Making the Strawberry Purée: Cut the stems off the strawberries and thickly slice. Place in a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar. Mix well and let it sit in the fridge. Mix the strawberries few times till the sugar is dissolved.
Blend it in a food processor and store in an air tight container in the fridge until needed. The purée can be smooth or a little chunky, however you like them. You can even make this a couple of days before.
Separate the eggs yolks and add the sugar. With an electric hand mixer, whisk the yolks and sugar together till its pale and fluffy.
Split the vanilla pod and with the back of your knife scrap off the vanilla bean. In a heavy bottom sauce pan, pour the milk and mix in the vanilla bean and stick in the pods too. Stir the milk over medium low heat till the milk just begins to boil.
Take off heat and pour a ladle of milk into the egg and start whisking immediately. Pour in couple of more ladles of milk into the yolk mixture and keep whisking. This process is called TEMPERING.
Now pour the tempered yolk mixture into the milk and place over low heat. With a heat proof spatula or a wooden spoon stir the custard constantly until it thickens. Make sure you reach all the way to the bottom of the sauce pan. This will take about 5 - 7 mins.
This will take about 5 - 7 mins. To know when the custard is done, run your finger along the back of the wooden spoon or the spatula. If the path where your finger has travelled stays intact then its DONE. If it drips down and merges, let it cook for few more mins. This is Crème Anglaise
The Crème Anglaise must be cooled immediately. The fastest way to do it is to place the sauce pan over an ice bath and gently stir till the custard is completely cooled. Pass the custard through a fine sieve, just in case you have cooked the yolks. But there shouldn't be any, keep that in mind.
Pour the whipping cream into a bowl and with a electric hand mixer whip till it forms SOFT PEAKS. Now gently whisk the cream into the custard till everything is fully incorporated. And that's the Basic Vanilla ice cream made. Let this chill for few hours or overnight.
If you have an ice - cream maker, churn the chilled ice cream according to the manufacture's direction. If you don't have an ice cream maker (I Don't), once the ice cream base has been frozen for an hour or two process them in a food processor / stand mixer / electric hand mixer / a whisk.
Freeze the ice cream for the second time for an hour or two and repeat the process. Freeze the ice for the third time and again repeat the process for the third time and freeze until before serving. And that's how you do it without an ice cream maker.
Making the Strawberry Swirl Vanilla Ice Cream: The ice cream must be in a scoop-able soft serve consistency. Place couple of scoops of ice cream in a storage container and pour a thin layer of strawberry purée.
Top off with few more scoops of ice cream and continue the layering process till all the ice cream is layered up. With a knife gently swirl the ice cream layers. Freeze the ice cream for at least 4 hrs or until serving.
Allow the ice cream to thaw for few mins before serving. Dip ice cream scooper in cold or lukewarm water before scooping for a clean scoop.
Note: Untempered yolks will curdle when added to the hot milk. You can also boil the milk and cream together. But whisking the cream till soft peaks and then adding it to the custard makes the ice cream more silkier and softer.
Store the ice cream in an air tight container or tightly cover the top of the ice cream with foil. When frozen unwrapped the ice cream will pick up weird flavours from your freezer.
