We’re in the middle of the monsoons, here in Goa. It is raining heavily and the hot summer has given way to much, much cooler days. And on particularly dark and gloomy stormy days, the howling wind and swaying coconut trees make you happy to be indoors. All perfect weather for some very hot coffee/ tea or warm soup.
What to do I do on one such day? I make ice-cream! If this seems weird thing to do, please hear me out. First of all, as far as we are concerned anytime is ice-cream time. We also happen to be lucky that where we live, even the coolest weather is never too cold for frozen dessert.
Then I discovered that July is celebrated in the U.S. as National Ice-cream Month! I have a feeling that this monthly celebration has more to do with commerce than ice-cream, but we are always ready to celebrate anything especially if it involves food that we enjoy.
So I made some pistachio gelato and then some mango gelato (how could I not?) with chocolate chips. These gelatos (call it ice-cream if you prefer), like all the others I make, are eggless. They contain no cream either, so they are probably less creamy on the tongue but easier on the waistline.
Pistachio Gelato – For this one, I used David Lebovitz‘s Pistachio Gelato recipe with slight changes. I used only half the amount of pistachios because that’s all I had, and the gelato was still pretty good. I wanted to make pistachio gelato right then and there was no way I was going about 7 km into town, in the pouring rain!
Please refer to the original recipe for David‘s gelato, tips and ingredient measurements by weight. Please also do see Heidi‘s Sweet Pistachio Butter recipe, which I adapted to make my pistachio paste for this gelato.
Mango Gelato With Chocolate Chips – I don’t know how many of you have paired chocolate with mango. I love it and feel the semi-sweet chocolate works very well with the sweetness of our Indian mangoes. I followed the same method as for the Pistachio Gelato with small changes.
Egg Free Gelato In Two Flavours : Pistachio & Mango With Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
For the Pistachio Gelato :
- 2 cups milk (3% fat) (1/2 L)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (also known as corn flour)
- 1/2 cup pistachios (without shells)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp [kewra extract](http://www.foodsubs.com/Extracts.html) or 1/2 tsp water kewra (optional)
For the Mango Gelato with Chocolate Chips :
- 2 cups milk (3% fat) (1/2 L)
- 1/4 cup sugar (adjust to sweetness of the mango)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (also known as corn flour)
- 3/4 cup mango fresh purxe9e
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powdered
- 1/2 cup chocolate semi-sweet chips
Instructions
- For the Pistachio Gelato - First make the pistachio paste~ boil some water and drop the pistachios in it. Take them out after a minute and drain well. Once they're cool to touch, just rub off the outer skin with your fingers. It should come off easily.
- Put the pistachios in your mixer/ grinder/ blender (whatever you use) and run until its as powdery as you can get it. Now add a couple of tbsp of milk (from the 2 cups on the ingredient list) and grind the pistachio to a smooth paste. Keep aside.
- Take 1/4 cup cold milk (from the same 2 cups on the ingredient list) and completely dissolve the cornstarch in it. Keep aside. Now heat the remaining milk in a pan. Add the sugar and stir well. When the milk comes to a boil, turn down the heat. Add the cornstarch-milk mixture (stir well to mix any cornstarch that would have settled in the milk) to the milk, stirring constantly, and cook till the mixture thickens slightly into a custard. This should take a couple of minutes.
- Allow this to cool to room temperature and whisk in the pistachio paste, the lemon juice, salt and the kewra extract, till smooth.
- Pour into a container (preferably metal) and freeze. Take it out of the freezer a couple of times and beat the mixture well, each time, to prevent ice crystals from forming. This recipe makes 3 big and 4 smaller servings.
- For the Mango Gelato With Chocolate Chips - If you are making your own, chop the mango into small piece and add a couple of tbsps of milk for a smooth purxe9e. Follow the same method, mentioned above, to make the milk-cornstarch custard.
- Once the milk custard mixture is cool, add the mango purxe9e, salt and cardamom and whisk till smooth. Put the gelato into a container and follw the same procedure as before, for freezing. After the final beating to break to break the ice crystals, add the chocolate chips and mix well. Freeze till time to serve. This recipe also makes 3 big and 4 smaller servings.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
i used to get gelato from this place called amore in hyderabad. they were expensive but oh so good!
