Raw Mango Ice Cream, and a Cow Named Daisy
I have a life-changing raw food recipe to lay on you.
When
it comes to food, raw or cooked, I’ve come to enjoy simple recipes over
complicated ones. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll sprinkle roasted cumin and hot berbere
into my homemade hummus, then add some fresh lemon juice, and these additions
send the flavor of hummus right over the top. But mostly, I’m down with single
flavors. Like a yummy mono meal, the single notes of great flavor are more
satisfying than layers upon layers of complex flavor.
I’ve been a mango fanatic since high school, when I lived
in New York and hung around Jamaica and South Jamaica and sometimes Hollis, all
neighborhoods in the borough of Queens. There, fresh, tropical fruit abounds. The
Caribbean communities there seek their native foods. I remember the first time
I tasted a mango. I thought I’d found nirvana in my mouth.
But the best was to come. At age 19, I traveled to the
island of Jamaica, where I discovered tree-ripe mangoes still warm from the
sun. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, like the flavor and texture of such
a mango.
When we met, my husband had never tasted a mango, nor was
he interested in trying. But the man loves ice cream, so I bought him a pint of
Hagen Daz mango ice cream, and introduced him to a bowl of it. I used to eat
this ice cream before my vegan life began, and I can testify that it tastes as
close to a fresh mango as you can get without actually eating a fresh mango.
He loved it. He was hooked. Since then, mango ice cream has
been one of his favorite treats. Luckily for me, Hagen Daz also makes a rockin’
mango sorbet, which I think is even better than the ice cream. Life is great.
But I’ve been incorporating raw food into my diet in a big
way since the start of the year. (Even vegan sorbet isn’t raw.) I finally found
a recipe for a raw mango ‘ice cream’ that is out of this world. It’s super easy
to make, has only three ingredients, and tastes insanely delicious.
We own an ice cream maker, which we used to make strawberry
ice cream from the berries in our strawberry patch. This recipe will work even
if you don’t have an ice cream machine, but I think the result is better when
an ice cream machine is used.
Cube enough fresh, ripe mango to make 2 cups of cubed
mango. Add a half-cup of coconut butter (available at most health food stores,
including Whole Foods), and a half cup of agave. Blend together until smooth (I
used an electric beater), then run through your ice cream machine. Freeze until
set.
That’s it. Fresh, raw mango ice cream. It’s amazing. Try
it.
In other news, a colleague of mine who owns a farm told me
yesterday that his heifer, Gertie, gave birth to a female calf early in the
morning. He showed me a photo of the beautiful newborn, and asked people for
name suggestions.
March 5 – three days from now - marks my Daisy’s birthday.
She would have been 14 years old. Anyone who knows me knows how awful it was
when my girl suddenly died. I learned how ferocious, painful, and lasting grief
can be.
Daisy was on my mind a lot yesterday, so when my friend
asked for a name idea, I suggested Daisy, and I told him the reason why. And
guess what – the new baby has been christened ‘Daisy’! This might not seem like
much to you, but to me, it’s magic. Daisy will live a long and happy life, free
from the threat of slaughter or the fear of abuse, in the loving care of a
very, very good man and his wife.
I’m so happy today I’m glowing. This beautiful soul of a
cow will carry with her some of the light and love of my darling girl. How? I don’t
know. But it’s absolutely, transparently clear to me that everything everywhere
is connected, resonates together, knows all, loves all, and is traveling on the
same road, all making its way to heaven. Wherever that may be.
Barbie xo
