Tropical fruit with star anise ice cream

By: Antony Suvalko, Leanne Kitchen
From: East
Serves: 6
Photographer: Leanne Kitchen

This recipe falls into the ‘inspired by’ category, rather than the truly authentic. No matter, as it’s delicious, light and easy to put together. A visit to any Southeast Asian country will quickly show how much ice cream is loved there. In Thailand, vendors sell fantastic home-made coconut ice cream (and sometimes mango), made with coconut milk, which is lighter and more refreshing than dairy-based ice cream. Here we’ve gone for a dairy ice cream but made with the surprisingly gorgeous flavour of star anise. The colour is amazing, too!

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1/2	rockmelon, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
3	sugar bananas, cut into 2 cm pieces
1/2	ripe, medium pineapple, peeled, eyes removed, cored and cut into bite-sized chunks
1	large, ripe mango, peeled, seeded and cut into bite-sized chunks

Lime and lemongrass syrup

Quantity	Ingredient
180g	light palm sugar, shaved
125ml	lime juice
2 1/2 tablespoons	clear rice wine
2	lemongrass stems, thinly sliced, white part only
4	kaffir lime leaves, central vein removed, thinly sliced

Star anise ice cream

Quantity	Ingredient
2	star anise
350ml	milk
500ml	pouring cream
6	egg yolks
230g	dark brown sugar

Method

For the star anise ice cream, dry-fry the star anise in a small frying pan over medium heat, shaking the pan often, for 5 minutes or until fragrant. Transfer to an electric spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan over medium heat, bring almost to a simmer then remove from the heat. Stir in the ground star anise. Using hand-held electric beaters, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, pour the milk mixture over and stir to combine well.
Return the mixture to a clean pan and stir constantly over medium–low heat until the mixture thickens enough to just coat the back of a wooden spoon – do not let the mixture get too hot or it will curdle. Remove from the heat, cool to room temperature and refrigerate until chilled. Transfer to an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (The ice cream will keep, covered in the freezer, for up to 5 days.)
For the lime and lemongrass syrup, combine all the ingredients with 125 ml water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Strain, if desired, discarding the solids.
Divide the fruit among serving bowls, spoon the syrup over and serve with the ice cream.