a wonderful thing to do to a carrot

For a fancy dinner, I decided to make two kinds of ice cream, since a friend is bringing cake. These are good winter ice creams, as they are very very creamy and sweet and strong.

Ice cream number one: ginger. Method to the madness: chop up a whack (like, half-3/4 cup) of candied ginger, and simmer it in 2 cups rice milk along with about a cup of raw cashews. Add sugar to taste. I didn't add any because between the rice milk and the candied ginger, it was plenty sweet already. I let this simmer for about 30 or 45 minutes and then turned it off and let it cool. When it cooled, threw it in my trusty little food processor and blended it until it was smooth. Meanwhile, I thickened up a cup of soy cream with some cornstartch, say a tablespoon, and let that cool. Basically, by "let cool" I mean "do this in the morning and then come back to it in the afternoon". I folded the two together and put them in a tupperware container in my freezer. Yum.

Ice cream number two: carrot. Because if you can have carrot cake and carrot halva, you can have carrot ice cream, dammit. Method to the madness: chop up and then simmer 4 medium carrots in 1 can of coconut milk + 2 sticks cinnamon + as many green cardamoms as you feel compelled to add. I used about 8. Simmer until the carrots are about to disintegrate. Add brown sugar to taste and a pinch of salt, pick out the spices, and then put the whole thing in the blender. Add a cup (or 200 mL, depending on the size of your container) of soy cream. This will be like carrot puree, which is too thick. Thin it out a bit with soy milk until it is the consistency of pudding (I added about a cup). Now taste it again, and resist the urge to just sit there an eat it. I added a bit more cinnamon and some clove. Vanilla would also work, but I didn't want it to compete with the coconut. Alternately, black pepper, which I would have added if this particular batch were not going to go with a date cake that a friend is bringing over. Freeze. Serve with ginger ice cream (and date cake) to bewildered guests.

I don't have an ice cream maker, so I just freeze these in plastic containers, and take them out about 10 minutes before serving and either beat them up a bit with a wooden spoon or put them back through the food processor.