Does anyone remember the legendary ‘Cooking Canon’? A rather charming, bearded, portly member of the English clergy who, in many respects, was one of the first ‘celeberity chefs’, along with eccentric Fanny Craddock, to grace our screens in the early eighties. Long before Delia was on the scene this was my mother’s go-to cooking bible! He published three cookery books: The Cooking Canon, The Cooking Canon Entertains and Simply Divine.

I only discovered the other day that the strawberry ice cream, which my mother always makes and continues to do so, originally came from ‘The Cooking Canon’. It’s delicious creamy and easy to make and as a real bonus, you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive ice cream maker. Strawberries epitomize the joys of summer and what better way to celebrate the sun’s rays than a bowl of home-made strawberry ice cream. It may not be exotic or original but it certainly hits the spot. I hope you agree.

Now it may shock some of you to hear that the ice cream is not in fact made with fresh strawberries – my mother has tried using them but the results are not as good she assures me. Instead she has gone down the route of using tinned strawberries. Shock horror.

You still with me?

Please don’t be alarmed. I assure you, you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Homemade Strawberry Ice-Cream

290g/8oz tin of strawberries (or anything around that amount)

150g/6oz icing sugar

1 pint of double cream

1 plastic/metal tray or container

1. Take the tin of strawberries and pour out about one quarter of the liquid, reserving to make a fruit salad at a later date

2. Blend the strawberries with the other ingredients and freeze for 40 minutes in your container. I have always used a plastic container and it works out well.

3. Stir and freeze again for a minimum of a couple of hours.

4. Scatter some fresh strawberries over the ice cream and serve to what will be happy family and friends.