Creme de Papaia

The São Paulo restaurant pudding of ripe mamão blended with vanilla ice cream and flooded with crème de cassis

Origin: São Paulo & South-East Brazil

From the journey of Papaya.

Brazil calls the papaya mamão, from mama, for the shape of the fruit, and papaia for one particular kind of it. The market distinguishes two: the long heavy formosa, named for the Taiwanese breeding line it comes from, sold by the slice and eaten at breakfast; and the small round papaia, also called havaí, which is a Solo type from Hawaii and is eaten whole by one person. Espírito Santo and the far south of Bahia grow most of it, and Brazil is among the handful of countries that dominate world production. Creme de papaia is much younger than any of that. It appears in the late 1980s, becomes a fashion in São Paulo restaurants through the 1990s, and settles into the permanent dessert list of every churrascaria in the country and most of the ones abroad. Nobody knows who made the first one. The story told in kitchens is that a cook had too many papayas going soft and put them in the blender with ice cream, which is plausible enough to be true and thin enough that it should be treated as kitchen folklore rather than history. The dish itself is two ingredients and one gesture. Ripe papaya and vanilla ice cream are blended to a pale pouring cream, and then a measure of crème de cassis is poured over the top at the table so that the blackcurrant bleeds down through it. The liqueur is not optional. Papaya is sweet without much acidity, and the cassis supplies the sharpness the fruit lacks.

Ingredients

Cream

  • 600 g ripe papaya (mamão), peeled, seeded, and cubed
  • 500 ml good vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
  • 1 tbsp lime juice

To Serve

  • 60 ml crème de cassis

Method

  1. Chill four glasses or shallow bowls in the freezer while you work.
  2. Blend the papaya with the lime juice until completely smooth.
  3. Add the softened ice cream and blend in short bursts only until combined.
  4. Divide between the cold glasses and pour a tablespoon of crème de cassis over each at the table, so that it runs down through the cream.

Notes

Make it to order. It separates within about twenty minutes and cannot be held in the refrigerator. Without alcohol, blackcurrant cordial reduced by half gives the same sharp counterweight.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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