Tales of a Traveling Cook:
Costa Rican Ice Cream
By MARGARET LeBLANC
(October 31, 2000)
A few years ago, my husband and I stayed in a remote part of Costa Rica in a small bed and breakfast establishment. It was run by a Costa Rican and his Swiss wife, Yolanda. I was her assistant for the evening meals prepared for six to twelve guests at any given time. Because we lived on a peninsula accessible only by boat, we worked with limited supplies. So we made do with what we had and created marvelous meals! This is where I truly learned how to cook. In the issues ahead, I would like to share some of these experiences and recipes.
We used just a simple gas refrigerator and stove. Every day, Yolanda would bake a wonderful rye bread and make a kettle of simmering black beans and rice, seasoned with lots of fresh cilantro. This is a plentiful herb they grow, which replaces unobtainable basil in many recipes. The smells of the outdoors mingled with the smells we created inside our open building, giving it all an extra special favor. I still marvel at how we made the following incredible ice creams in the tiny freezer of a small gas refrigerator. Next time, I'll let you in on making the best beans and rice ever, a main staple in that culture--even for breakfast! I hope you will try these recipes and enjoy their true authenticity as much as we did.
Freezer Chocolate Ice Cream
Use a square metal pan the size of a bread pan
Ingredients: 3½ oz. semi-sweet chocolate, 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 egg yolks (save the whites for later), 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 container medium cream.
Melt chocolate in pan. Add cocoa. Mix yolks and sugar together, add cream and whip until thick. Add this to the chocolate. Whip whites separately with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff. Fold into cream and chocolate mixture and pour into pan. Freeze for at least four hours.
Banana Ice Cream
Use a metal pan, the same as for chocolate ice cream above.
Ingredients: 3 egg whites, whipped; 3 yolks whipped separately until clear; 2 oz. of sugar; 2 tsp. vanilla, 1 container medium cream, one good size ripe banana
After whipping yolks, add mashed banana to them. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla, separately. Carefully add cream to yolk mixture, then add stiff beaten whites to mixture by folding in slowly. Pour into pan and freeze four hours. Enjoy!
Tales of a Traveling Cook © 2000 Margaret LeBlanc. All Rights Reserved
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