Recipe for Chocolate Mint Ice Cream. . .African Style!

A couple weeks ago someone out in the village gave Amber a couple of coconuts. It's getting pretty hot here, so we got the brilliant idea to make sorbet. We made our own coconut milk/cream, added lemon from our tree and some fresh squeezed orange juice, and we had some pretty good sorbet. 

The only problem was the recipe we used called for way to much sugar. So we really needed to try making it again to see if we could perfect the recipe. Amber graciously volunteered her chocolate chips (yes, we ration those out here!) and we decided this time to make chocolate mint with coconut milk.

Fresh from the market, the mint is on the right. We also bought basil, coriander, and spring onions that day.

Here are the two coconuts we bought off the side of the road. Because neither of us need to be using a machete (trust me on this one), we had the lady cut off the tops because we needed to save the water.

Once we got home, we poured out the coconut water. Next step. . .

. . .crack open that coconut. Thankfully no fingers or toes were lost in this attempt!

But you can tell I'm being very careful. How someone can chop open a coconut open in their hand with a machete,
I will never know! (or try!)

Amber takes a whack at it.

Voila! We can now get to the coconut meat!

Next you scrape out all of the coconut flesh.

And in the meantime, make a syrup with sugar and water. . .

. . . and our mint leaves!

We added the coconut water to the coconut flesh. . .

And blended it up.

This time it came out a bit more watery than the first time, but we still ran it through a sieve, and came up with. . .

Really smooth coconut cream!!

Not wanting to be wasteful, Aria got in on the action and was grateful for the husk.

THIS is what was left when she was done with it!

Once everything was mixed together, we put it in the freezer.

Once it was pretty frozen we added those chocolate chips. . .and. . .

Here is our chocolate mint ice cream Africa style!!!

Now this is perfect for a hot Africa summer day! We've decided we still haven't quite perfected the recipe, but that just means we'll have to do a bit more experimenting! When we cut down on the sugar we should have cut down the water as well, because this time it's a bit more icy and less creamy, but we're not complaining at all. It's so yummy and refreshing. We also learned that using real mint leaves and not just a flavoring definitely gives you a different 'mint' taste, but in a good way!

Happy summer from our side of the world!

Amber and Lisa