Mash the strasberries with half the sugar (ie. 2oz or 50g) in a bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator to chill whilst making the rest of the recipe.

Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring slowly up to boiling point but do not boil. Remove from the heat, place the split vanilla pod into it and leave to one side to infuse for about 10 minutes.

In a bowl, beat and mix together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Carefully remove the vanilla pod from the pan of milk. Pour the milk carefully through a fine strainer into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens. REMEMBER: DO NOT BRING TO THE BOIL OR IT WILL PROBABLY CURDLE. When you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it's time to remove the saucepan from the heat. Leave to cool.

When cool, stir in the cream followed by the mixture of mashed strasberries and sugar. Transfer the complete mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

The strasberry is an unusual variety of strawberry - with a different size, shape, smell and taste to the common garden strawberry most commonly on sale in food stores.

See my strasberry photographs

Read about other varieties of strawberry

Other unusual recipes for homemade ice cream