ArtSpace Someone’s in the Kitchen – Palate Cleanser of Passion Fruit/Mango Nectar with Coconut Cream “Dry Ice Cream”

This was one of those courses that I knew I wanted to do but was not sure of the execution let alone find all the ingredients. It is meant to clear the palate after the strong tastes of the previous course and prepare it for the next course without leaving any lingering flavors.

In the past two years I was able to find passion fruit nectar at a local store that usually sells “hard to find” ingredients in this area and in this area most stuff is “hard to find”, but lately it is nowhere to be found. We traveled to Dallas the weekend before the dinner to source some of the “hard to find” and “better quality” ingredients for the meal. I was pretty confident I would find everything I needed with the selection of all the gourmet and ethnic stores in the area. Dallas is about a 3 hour trip from here and we probably spend at least three hours driving around  Dallas and the surrounding cities visiting the different stores. To say the Dallas area is spread out is an understatement.

The inspiration for this dessert came from past recipes in working with passionfruit  and how it can act as a palate cleanser. The idea for the “dry” ice cream came from a book called Coco. They used different ingredients but the concept was similar.

I was hoping I would be able to find Passion Fruit Nectar in Dallas at one of the ethnic markets, Whole Foods or Central Market (which kicks Whole Foods butt) but the only thing I was able to find was a passionfruit/mango nectar at an Asian Supermarket called Super H. Super H is like an Asian Wal Mart, I forget how I heard about it but I am pretty sure it was on the E-Gullet Forums. It is located in Denton which is north of Dallas right off one of the major freeways that circle the area. They always have a nice selection of fresh seafood and prepared foods as well as an interesting selection of produce. The nectar was in 12 oz cans so I bought like 15 of them.

The preparation was just making a basic gelee, letting it set, then cutting with a small cookie cutter to about the size of a scallop. The “dry Ice Cream”  was an equal mixture of Coconut Cream Powder, Powdered Sugar and Tapioca Maltodextrin.

I was hesitant about this dish working out but luckily it worked exactly how I thought it would.