Category: Produce

Papaya Coconut Ice Cream…Wishful Thinking


I have mentioned many times before how I hate waste. I find I always have a lot of odds and ends in the refrigerator that require me to use up. This weekend I had half of a large Papaya, leftover lite coconut milk, and leftover evaporated milk from various projects. I didn’t want to waste that beautiful Papaya and was brainstorming for uses in a light dessert. I fell upon an old bargain cookbook I had from the Creative Cooking Library, Taste of The Caribbean, by Rosamund Grant. She had easy Coconut ice cream using canned milk, condensed milk, and coconut milk. Any ice cream I make calls for cream, eggs, milk, etc. I decided to give this a try with the addition of pureed Papaya .What I got was a cross between a sherbet and ice cream whose flavor comes through once it softens a bit. The author doesn’t use an ice cream machine as I did. All in all I whipped this all up in blender in 5 minutes .It reminded me of the Brazilian Papaya Crème I have had at Churrascarias without the crème de cassis topping .A tropical treat, made from pantry ingredients, in this subzero Chicago weather.

Coconut Ice Cream from Taste of The Caribbean Rosamund Grant adapted into
Papaya Coconut Ice Cream from glamah@cococooks (my changes highlighted).

Serves 8
14 once can evaporated milk
14 once can condensed milk
14 once can coconut milk
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon almond extract
*1 cup pureed Papaya

Lemon balm sprigs, lime slices, shredded coconut to decorate (optional)

Mix together Papaya, condensed milk, and coconut milk in blender. Add nutmeg and almond extract. At this point you can put in the freezer proof bowl as the author suggests or into your chilled ice-cream maker bowl. Follow directions for ice cream maker and allow to freeze more. If you don’t have an ice cream maker the author recommends you chill the mixture for 1-2 hours until semi frozen. Remove from freezer and whisk by hand or electric mixer until fluffy and double in volume. Pour into freezer container, cover and freeze. Soften slightly before serving.

Tropic Kale Smoothie..Iron Man Meets Iron Chef

Chou over at balance ,

along with Julius and Lauren have come up with a great event. Iron Man Meets Iron Chef. Its a month long tests of physical and culinary feats. I’ll pass on the physical but will rise to the culinary part.


So when Chou announced on Sunday the super food my mind started racing (if only my legs and body would follow suite). Kale prepared for breakfast is this week’s theme. I love Kale, but for breakfast! I immediately thought of a Kale frittata, or poached egg whites with kale. All good but I wanted to push the envelope. Breakfast = quick in my house on weekdays. So whats better than juice or a smoothie! In fact Kale has so much protein, anti oxidants, health promoting benefits that don’t cook off as much as other veggies. But raw, its packs a lot of punch. People eat it in salads and juices. Kales not just for soup. In reading up I saw a lot people make smoothies with some kale leaves and fruit. I picked Vitamin C packing fat burning citrus fruits to balance of the bitter kale. I even came up with a cute name Tropic Kale. Get It! And you know what, it looks weird, but tastes pretty good! Not to fruity and a little bite. I’m buzzing right now as I type. So all you athletes or lazy bums like me drink up!

Tropic Kale Smoothie
3 tablespoons lite coconut milk 25 cal
½ cup diced Papaya 27 cal
½ cup diced Pineapple 38 cal
¼ cup fresh orange juice 112 cal
½ cup raw Kale 17 cal
¼ cup tofu 65 cal
Throw it all in the blender with some ice and let it rip.

284 calories (a meal in one)

* I approximated based on calorie guides and amounts used. This is not exact.

Cream Limoncello

A few weeks back my blogging pal over at Proud Italian Cook suggested in the comment box for me to use my Meyer Lemon Syrup in making Limoncello. I decided in talking to my good friend Gabi that this would be perfect for her in our belated Christmas gift exchange. She loves it and mentioned a cream limoncello she had in Capri once. So with some Internet research I found the recipe.Can I just say this is some yummy brew. Limomoncello is relatively simple and the Cream version just takes some added steps. The debates out on the length of time required for it brew. All in all I steeped my lemon zest over 1 and half weeks. Added the cream sugar mixture and let it sit for another 1 and half weeks. Tonight I finally decided to bottle it up. Be careful with the straining as the use of milk or cream causes some curdling action. I used Everclear which has a very high proof, but the taste and smell are nonexistent which makes this perfect to showcase the lemons and not mention give you a good buzz!


Chicken,Leek ,and Wild Rice Soup

This is not a pretty soup, but its a pleasing soup. I love wild rice, and what better to pair wild rice with than some chicken? I’ve had my share of great chicken and wild rice soups on buisness trips to Minnesota. I decided to play on my own and come up with my own version. The thing about soup is that you can follow a recipe, but sometimes the best ones are ad lib.

I essentially took five chicken drumsticks and roasted them with a few strips of cut of bacon. Something about bacon used in cooking that just imparts a wonderful flavor and aroma. I cleaned and sliced one leek and added it to the roasting pan.I used my enameled Le Creuset dutch oven so it can go from oven to burner. I roasted the chicken and leeks for approx 1 hour to get a nice brown carmelization. I then transferred to pot to the burner and deglazed my pan with Sherry.I added dried shitake mushrooms,that had been soaking for the past hour and sliced,water, spices( herbs de Provence,ground sage,salt,pepper,a dash of sugar,etc.).I let it simmer for about another hour, with periodic stirrings from Certain Someone for his proclaimed magic touch.Around the last half hour I added heavy cream mixed with cornstarch for thickening.It didn’t get as thick as I would have liked , but it was fine just the same.Certain Someone ate two bowls and was happy. I’m not a big soup person but he seems to like my soup concoctions. Now if they only looked as good as they tasted..

Slow Cooked Apple Sauce …Comfort Food Cook Off

Apple sauce is one of my favorite comfort foods. Ever since I was a child I could eat up jars of it. My tastes outgrew the commercial made canned and jar products.A blogger I love, did a post recently on hot spiced apples with all sorts of tips. I had been toying with making a apple sauce and I had come across this crock pot recipe. The only change I made was adding a cinnamon stick in addition to the cinnamon as it cooks. I can’t describe the wonderful homey aroma that filled the air. The perfect aromatherapy for a lazy winter day. I plan to eat this alone or on top of Sunday pancakes or waffles.

This is also my entry for the Comfort Food Cook off. Now all I need is my spoon.