Cooking in
British Columbia
Thai
Coconut Ice Cream (I Tim Kati)
A Thai street dessert — coconut milk churned to a creamy, dense ice cream, served in a hollowed half-coconut shell or cone, with toppings of roasted peanuts, sweet corn, taro, and sticky rice. Thai coconut ice cream's distinction from Western coconut-flavoured ice cream is in its simplicity and its fat source: the cream used is coconut cream and milk without dairy, and the result has a lightness and a clean coconut flavour — uncluttered by the dairy fat that makes Western ice cream rich. Thompson identifies it in *Thai Street Food* as the preparation that most completely captures the Thai street food philosophy: a single, pure ingredient expressed through correct technique.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
400 ml
Coconut cream
full-fat
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 ml
Coconut milk
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri LankaJeya Brothers · Vancouver →
80 g
Palm sugar
dissolved in a small quantity of warm coconut milk
1 generous pinch
Salt
Your own market
2–3
Pandan leaves
briefly blended with the coconut cream, then strained
To serve
2
Fresh coconut halves
hollowed, to serve as shells; or use cones
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri LankaJeya Brothers · Vancouver →
30 g
Roasted peanuts
whole or roughly crushed
Your own market
50 g
Sweet corn kernels
cooked
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
50 g
50 g
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Dissolve the palm sugar in a small quantity of gently warmed coconut milk, stirring until no granules remain, so that the sugar disperses evenly through the base rather than settling in pockets that would make the finished ice cream unevenly sweet. Combine with the remaining coconut cream and coconut milk in a saucepan and warm over low heat — the mixture should be steaming but never approaching a simmer, because a hard simmer drives off the delicate top notes of the coconut and leaves a flat, cooked flavour. Add the salt and stir; the surface should be glossy and uniform.
From the canon — Palm sugar — made from the sap of the palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) or coconut palm — is the primary sweetener of the Thai kitchen and one of the most … Palm Sugar (Nam Tan Pip): Selection and Use →
2
Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool completely to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly cold throughout, so that when it meets the pandan leaves in the blender the fragrance is captured rather than volatilised by residual heat. A cold base also churns faster and produces a finer, smoother texture.
From the canon — Pandanus amaryllifolius — the pandan leaf (bai toey in Thai) — is the most widely used aromatic leaf in Southeast Asian desserts and savoury cooking. Pandan (Bai Toey): Aromatic Leaf in Thai Cooking →
3
Place the pandan leaves and the cold coconut mixture into a blender and process briefly — no more than a few short pulses — to release the leaves' fragrance without reducing them to fibre, which would leave a grassy bitterness in the finished ice cream. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing lightly; the liquid should carry a pale green tint and a clean floral fragrance that distinguishes Thai coconut ice cream from the merely coconut-flavoured.
4
Churn the strained base in an ice cream machine according to the machine's capacity until thick and creamy; the churning folds in air continuously so the freezing water forms countless tiny crystals rather than large ones, giving a smooth, dense result rather than an icy one. Alternatively, pour into a shallow tray and freeze, stirring and scraping thoroughly every 30 minutes for three cycles to break up the crystals as they form. The finished texture should hold its shape on a spoon — neither icy nor loose.
5
Transfer to a sealed container and freeze until firm enough to scoop cleanly. Serve in the fresh coconut half-shells or cones, accompanied by roasted peanuts, sweet corn, taro, and sticky rice; the ice cream should taste clean and purely of coconut and pandan — uncluttered.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Freshly pressed coconut cream from a cracked mature coconut; palm sugar from a single-origin block, shaved to order; pandan leaves cut the same day.
02
Estate — High-fat canned coconut cream (no emulsifiers or stabilisers in the ingredient list); block palm sugar; fresh pandan from an Asian grocer.
03
Market — Standard full-fat canned coconut cream and coconut milk; granulated palm sugar; fresh or frozen pandan leaves.
04
House — Full-fat canned coconut cream; light brown sugar as a substitute for palm sugar (flavour will be less complex); dried pandan, used sparingly.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Smell. After blending with pandan, the base carries a clean, floral, faintly nutty fragrance — the same aromatic register as freshly steamed jasmine rice.
◇Sight. The strained base holds a very faint green tint; the dissolved sugar leaves no visible granules and the surface is uniformly glossy.
◇Touch. The churned ice cream is dense and soft enough to yield to a spoon without shattering, yet holds its shape when scooped.
◇Taste. The finished ice cream is clean and sweet with a rounded coconut flavour; the salt prevents flatness without being detectable as salt.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pandan infusion, blended briefly and strained, cannot be omitted or extended: it is the aromatic signature that separates this preparation from a plain coconut sorbet, and over-blending reduces it to bitterness.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley Riesling
Ancient Lakes Vineyard — Cave B · Ancient Lakes
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
From British Columbia
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Without alcohol
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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The working kitchen
Sourced through Provenance