First, I just have to say that Blue Bunny ice cream is delicious and versatile.  Their website has so many good recipes with instructional videos on it.  Their recipe for Chicken Curry Salad is no exception.  I wouldn’t have thought to use vanilla ice cream in my chicken salad, but this sounds so good:

“This spicy and sweet chicken salad starts with a creamy base of softened BLUE BUNNY® French Vanilla Ice Cream, mayonnaise and curry powder surrounding tender cubes of chicken breast, raisins and diced apples.”
I’m beginning to have doubts about writing this entry before lunch and without any Blue Bunny ice cream in sight…

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz. BLUE BUNNY® French Vanilla Ice Cream, softened
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
1/2 tbsp. curry powder
8 oz. cooked chicken breast
2 oz. raisins
2 oz. diced apples

PREPARATION:
Mix the ice cream and mayonnaise with the curry powder. Fold in the chicken, raisins, and apples. Use in a sandwich wrap with sliced tomatoes, lettuce or other toppings as desired, or serve as a salad.

Here’s the video:

Curried Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream

2 cans of coconut milk
2/3 cup cocoa powder
6 tbsp sugar (more if desired — taste it before putting it in the ice cream maker!)
2 tbsp hot yellow curry powder
toasted coconut (optional)

Mix all ingredients well and put in the ice cream maker.  Mmmmm.

So simple.  So yummy.  Let me know what you think.

They use a lot of curry in southeast Asia and it’s not surprising it has a lot of great health benefits. Most curry powders contain tumeric, which has a multitude of medicinal properties.  So, why not put curry in your desserts?

Coconut-Curry Sorbet*  (courtesy of Ulterior Epicure)

Ingredients
2 cans of coconut milk
2/3 cup sugar
4 cups light corn syrup
2 tablespoon of curry powder, or to taste, recipe follows
2 teaspoons salt

Method:

1. Heat the first three ingredients in a non-reactive pot over medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved.

2. While the mixture is still warm, stir in the curry powder in increments until it reaches the desired taste.  Make sure that the curry is evenly distributed.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. Chill the base overnight (preferably) or at least 3 to 4 hours.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  When the ice cream is near-frozen, add in the 2 teaspoons of salt.  Transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least 1 hour before serving.

*Ulterior Epicure had a great paragraph distinguishing between ice cream and sorbet: Althought it’s a sorbet, it was the creamiest and richest of the five tastings.  Ice cream, by it’s very definition, must contain cream.  There are ice milks, and even sherbet, which is dairy + fruit.  And, then there’s sorbet – non-dairy liquid mixed with other ingredients, most commonly fruits. Coconut “milk”, although as creamy (in fact often higher in saturated fat content than cream) as dairy cream, is plant-derived.  Therefore, in frozen form, coconut “milk” cannot be ice cream, but rather “sorbet.”

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I’ve eaten curries from my favorite Thai restaurant, too.  But my favorite thing to get from them is thai iced tea.  It’s so delicious.  A few years ago I found a website that sold that type of tea in bulk and I snagged a few pounds so I could make it at home.  I was so happy to find a thai tea ice cream recipe the other day.  Here it is:

Thai Tea Ice Cream

Steep tea in hot milk for at least 20 minutes:

• 1 1/2c whole milk
• 1/2c Thai tea (the dry stuff)

Mix together:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1c sugar

Stir constantly over heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon:

• 1 1/2c cream
• Strained tea/milk from above
• yolk and sugar from above

Strain again if necessary. Chill. Then do the ice cream thing.  (Source: pancake.org)