Ann's Blog
Toronto, Canada:
July 23, 2011
Ice Cream Weather
We’re back in Toronto for the summer, while Receta waits out steamy hurricane season in Trinidad. Amazingly, however, it was hotter here (36°C/97°F) yesterday than it was in Port of Spain (33°C/91°F). Today won’t be quite as bad, but hot hot hot just the same. We have friends coming for dinner tonight, and I constructed the menu around the BBQ and salads. Then there’s dessert: The weather demands Steve’s coconut ginger ice cream. A bit of backstory here:
If you drive through Carenage, a community on the western outskirts of Port of Spain almost any night of the week, you’ll spot a woman selling ice cream by the side of the road. Her name is Genesa Plante, and a stop at her cart is just the ticket on the way home from a hard night of liming. She sells a changing array of flavors of the Trinidadian brand “B’s Homemade Ice Cream,” including popular-in-Trinidad Guinness (an acquired taste, let me report), rum raisin, peanut, and tropical fruits such as guava. Steve was the first of our band of night-owl yachties to try the coconut ginger, however, and, after declaring it “best ever,” allowed me a (modest) lick or two from his double-decker cone.
ginger adds heat to creamy
coconut ice cream
Wow. With chunks of real ginger and young jelly coconut, it knocked rum raisin (my previous fave) out of the park. The ginger gave the ice cream real heat, creating a sensation of hot and cold at the same time. Brain freeze and throat burn in every scoop.
Not one to be deprived of his favorite treat when he’s far from Trinidad, Steve figured out how to replicate it last summer in Toronto. All you need is a piece of fresh ginger root and some premium coconut ice cream. (We love the one made by Tropical Treets, a Toronto company.) Soften the ice cream slightly and peel and grate the ginger root. Using a spatula, work the grated ginger and any accumulated ginger juice into the ice cream until it’s well blended. Taste frequently (what a hardship) until you get the degree of ginger flavor and heat you want. Then refreeze until serving time.
vote, but all the frozen treats we've
tried from this Toronto company
have been winners.
Mixing his islands with impunity, Steve likes to serve it with a square or two of dark chocolate from the Grenada Chocolate Company. (He brings a few dozen bars back to Toronto with him to get him through the summer.) It’s also dynamite with sliced mango or fresh berries. Not to mention all by its lonesome in a cone.
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YUM! enjoy your time at home!
We bought one of those Play & Freeze balls from Amazon and it does a terrific job of making homemade ice cream on the boat. all you need is an ice cream mix packet and milk (or you can do your own with cream and sugar), some ice, and some rock salt. You put the mix in one end of the ball and the ice and salt in the other end and then roll the ball around for 20 minutes. They come in pint and quart sizes and there’s never any left to save!
Deb
S/V Kintala
www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com
Just finished “Mangoes” and “Spice Necklace”. Although I’m not much of a cook, I still enjoyed them both! Your description of the Trinidad people is so accurate. I work at a daycare where two of the children’s Mother and Grandmother are from Trinidad. They always greet us with hugs and smiles and that warm, happy lilt to their voices. I feel as though I am part of the family! Someday I hope to experience the island for myself…but for now I’m glad you write and post about it. Looking forward to your next one. Happy Sailing!
Hello Ann
I and my husband are new to travel but have fallen in love with the Caribbean. I have so enjoyed The Spice Necklace as it gives me a chance to see the islands through similar eyes and taste buds to my own. I thought it was a most appropriate read on the beach in Punta Cana. Of course An Embarrassment of Mangoes is next on my list. Thank you for adding to the enjoyment of this and future vacations. I would like to recommend it on Trip Advisor when I do my resort review. Julie Krupp