This week at work we had a discussion about what was one thing we wanted to do next year once we reach somewhat of a post-pandemic normal. The unanimous answer to that question was: “Travel”.
After a delicious Saturday dinner at Korean restaurant downtown, my fiancé and I spent an hour in the large asian supermarket reminiscing our favorite childhood snacks (digestives, saltine crackers, white rabbit candy, panda crackers), favorite fruits (persimmons, durian, jackfruit) to favorite vegetables (the indescribable types of Chinese vegetables I can’t even translate to English). It was such a perfect date night after a long week at work and school. After shopping, we turned up the music in the car from our favorite Korean tv shows, old classics and Chinese songs – karaoking our way home in the dark. As we enjoyed our peaceful ride home, I observed the flickering lights appearing across the valley, I suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for home – for Asia.
It was the same lights I see outside my window in Hong Kong. Its the same lights I see as I look out the tiny window of the plane before we land. I thoroughly miss the freedom to travel, to explore new places and taste new flavors. One of the flavors I miss the most from my travels to singapore is the flavor of pandan. Its almost impossible to describe what that taste is, but once you do, youre hooked.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard or pandan ice cream until I visited Kind Kones. Since then, my mind has been whirling with ideas of what to do with pandan. Adapting from one of our most popular recipes on the blog – our black sesame tofu ice cream cake – we created this beautiful, creamy vegan pandan sorbet. It looks a lot like pistachio ice cream, but don’t be mistaken, because this such a wonderful fragrant coconut-pandan flavor that my whole family has fallen for!
The trick to make this super creamy without an ice cream machine and without a ton of fat is
- FREEZING the ice cream IN an ICE CUBE TRAY (do not substitute with another bigger container)
- Blending the ice cubes to break up the ice crystals.
This method was something we discovered on the internet by Serious Eats. Freezing it in ice cube trays will allow smaller ice crystals to form which will create a much smoother and creamier texture after blending it.
If you want to make this ULTRA creamy, you can blitz it a few more times between intervals of freezing it! IF You have the luxury of owning an ice cream machine you may use that! But we have found the ice cube method and blitzing it once an adequate substitute.
For now, lets just enjoy this creamy sorbet that brings me home to Asia 😀
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk (canned)
- 1 cup silken tofu, cubed
- 4 tbsp shredded coconut (unsweetened)
- 4½ tbsp raw cane sugar
- ½ tsp pandan extract
- 1 dash of salt
- Drain the water from the tofu.
- Throw everything into the blender and blitz till smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness accordingly.
- Pour into 2 empty ice cube trays. Freeze for 4-5 hours or until frozen, you can even leave it overnight if you want.
- Once it is frozen, place all the frozen pandan ice cubes in the blend again.
- SOFT SERVE option: You can eat it right away
- Ice CREAM option: Pour into a glass container and freeze for a few more hours until just firm.
- When serving, let it sit to defrost for a few minutes and consume
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