Watermelon, Ginger & Mint Granita

I have to admit that, until I came to Singapore,  I really couldn't be bothered with watermelons. I thought they were watery with a one dimensional taste compared to other varieties such as honeydew. But now, having quaffed many a refreshing watermelon juice from hawker centers across the island I have to say that watermelon has become a favorite. I am not sure whether the watermelons in the UK are just not that fresh or ripe or whether, more likely, that the weather almost never gets hot enough to fully appreciate its cooling properties! 

This recipe came about as an after tennis cooler that doesn't undo all the good exercise karma. I have been learning to play tennis with the help of J and I actually seem to be getting better. I had always thought that my lack of hand-eye coordination meant that I could never really play racket sports, but I was wrong, yay! I loved some sports in school but have bad memories of spending more time running around trying to catch the ball that I had whacked out of the court or missed during tennis coaching, than actually hitting the ball back. This tennis experience has really opened my eyes to the possibility that just because I struggled with somethings as a kid, doesn't mean that I will always be bad at it! Take languages, I have always described myself as linguistically challenged, but what if I just need a different way of learning. I mean I have accidentally picked up a few bits and pieces of Malay (admittedly mainly in relation to food), so why not try to learn a language from scratch? So ciao for now.

Vegan Spiced Pumpkin 'Ice Cream'

I had been planning on making a dairy free pumpkin cheese cake but when it cam down to it I just plain fancied ice cream. The idea of a low guilt ice cream was one that I couldn't resist. I have tried the one ingredient banana ice cream which was doing the rounds a while back and it really is difficult to believe that it just takes some blended frozen bananas to make something so rich. The step by step instructions, with pictures, to make banana ice cream on the Kitchn.com are awesome and I recommend you have a look if you have never made one ingredient ice cream before. I took this recipe one step further and added homemade spiced pumpkin puree instead of the peanut butter that I normally add.

Vegan Strawberry & White Chocolate Ice Cream

My OH cannot eat dairy and one of the things he misses is ice cream. After eating at VeganBurg he couldn't resist trying their brown rice chocolate ice cream which he declared was divine and that it tasted just how he remembered it should. This set me to thinking about how easy it would be to create something similar at home using some of his favourite flavours. Hence this recipe came about.

You can add different flavours to the basic recipe although I think you need quite strong flavours to mask the mild beany taste from the tofu. There is vegan white chocolate out there otherwise you could make your own like bittersweet's recipe. This version is also gluten free.

If you prefer you can add less milk to this mixture and it makes a moussy/pudding which I only found out because I couldn't wait to try this before I froze it!