Brazilian Creme de Papaya

This recipe is dedicated to a very good friend of ours A. Kothare, who lived in Brazil and who we have known for more than 40 years.  Two years ago when we had taken a trip to South America, we went to Rio de Janeiro and he was supposed to meet with us Petropolis which is about 71 km from Rio de Janeiro.   Unfortunately he could not come due to health reasons, but he gave us some great suggestions every step of the way, during our entire trip to Brazil in terms of where to visit and what to eat etc. One of the things he said, you must try Creme de Papaya.

Today happens to be his birthday and I am dedicating this recipe to him. Sadly we lost him last year to  respiratory illness. Creme de papaya is a Brazilian dessert. It was a culinary fad   in Brazil in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, its popularity has diminished somewhat. t consists of papaya  blended with vanilla ice cream, Creme de cassis is usually added, but a non-alcoholic blackcurrant syrup can be substituted. It is common to blend the papaya and ice cream, then put into serving dish and pour about an ounce of creme de cassis on the top.

 Sure enough when we saw in on the dessert menu of a Churrascaria which is a steakhouse.  We don't eat meat but we tried some of the vegetarian items there and then ordered this Creme de Papaya.  Of course it was out of this world.   Today happens to be our friend's birthday and I am posting this recipe in his memory.  When we got back from our trip in Dec 2019, we had a get together at our house with all of our friends who went to South America with us and I made all the items that we tried in South America, and this was the dessert that I made and it was a hit.  Of course  I made this from the memory of what the server told us how it is made and from the memory of my palate what it tasted like and it came out perfect.   Since I did not have creme de cassis or blackcurrant syrup I topped it with homemade Grenadine syrup, recipe of this syrup I will be posting it next.

Ingredients:

• One large ripe papaya peeled, seeded and cut in to cubes.
• 16 ounces of vanilla ice cream 
• 2 table spoon of condensed milk
• Some cool whip or fresh whipped cream for topping.
  
• Cream de Cassis for drizzling before serving.  
• Mint leaves for garnish.
  

 

  Method:                                                          

• Combine Papaya cubes, ice cream and condensed milk in food processor or blender, and puree it until smooth, and creamy.
• Divide in to individual servings in bowls and drizzle with cassis liqueur. 
• However, like I mentioned earlier, I did not have this so I drizzled with home made Grenadine syrup, I will be posting this recipe next on this blog. 
• Top it with whipped cream or coolwhip.
• Garnish with mint leaf.
  
• Serve immediately
• Enjoy !!
  

 

This was   the Churrascaria,  where we had lunch at in Petropolis and as you see the last picture of the cream de papaya was all gone....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.