Farmers rule! And farmers markets rule even more because they bring everyone together. The best find last week at the Red Bank farmers market was this glorious mound of ground cherries. I had to make a wish, since I'd never ever had one and the taste was out of this world, indescribable, pretty delectable.
Quite easily, I could peck at them all day as I walk back and forth, and just eat them straight out of their wonderful papery wrappers, but I kept tasting a hint of ginger....or I should say, the two flavors would marry very well. Ground cherries, at least as I taste them, are a mixture of kiwi and some kind of citrus, delicate, sweet, and pretty addictive. I figured, let's do something with these sweet little magical fruits.
All you really need is 4 ingredients. Why? Let's be real here. I'm a 4 ingredient kind of girl. Yes, I might make pretty complex gourmet raw and vegan foods, but when it comes to feeding myself, it needs to be simple, fast and delicious (and with ingredients I can remember).
One note about this ice cream: make it when you need it. Meaning, it's not one of those "oh, I forgot it in the freezer" types of ice cream. It's almost like banana ice cream, which I've found best when ready made so as to avoid the chunks of ice cream you get when you let it defrost a bit. It just doesn't "scoop" as nice after it's been frozen. If you don't mind it more like soft serve, definitely freeze it and defrost as you need it, but it solidifies in the freezer pretty well and doesn't replicate what you can do with store-bought ice cream that you can just spoon in your bowl. Most likely due to the fact that there are no stabilizers, thickening agents, etc. in this one.
That said, it would make a killer popsicle.
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
1 inch piece ginger, grated (if you like it extra ginger, go for a 2-inch knob)
1.5 cups ground cherries, measured after you've peeled them
dropper full of liquid stevia
Make sure everything is cold when you start, and that your ice cream container has been in the freezer for at least overnight. Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth and taste for sweetness. Remember, if it's a little sweet now, it will lessen in sweetness as it's frozen.
Pop in the ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. For mine, I kept it in for about 25 minutes and it was smooth and creamy. Enjoy!