Peeling freckles from our Summer skin

When temperatures start hitting the mid 30s here in Sydney, as it did so many days last week, people start going a little bit crazy.

In situations where wearing shoes should be mandatory, suddenly bare feet are popping up instead. No longer do feel people ashamed to admit how much sweat their upper lip moustache is producing, it now becomes a competition to be the worst offender. Friends gladly share roll on deodorant, shoving it awkwardly under their shirts in public.

Out of place umbrellas dot the footpaths, shielding their carriers from our unforgiving sun. Hand held fans whir and everyone seems to take on a certain gait in their walk as they attempt to keep all body parts as distant from each other as possible. Clothes become more skimpy, bums are exposed, and suddenly an airy muu-muu is an acceptable article of clothing for wearing outside the comfort of ones own home.

Well, I think it's great. Because it means I can have my fan on all night long which I love because the whirring noise puts me to sleep. And I get to take unessecary naps in the afternoon because "oh, the heat is just so draining". Plus, the more half naked men walking around the merrier. In actual fact I'm semi naked writing this right now since every time I put a shirt on it just clings to my sweaty back. Yum.

Basically I think the greatest part about the warmer weather is, of course, that fact I get to make copious amounts of ice-cream with the use of my old friend Snowy. Last week I had a few spare mangoes lying around and thought about making a mango Weiss bar inspired delight. In previous attempts to try to make icecream a tad more healthy, I've experimented with evaporated milk instead of cream. A few failed moments have lead me to the discovery that a little bit of cream is needed to make the icecream taste, well, icecreamy. So the recipe below calls for coconut flavoured evaporated milk which is amazing stuff (so good in Thai curries if you want a healthier option) and a little bit of cream. Whack in some toasted coconut and some berries and you got yourself a pretty tasty dessert to cool down with. 

Coconut Mango Berry Icecream

 

300ml cream

1 x can evaporated milk

1 x can evaporated coconut flavoured milk

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 cup shredded coconut

2 mangoes

1 teaspoon rose water

2 cups mixed berries (don't waste beautiful fresh berries on this - use frozen!) 

 

Cut up mango and place in a saucepan over a low heat. Add a few teaspoons of water and the rosewater. Gently heat and start to break up the mango - keep stirring until the mango becomes a soft mess. Remove from heat. Do the same with the berries except using half a teaspoon of sugar instead of the rosewater.

In another pan add the cream, and both cans of the evaporated milk. Add the caster sugar and stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and place in fridge to cool down.

When icecream mixture is completely cool, pour into icecream maker. While its churning, lightly toast some shredded coconut until golden and crunchy. When the icecream is half frozen, add in the toasted coconut (if you do this before the mixture start to solidify the coconut will just sink to the bottom and won't evenly distribute through the icecream). Line a loaf baking tin with gladwrap. Pour the berry mixture into the tin and spread out to fill the entire base of the tin. Pour over the semi frozen and soft icecream mixture and finally spread the mango mixture over this layer to finish. Place in a freezer for a few more hours. When ready to serve, turn out from the tin and cut into thick slices. Enjoy.