Cupcake Kitteh - vegan, gluten free, soy free: VeganMoFo2010

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: New Caledonia

4:39 PM | Posted by Mandee | | Edit Post

It's day 16 of VeganMofo and day 14 of my E.A.T World Challenge! Today I'm in New Caledonia, which is comprised of several islands in the southwest Pacific, about a 2 hour flight from Sydney.

My Dad was born in Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia but he moved here when he about 20 years old. We travelled there often as children but I'm sad to say I haven't been since I was about 12! I have lots of fond memories of our family, going to the beach, spending time on our great uncle's boat (I'm ignoring the fishing that happened while on the boat!), visiting the school our aunty taught at, spending days at the local swimming pool, eating half baguettes for lunch, coconut ice cream and fried bananas and of course flamboyánt trees which are everywhere.

Fried Bananas - gluten and soy free

When we visited New Cal, we would always stay with my great aunt and one of our favourite treats was fried bananas.

Ingredients

oil spray

1 banana, sliced in half lengthways and then in half

1 T agave syrup

1 lemon wedge

Heat a small frying pan, spray with oil. Once hot add the bananas and fry for 2-3 minutes of medium heat. Flip the banana pieces and add the agave. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the pan, squeeze the lemon over the banana pieces. Serve with coconut ice cream.

Serves 1.

I replaced the sugar that's usually used with agave syrup and I loved the results. The agave caramelised like sugar does and the bananas were perfect without being too sweet.

Coconut Ice Cream - gluten and soy free

Last week Chris bought us a new ice cream maker! Our old one never worked well and our new one has a compressor and we've been making ice cream almost every day! So I was going to do another traditional New Caledonian recipe but seeing as I had the means I went ahead with coconut ice cream. It's sold everywhere in New Cal and I always remember being disappointed when we returned to Sydney as I could never find coconut ice cream and when I did it was just not as good.

Ingredients

540ml coconut cream

1/2 C maple syrup

1 T arrowroot

1/2 t vanilla extract

1/2 t coconut extract

1/4 C dessicated coconut, optional

Mix 1/4 C of coconut cream with the arrowroot, set aside.

Heat the rest of the coconut cream and the maple syrup in a saucepan. Once the mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and whisk in the arrowroot mixture. Add the vanilla and coconut extracts.

Pour into a bowl, cover with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for a few hours or over night. Once chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Add coconut in the last 5 minutes.

Pour into a container and put it in the freezer for 1-2 hours.

Here's the fried bananas and the ice cream together, the perfect dessert! When the ice cream came out of the ice cream maker I quite liked it, it was coconutty, probably not as sweet because I didn't use sugar and it was soft. Unfortunately it went rock hard after it had been in the freezer overnight and it was really hard to scoop some out the following day. This has happened in the past with coconut ice cream for me, so I'll be trying out new recipes very soon in my quest to make the best coconut ice cream!

13 comments:

Rose said...: This sounds so good! I would love to make my own icecream. Vegan flavours are pretty bland from the stores.

Rose; November 16, 2010 at 8:05 PM
jessy said...: it sounds like you had some wonderful times with your family there when you were little, Mandee! that's fantastical! :) i've never even heard of New Caledonia - it sounds like a wonderful place full of all kinds of awesome. fried bananas and homemade ice cream sound like a lovely combination, indeed. that's no fun that the ice cream got so hard, but i'm glad it was so tasty!; November 17, 2010 at 12:31 AM
Emmy said...: Looks great. Hope you're enjoying the new ice cream maker!!; November 17, 2010 at 1:01 AM
eatingappalachia.com said...: Mmm that coconut ice cream looks awesome! I hope you're able to go back soon--New Caledonia sounds like a beautiful place!; November 17, 2010 at 1:48 AM
Kiersten said...: I looove fried bananas. Have fun with your new ice cream maker! I love using mine. It's so much more fun (and affordable) to make your own ice cream.; November 17, 2010 at 2:33 AM
VeggieAmanda said...: I am so ready for this dessert right now, for breakfast. It looks so yummo!; November 17, 2010 at 2:35 AM
cardamomandcastiron said...: Looks delicious!; November 17, 2010 at 3:37 AM
lazysmurf said...: That tree is AMAZING! I love fried bananas too, especially with ice cream!; November 17, 2010 at 4:04 AM
Rose said...: That tree is beautiful,and the coconut ice cream and fried bananas sound so good together; I love warm fruit with ice cream. I also love the addition of the lemon to top it all off.; November 17, 2010 at 7:43 AM
caribbeanvegan said...: congrats on ur new maker..I am hoping mine breaks soon so I can get that kind! I think your coconut icecream looks great and rich and I learnt something new again.; November 17, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Amey said...: holy wow! I've never even heard of new caledonia. very exciting. I'm gonna go look it up. Anywhere with fried bananas and coconut ice cream sounds good to me!

I've had the icy problem with home made ice cream as well... I"m not sure what the solution is. Probably more fat, and maybe some sort of stabilizer? Liquid sweeteners might be good too...; November 19, 2010 at 5:53 PM
Megan said...: Oh, yum! I adore coconut. I've only ever made fried bananas for an ex (I don't like the idea of cooked bananas; it's a mental barrier, not coming from my tastebuds!) and I dusted them with a little cinnamon sugar. I think they'd be pretty good as fritters, dipped into some semolina or polenta to form a crust outside... I'm going to have to work out another fruit to make that with, though, because I just can't do it with bananas. Sigh.
Anyway, this looks awesome, keep up the good work!; November 20, 2010 at 1:47 AM
Monique a.k.a. Mo said...: Oh, how I want fried bananas right now!; November 29, 2010 at 4:39 PM