Pina Colada Ice Cream
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007And now for something completely different; a totally unseasonal dessert that is not particularity quick or easy to make.
Don’t worry – this is a vegan Pina Colada Ice “Cream” and I’ll provide a hint on how to make the recipe quite a bit easier.
Sort of like Christmas-in-July, the sisters and I experienced some summer-in-February during a visit to our dad’s in Florida this weekend. Whilst lolling about in the 72 degree sunshine, The Li’l Sis and I got to reminiscing about tropical drinks, speaking in great detail about a particular Pina Colada she had on Roatan, an island off of Honduras.
She said that “there was a rickety stand on the beach where an old lady made amazing Pina Coladas with only a regular kitchen blender, coconuts, pineapples, and some rum.” I was a bit skeptical, thinking that there had to be more to it than that. The only thing The Li’l Sis couldn’t figure out was how the Pina Colada lady got the extension cord for the blender to run the whole way out to the beach.
Following our estimation of the beach lady’s technique, we created a Pina Colada mix that was too textured for a smooth summer drink but upon freezing made an excellent and satisfying vegan ice “cream.”
Here’s what you do:
Gathering the following:
a whole, shell-on coconut.* you’ll use 2/3 of it
1 fresh pineapple
some of your favorite rum (you can sub pineapple or orange juice)
1/2 lime
a little salt
honey, optional
Take your cute little coconut and, with a hammer and nail, pound a couple of holes in its indentations. Drain and reserve the liquid that comes out.
Now smash the heck out the coconut. This is much more fun when done outside in one’s bathing suit with sunglasses as protective eyewear.
Pry the coconut meat out of the shell with a flathead screwdriver or similar. Keep doing this until you’ve hurt yourself and have to stop OR until you’ve gotten 2/3 of the meat out of the shell.
Now for the REALLY tedious part: using a paring knife, remove the last of the brown skin from the outside of the coconut meat. You want your coconut to blend up the color of a white sand Caribbean beach, not look all brown and junky like Rockaway.
Put your coconut meat in a blender and whip it up as much as possible, using the reserved coconut juice as liquid to facilitate the blending.
*you can totally skip this whole step and use a can of coconut cream instead
Now, take your pineapple and whack off the frilly top. Same to the bottom, minus the frilly. Sheering down the sides with your knife, slice off all the skin. Cut the naked pineapple in half lengthwise and then in half again so you have 4 long thin pieces. Core the pineapple by cutting away the “V” portion of each of the 4 pieces. Then dice up the pineapple.
Add the diced pineapple and a good cup of rum or juice to the blender, along with the lime and salt. You can add some honey if your pineapple isn’t particularly ripe or if you like things sweet.
Blend it all up.
Pour into a container and let freeze. It will be easier to scoop out if you stir the slush a few times during the freezing process but just letting it freeze and then unthaw for 10 minutes before you eat it works too.
Serve with blackberries and sunblock.
