I’ve been dreaming about flavouring ice cream with kaffir lime leaves for a while now. Although they are most commonly used in savory dishes, the leaves have that aromatic and zesty taste that I imagined would work beautifully in many desserts. And my imagination did not fail me this time – the ice cream came out absolutely out-of-this-world delicious.
Ripe mangoes have been falling off the trees all over the neighborhoods around us lately, which means very happy times for me. I have a few friends who are just as enthusiastic about getting their hands on the freshest local mangoes, and we set out on mango hunts around the neighborhoods whenever possible. But if a sweet ripe mango is out of reach where you live, you can omit it – the bright flavours of the kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and coconut milk will do a wonderful job on their own.
I made a lime reduction to accompany the ice-cream with an extra-zesty kick, but it is entirely optional.
The Vietnamese owner of the market, where I usually buy frozen kaffir leaves, recently asked me what I do with all these lemongrass stalks and lime leaves, and was amazed to hear that I use them to make delicious ice cream. I have to admit that I felt a bit accomplished in surprising him, as I always feel that he knows much more about cooking than I ever will.
Kaffir Lime Mango Ice-Cream
2 cans full fat unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
3 lemongrass stalks – cut into 2-inch pieces and bruised with the back of a chef’s knife
2 large handfulls kaffir lime leaves – bruised
1 large or 2 small ripe, sweet mangoes – peeled and pitted
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup light agave syrup or other sweetener of choice
1. In a bowl, mix together 1/4 cup of coconut milk with xanthan gum or arrowroot powder to form a thick slurry. Set aside.
2. Heat the rest of the milk, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in a medium sized pan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and leave to infuse for 1 hour.
3. Transfer into a blender (preferably high-speed) and blend until smooth. Strain the solids through a fine-mesh strainer. Rinse the blender.
4. Pour the strained mixture back into the blender, add in the slurry, mango flesh, lime zest and juice and agave, and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until well chilled, preferably overnight.
5. Put into an ice cream maker for 25 minutes or however long your brand of ice cream machine suggests.
Notes:
1. If you have a high-speed blender, such as Blendtec or Vitamix, you can eliminate the first step. Just heat the whole amount of milk in step 2 and add the xanthan gum in step 4 along with the rest of the ingredients.
2. You can also eliminate step 3 if your blender is not very strong, just strain out the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves after infusing the milk, without blending them. The flavor may be not as pronounced in this case.
Lime Reduction
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice – from about 5 limes
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon lime zest
1-inch piece fresh ginger – minced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1. Combine the lime juice, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and keep it gently boiling for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until reduced by 3/4 and syrupy.
2. Add the zest, ginger and lemon juice and let steep for about 5 minutes. Strain and cool. Add honey or agave if the reduction is too strong and zesty to your taste.
What delightful flavors! I can’t wait to try this!
This sounds decuiiols! My husband loves key lime pie, so I might just have to try this. I guess that means I need to pull out that ice cream maker that we received as a wedding gift and have never used….
Hi Athita, I cooked this last night. I didn’t find the sour baobmo shoot, so I just used the usual baobmo shoot, also added some carrots, asparagus and button mushrooms. My friend and I like it a lot Please post more recipes.
This ice cream looks amazing! I often use kaffir lime leaves in sweet treats and our mango trees out back are just starting to flower for the season ahead :-) xx
Kaffir limes in ice cream, beautiful! I can taste it in my mind already! You’re creativity is a true blessing. xo
Sounds like a nice refreshing flavor. I loved green tea and sweet red bean ice cream from Chinese restaurants. I noticed your ice cream has an awesome scoopable consistency. Would you say the arrowroot powder helps or do you freeze it more?
Everything looks absolutely beautiful
I love the story your photos tell…somehow those orbs of green limes scattered across the photo turned into orbs of ice cream! heehee….so cute! ^_^
This is so very gorgeous!
Thanks for your comments, everyone!
Lauren, the arrowroot powder definitely helps, as well as the combination of all the ingredients. The mango gives it that sorbet like consistency and the coconut milk makes it creamy.
This sounds divine! I wonder, your cones, do you buy them or make them?
Did you mean 2 cups or 2 cans?
Amazing photos. Great recipe.
Anonymous 6:04, I usually buy organic sugar free or gluten free cones.
Anonymous 9:23, 2 cans, thanks so much for pointing that out!
i personally like to mix it up; I love trynig to get a dish as authentic and clean as possible, and sometimes i love experimenting… I think there is a charm to both. Searching for originality and authenticity in a dish gives you a chance to exercise and/or learn basics in the kitchen, while going all out experiementing lets you try out, combine and stretch the basic techniques and flavors that you have learned. But I also think there can be a lot of experimenting involved in the search for authenticity, because the basics of the dish will be there, but the final adjustments and the perfection of the dish will rely on very small changes made to the measurements and/or cooking times.Rice sounds and looks nice, and fortunately I don’t know enough about asian cuisine to know what’s authentic and where you have gone crazy, so this is just one more nice Darlene dish to try out :-)
Hi Anya! I ran into your blog and I love your recipes. I will be visiting often! ;)
Am sitting on Step 4 now, letting it chill overnight. Excited to pop this into the ice cream maker tomorrow. :) Instead of syrup, I chose to go with 1/4 can of condensed milk. And will be making the lime reduction with palm sugar (Gula Melaka), and I think it’s gonna taste wonderful! Thanks for the wonderfully asian inspired ice cream recipe. This one is definitely gonna be a keeper.
Hi Karen,
So glad you’re giving this recipe a try! It’s one of my favorite ice creams ever. Love the condensed milk idea, let me know how it goes :)