Monday, 25 January 2016

Lime, Mint, Matcha, Kiwi and Coconut Popsicles.


Like every good culinary creation, these popsicles have a story. And, because it's a public holiday and I am bored, I shall share it with you all. You're welcome.

One day I was feeling a little bored, so as always in such a predicament, I found myself in the kitchen. I kind of secretly love being bored and in the kitchen because that's usually the time that my favourite recipes come to be - when I'm playing around with flavours and there's no time pressure (I would mega fail on any kind of cooking show for this reason!). Relaxed creating and cooking is definitely more my style.

But the story of these popsicles begins a few months back from that afternoon of boredom. See, one day I received a delightful email by a lovely little company based in Melbourne called - wait for it - Matcha Company, asking if I would like to try their product. It was super exciting for me because it was actually the first product that any company had sent me to try. Coincidently, or you could call it fate, I had only three days before that lovely email came through, been looking online to buy some matcha. It's one of those things that seems to majorly trend on social media and amongst the foodies and I have never even heard of it, let alone tried it. What is it you ask? Well.....me too. So, what a perfect chance for me to try some I thought!! So, the matcha made it's way via Australia Post to my kitchen. But that's where this story hit a little snag, because now that I had the matcha I quite frankly had no idea what to do next with it!

Fast forward a few months and there I was, very bored, in the kitchen, wanting ice-cream. This is a very, very frequent occurrence, because I flipping love ice-cream, so it was not entirely out of the norm for me to be there thinking about frozen snacks. Foolishly I had only just been to the supermarket that very morning and I had, most regretfully at that point in time, forgotten to buy any (dairy free) ice-cream for myself. So, as any good foodie in this situation would do, I decided to make some myself! Rarely for me, I did not feel like chocolate ice-cream, which is what these popsicles owe their existence to. Basically what eventuated that afternoon was some random blending of random things I hoped would taste good together, and here we are, a few months later with me having consumed far too many of these to count because, not meaning to toot my own horn, these taste downright delicious. They're definitely a favourite in my kitchen, and, delightfully, put that matcha to perfect use!! Double win!!!

*N.B. I AM SO SORRY THAT THIS RECIPE IS SO LATE IN COMING! I GENUINELY THOUGHT THAT I HAD UPLOADED IT BUT I EVIDENTLY BECAME DISTRACTED EATING POPSICLES THE AFTERNOON I WAS SUPPOSED TO TYPE IT UP AND BASICALLY ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS WHOOPS (and that the popsicles are legit that good that they possibly induce amnesia).




Ingredients;

1 400mL can coconut cream
2 tbsp matcha powder (available through Matcha Company or in most health food shops)
Zest and juice of 2 limes
1 large handful fresh mint
4 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 kiwi fruit

Toppings
Approx. 4 tbsp coyo (recipe here)
1 80gm block dairy free dark chocolate (I used Loving Earth)
Handful crushed pistachio nuts

1. Remove the leaves from the mint and place in a blender. Peel the kiwi fruit, roughly chop and also add to the blender. First remove the zest from the limes, then juice (far easier doing the zesting first - trust me!) and also add that to the blender, along with the matcha powder, coconut cream and maple syrup. Blend on high speed for a few minutes - you want this to be really well combined with no large chunks of mint leaves, the smoother the better!
2. Take some popsicle moulds* and carefully pour the mixture into the moulds. Place in the freezer for a few hours until fully set.
3. When set, remove the popsicles from the moulds. Some hot water on the outside of the mould helps to make this easier, otherwise brute force it is!
4. Melt the chocolate in a small bowl and then, take a small container and place the coyo in there. Dip each popsicle into the coyo to coat the top half (or third). Lay the dipped popsicles out on some non-stick paper and then drizzle (generously) with the melted chocolate. Sprinkle with some pistachio nuts and then return to the freezer to set. Store in an airtight container in the freezer if they even last more than 30 minutes (unlikely...).




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