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.

Koesisters…Time to Make Doughnuts Event

When Tartlette and Peabody announced their Time to Make Doughnuts event, I got excited. Then that little nagging voice said to me “Girl you don’t need to make any doughnuts….” Evidenced by last night when I couldn’t zip my skirt up to the waist( granted I hadn’t worn it some years).Nevertheless its Super bowl Sunday and I want some doughnuts to munch on. I had planned on making some Berliners for Certain Someone as he’s German and that what he wanted. I changed my mind and decided to do a less stressful but equally delicious recipe from Marcus Samuelsson’s Discovery of a Continent, Foods Flavors and Inspirations From Africa. This is an abridged version of Soul of a New Cuisine, Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa, from Starbucks.
Koesiters are a Cape Town favorite on Sundays after church. There are a few variations that are braided or dipped in sugary syrups. This version is Marcus’ favorite that he learnt from Peter and Marilyn Carelon, a South African couple. They are highly spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. I made some minor substitutions as I didn’t have brown sugar, so I used Demarra Sugar run through the coffee grinder. Also I used Evaporated milk instead because we only had skim milk in the house. I apologize for my not so perfect ball shapes. But the taste was simple, not too sweet, and full of spice. A treat you don’t feel too guilty about.

Koesiters adapted from Marcus Samuelsson’s Discovery of a Continent, Foods Flavors and Inspirations From Africa.

6 tablespoons warm water
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 package or 2 ¼ teaspoons dry active yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 extra large egg yolks
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
About 4 cups canola oil for deep frying.

Combine water, granulated sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Set in a warm place and allow to sit until yeast bubbles. Approx 5-10 min.
Add flour and salt to the yeast mixture. Mix with electric mixer (I used my Stand Mixer) on low until well combined. Beat in egg yolks, one at time until all is well incorporated.
Combine milk and butter in a saucepan and heat until butter is melted. While mixer is running, add the milk mixture, beating until it’s incorporated. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Let sit in warm place until doubled in size. Approx 40 min.
Punch the dough down and turn out onto floured surface. Cut into 20 pieces, roll each one into a ball, and arrange in a single layer on baking sheet. Set in warm place and let rise for 20 min.
While dough is rising toss brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom in large bowl. Set aside
Heat 3 inches of canola oil in a deep pot to 350 degrees. Working in batches.Fry until golden brown.Turn to brown each side. Approx 3- 4 min.

Serve Warm.

I Have Been Tagged

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I feel weird telling people things about myself on demand. Its like a job interview or date. You can totally weird them out or leave strange impression. I’m a complex character and that’s due to my background. My own people and family find me odd but fascinating, and I tend to grow on them. Certain someone once complained that sometimes ‘I’m just to over the top”. So that being said the lovely Mary over at Shazam in the Kitchen. Has tagged me. I have seen a person being tagged since I started food blogging .It is a fun way to learn about people outside the standard posting of recipes. I love my blog sphere friends, and while we may never meet, they feel so familiar. So here’s the skinny on me:

1) I was born in Washington D.C to an American mother and Nigerian father who met at Howard University. My mother’s families are African Americans rumored to be descended from the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. My father descends from a very prominent family of tribal chiefs and politicians. He had 48 brothers and sisters. Both parents are deceased. I have family throughout the world. Ironically I have both a paternal and maternal uncle in Vienna Austria, one of my favorite cities. How weird is that!

2) I studied Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design at the American University in Paris France. Some of the best years of my life!

3) I meet Certain Someone a year and half ago at a dinner party. I never would have meet him, if I hadn’t had a brief fling with someone who’s best forgotten. The night after we met, he went to Stockholm (his previous home) and I went to Minnesota for work. We communicated via Blackberry constantly and the relationship was sealed. A sign from above was when Certain Someone ran into my Swedish Cousins in Stockholm. A freaky coincidence! We have lived together since last December and are very happy. I have traveled to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Essen Germany. The friends and family seem to approve. Looking forward to another Swedish visit this spring/summer.

4) Barack Obama lives in our neighborhood a few blocks away!. I worked a catering event last summer in which I waited on another candidate ( former) for President Bill Richardson. Six degrees of seperation. And along those lines,I had a friend from college, whose father was pardoned by Bill Clinton right before he left office which caused a big old stink!

5) I love food, drink, and anything culinary related. But that’s not a surprise is it! Oh and I have another blog that has been defunct for a while.But One day I’ll get back to it. Check out the links I put in point 3. I made several posts on our vacation last summer to Sweden and Germany.

So thats me! I tag :
Oh I forgot! Here are the rules. Post 5 facts about yourself. Link back to the person who tagged you, and tag five additional people at the end of your post, who you also notify in their comment section.Whew!

Clean Eating

I fell upon this magazine called Clean Eating this week. I’m not one for diets and I find the weight has crept up on me over the years. Nesting with Certain Someone hasn’t helped. We love food, good food, and don’t necessarily want to sacrifice that.My current physical activity is just walking at any opportunity I can.I used to belong to a great gym which my bank account couldn’t sustain anymore.I admit half the time I went there was for its country club like atmosphere. But I did go to classes and while I felt it didn’t make much of a difference, I see that now without it , it did.Certain Someone leads a fast paced work life with most of his time spent flying all over the world. Needless to say his diet needs careful attention as well. We both need to do something and I love this magazine because it focuses on good healthy food that doesn’t necessarily mean tasteless sacrifice. So I plan to work some of these recipes into our diet. I already did a variation of one( just used some other ingredients(peppers,tarragon, shallots and brined the chicken) but followed the technique of baking in parchment. OK, I added a drizzle of olive oil, but much better than pan frying or adding a heavy sauce.Certain Someone ate it up with some brown rice.

Today I making these fabulous Chocolate Almond Meringues made with natural sugar,cocoa,and almond extract. 5 of these little bites comes in at just 77 calories. I had planned to bake some cookies, but will satisfy myself with these morsels. I’m not swearing off all good decadent food,just trying to be more aware and balance things out for us.