What to Cook with a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Chef: Lemongrass Ice Cream with Roasted Pineapple
What to Cook with a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Chef: Lemongrass Ice Cream with Roasted Pineapple
2 wowza recipes to use together or apart
I intended to share just a gloriously easy lemongrass ice cream recipe with you but something happened along the way — I invited a three-star chef over to dinner. We ended up jointly making a spectacular dessert: lemongrass ice cream with vanilla-scented roasted pineapple. You get both!
The chef is David Kinch, considered one of America’s best chefs. His restaurant, Manresa in Los Gatos, California, was on the World’s top 50 restaurant list for many years and earned Michelin 3-star status. After decades of success, David and his partners closed Manresa to concentrate on other less grueling ventures, including a bakery, Riviera-inspired pizza and pasta spot, and New Orleans restaurant.
"I’ve worked enough for two lifetimes,” David said last weekend. “Now, I can come for dinner on Saturday or Sunday, not just Mondays and Tuesdays.” For most of his cheffing career, weeknights were his weekends.
When we first became friends, he said, “There is nothing glamorous about what I do.” His knees paid the price for 40-plus years of working in kitchens.
We live in the same town, and when David comes for dinner, I serve Asian food and fun dishes that may be unfamiliar to him. We’re both curious and enjoy experimenting and learning. We learn from each other.
Last weekend I presented a fun, semi-homemade menu that included roast duck and roast pork from Uncle Quan’s Kitchen and banh beo rice pancakes from Tolan. Both are mom-and-pop operations in San Jose’s Little Saigon enclave. My pickled green cherry tomatoes were perfect with the roast meats too.
I also prepared Ever-Green Vietnamese dishes — crispy shrimp and sweet potato fritters (banh tom) and vegan young jackfruit salad (goi mit non chay), made with my vegan nuoc mam (yes, you can easily make fish sauce at home, if it’s vegan!).
David and his partner, Maisie, were tasked with bringing dessert. I told them that I had lingering lemongrass ice cream to go with their contribution.
David arrived carrying an upright, roasted whole pineapple that had been studded with five whole vanilla beans. He had no idea what my lemongrass ice cream would taste like. I had no idea what his pineapple would be like. Hours after eating, catching up, and discussing cookbook sales and publishing, we got to dessert and gathered in the kitchen to plate up.
He carved the pineapple into wedges and flambeed them with rum. I had the lemongrass ice cream at the perfect scoopable texture (hint: let it soften for about 1 hour in the fridge!). We united the warm, fragrant pineapple and cool lemongrass ice cream in a bowl for each person.
At the table, Maisie, my husband, David and I giggled at our spontaneous dessert collaboration. An executive who manages hundred of restaurants all over the country, Maisie had just attended a plant-based food conference where the food was mediocre. “If your lemongrass ice cream was served, it would have been the star.”
“I want the lemongrass ice cream recipe,” David said. I gave it to him because we’d just swapped recipes in the kitchen and at the table.
Fair deal. I roasted the pineapple this week and developed a less fussy but equally flavorful recipe. Now, I’m ready to share the ice cream and pineapple recipes with you!
Why make lemongrass ice cream and roast a pineapple?
These recipes have many virtues.
They are stunningly good, fancy-ish, and most importantly, remarkably easy.
Make them vegan or not, and as sweet as you like.
Serve them solo, together, or with other foods.
They keep very well so you can bank your efforts.
There’s no-waste cooking built into the recipes.
Use them to treat yourself and dazzle your family and friends. Below you’ll find my recipe development notes, an exclusive how-to video for the ice cream, plus the 3 recipes in text and as a downloadable PDF!
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This is a jam-packed post. Let’s gooooo!