Your icecreams have made me Nostalgic, it’s been almost 2 years+ that we left goa. How much I loved the place and the people. I still remember Magson’s my favorite shopping stop for my grocery. Kamat where I used to land up eating once in a month, gulabjamun Rabadi at Sherepunjab, 18June Road, bagaa my favorite beach, Brittos….Too many memories and too far away. I agree you could have Icecream anytime in Goa and we used to do that.Your icecreams look gr8 I am going to lay a hand on them shortly.Bookmarked dear.Enjoy the rains we are missing them and waiting for it to pour.
oh my….THose Gelato’s are extremely mouthwatering…I am satying away from these foods these days but you r tempting me again..a big slllurrrp to both the cups..:)
I love the pistachio galeto, looks so refreshing! mango with chocolate chip sounds wonderful!
They look fab! And the pics are really good A! Loved all of ’em!
tooooooooo good:)
lovely recipes aparna! love that mango and choc combination!
Mango and chocolate combo sounds very interesting. We looove pistachio in every way. It’s awesome to be able to indulge without feeling guilty.
Your gelato has come out very nice..with a good presentation..have bookmarked it..
Perfect eggless icecreams..Bookmarking this one too..
Drooling Aparna, in this heat this is exactly what i need. Love the flavors! I prefer gelatos as they are way lighter than the full cream ice creams. & i cannot get myself to add eggs in my ice creams.
I agree fully with Soma.Drooling over them esp the pista gelato,too great Aparna 😛 😛 😛
I should never come to your blog feeling hungry, Aparna – I don’t know where to start. Maybe with your tantalizing gelato, which would be a great treat to make indoors because we have somewhat of a monsoon season going on here in the Hudson Valley.I also can’t wait to try your rasedar recipe; that looks simply divine!
Sorry to hear about the rain. It’s so warm here that I would enjoy your Pistachio Gelato 🙂
I especially like the sounds of the pistachio gelato! I wish I had some for dessert right now!
This is perfect for those friends that can’t eat eggs! I love the addition of chocolate chips too! 😀
I love how the gelato retained the beautiful green color of the pistachios! 🙂
Used to live in Goa, Pari? All those places are still very much there, including Magsons! :)Have fun making the gelato.Thanks everyone for joining me here.You’re making me *blush*, Barbara. :)Actually, we enjoy the rains too, Helene. 🙂
its simply superb i must try this too.., on baking i tried ur swirls it came out well, only i used more sugar !!, next i am planning to make ur danish pastries !!, i even made my own tahini paste, just as you have described and it was quite nice.., thanks for recipes and encouraging words too
Lovely combo…..Gelato looks really tongue licking 🙂
Kewra? Oh, to swoon! Bet it’s divine. Lovely, Aparna.In this household, we generally churn Philadelphia-style ice cream, w/out egg. I like French custard fine, but it’s much richer and more time consuming to make.
Oh, I am so making this. First off it is scorching hot here and then I have all the ingredients including corn starch!! YAY! No I have never paired mangoes and choco chips!
That looks so professionl. Perfect for summer.
Love both the gelatos Aparna, but the pistachio one is intriguing me to bits. I fell in love with the very idea. Now to get some pistachios soon & try it! Levobitz has wonderful recipes, & you’ve chosen a beautiful one! PS…Can you send us some rain please?
delicious! drooling! nice recipe. I like the fact that it doesn t uses eggs 🙂
Aparna – it’s getting to the point where I check your blog several times a week (my reader is messed up on this temporary computer, so I just skimblog surf around..lol) OMG, pistachio and mango gelatos with chocolate chips? In this heat, I would give anything to have a bowl of each..wait, I’d take those any time of the year. You are so creative!
Pistachio is a great ice-cream flavour. It’s just so hard to get unsalted or unshelled pistachio here. Maybe I can try the salted nuts and just omit the salt in the recipe – what do you think? NOw if only I had someone who would shell them. Maybe I can bribe the kids…..
Those swirls are good aren’t they, Jayasri? So are the Danish.We prefer the Philadelphia style ice-creams too Susan, even though we do eat eggs.There’s always a foirst time, Supriya. :)Wizzy,I guess you could try using the salted variety, though I have a feeling it might still be a bit too slaty in gelatos/ ice-cream.Perhaps you could try washing the salt off and then grinding them to a paste. I also understand that pistachio is available as readymade paste (though expensive, perhaps?), which might be an option.Nothing like getting the kids to help, if you can manage that. 🙂
Thank you very much, Lisa. :)Hope your computer woes are taken care of soon.
Both the gelatos have such beautiful colors!! And both sound so interesting! Pistachio, and that too a DL recipe. What’s not to like? And mango and chocolate!! Never tried the combination, but I’m sure it must be amazing too!