Black Peppercorn Ice Cream with Vodka Cranberry Sauce

Slightly spiced ice cream, with an almost floral flavor, goes wonderfully with tart-sweet cranberries.

Ice cream:
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
3/4 tbsp ground black peppercorn
1/2 tbsp bruised/almost cracked black peppercorns
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks

Heat the milk, sugar, ground pepper, peppercorns, vanilla bean seeds and bean, salt and 1 cup cream in a sauce pan, when it is hot remove from heat and let sit for half hour or so.

When it has steeped, heat it back up.  Whisk egg yolks together while it it heating.  When it is hot, very slowly pour the pepper mixture into the egg yolks while whisking.  Put the whole bit back in the saucepan.

Set a fine strainer on top of a large bowl, in the bowl put the remaining cup of cream

Return to heat, and stir/scrape constantly until it thickens and coats the back of the spatula.   Then pour through strainer into bowl with cream, throw away peppercorns/bean left in strainer. Stir the mixture together over an ice bath until cool.  Refrigerate until chilled.

Freeze in your ice cream maker.

Cranberry Sauce:
4 cups cranberries (fresh are best)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vodka
1 tsp pectin

Heat cranberries, sugar, water, and half of vodka in a sauce pan, cook and stir until cranberries are bursting.  Add pectin, continue heating/stirring until it is pretty thick.  It will thicken as it cools though.  When it is thick enough and most all cranberries have burst, remove from heat.  Let cool for a few minutes, then stir in remaining vodka.

Serve over the ice cream!