usual. I have a feeling I’ll be making lots of ice cream this summer.