Pi帽a colada kulfi pops
When we lived in Central California, we often weekend-tripped to San Francisco to visit friends. We had a standard list of聽must-do鈥檚: cable car rides, City Lights Books, dim sum, Burma Superstar restaurant, the California Academy of Sciences, etc鈥�. And a visit to Bombay Ice Cream.
A tiny, blink-and-you鈥檒l-miss-it storefront was where I fell in love with an ice cream suffused with the sharp, earthy scent of cardamom and the intoxicating sweetness of rose petals. This wasn鈥檛 your everyday, run-of-the-mill ice cream. It was聽kulfi. Some argue that聽kulfi聽shouldn鈥檛 be called 鈥渋ce cream鈥� because it鈥檚 thicker and denser than the Western ice cream ideal. But I suppose the word 鈥渒ulfi鈥� doesn鈥檛 elicit the same wide-eyed excitement from everyone, so Indian ice cream it is!
Anyway, in addition to traditional聽kulfi聽sold on a stick, the assortment of flavors in the case ranged from the mundane 鈥� rocky road, cookies and cream, chocolate 鈥� to the more arcane 鈥� jasmine tea, saffron-rose, date-almond and聽聽(or sapodilla, a tropical fruit)! I always hesitated when deciding flavors: Should I stick to the tried and true or pick something new? In the end, I usually resorted to multiple scoops and settled on my all-time favorite, cardamom-rose petal, and a new flavor or two. I鈥檇 leave with a smile on my face and happiness in my belly.
I just learned that Bombay Ice Cream closed down and in homage, I decided to try making kulfi at home.
I pulled all the Indian cookbooks I owned and came across two recipes. In her seminal cookbook, "Indian Cooking," Madhur Jaffrey writes that聽kulfi聽was never made at home when she was growing up in India. Instead, it was made in enormous earthernware vats by聽kulfi-wallahs聽(master kulfi makers) and served at wedding banquets. Indian wedding banquets can run into the hundreds if not thousands of people. Her recipe involved simmering milk until reduced to a third of its original amount,聽and聽stirring the custard every 15 minutes to break up the crystals while it froze.
I was about to say 鈥渇orget it鈥� when Monica Bhide鈥檚 recipe came to the rescue. With only four ingredients (including fruit, too) and easy prep (just stir!), Monica鈥檚聽kulfi聽was the clear winner.
Monica鈥檚 kulfi recipe is different (read: much simpler!) from the more traditional kulfi recipes I鈥檝e seen. No boiling down of milk, no freezer ins and outs, no thickeners. And for younger, more sensitive palates, the simple flavor 鈥� there are no spices and nuts like cardamom, saffron and pistachios 鈥� may be a plus. But do add some if you鈥檇 like.
Over the past few months, I鈥檝e been amassing a collection of recycled yogurt cups with every intention of making popsicles. The time had now come. So instead of freezing the聽kulfi聽in one big container I decided to make pops.
When I bit into a聽kulfi聽pop one scorching summer鈥檚 day, it was rich, creamy, and sweet, and everything I was hoping for.
Pi帽a colada kulfi pops
Adapted from "" by Monica Bhide
Makes: 12 (4-ounce) pops
Time: 10 minutes, plus freezing time
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1-1/2 cups Cool Whip or whipped cream
1-1/2 cups crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (not lite)
12 (4-ounce) yogurt cups
1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together until smooth and creamy and the lumps disappear.
2. Pour mixture into yogurt cups, Dixie cups or popsicle molds until 3/4 full.
3. If using molds that don鈥檛 have a built-in stick, freeze for 45 minutes and insert popsicle sticks into the center, about 1/3- to 3/4-way deep and freeze until set, at least 6 hours to overnight.
4. To unmold, run under warm water and gently squeeze pop out of the mold.
狈辞迟别蝉:听Monica used guava pulp in her original recipe. But feel free to experiment with mango, peach, or your choice of fruit pulp. You can buy frozen fruit and pur茅e聽in your blender.
Editor's note: The original headline on this piece honored July 15 as National Ice Cream Day, the original day declared by Ronald Reagan in 1984. That day has now evolved to the third Sunday in June. National Ice Cream Day will be celebrated on July 20, 2014.
