Collin Goodine

Special to The Lake Report

For those of you who do not know about the paw paw fruit, this is a great recipe to introduce it to you. The recipe will require you to have an ice cream maker in your cupboard, though.

The paw paw fruit has a short growing season, from late September to late October. The fruit has a creamy texture that looks, tastes and seems tropical, but surprisingly is native to this area.

Hundreds of years ago the Indigenous people used to thrive on this fruit and the trees can still be found in heavily wooded areas throughout Niagara. In some areas, the paw paw fruit is used to make wines.

The Grimo family here in NOTL has been harvesting unique nuts, making preserves and selling rare fruits since 1973.

It is now run by Linda Grimo, who has taken over for her father who started the farm. She is big on eatable landscape and would welcome the opportunity to discuss everything she knows about the paw paw and other exciting products she has.

If you’re driving down Lakeshore Road, stop in and say hello to Linda and her passionate staff.

Ingredients:

1/2 litre 2% milk

1/2 litre 35% cream

1 tsp Vanilla extract

250 grams White sugar

10 Egg yolks

2 cups Paw paw fruit

Directions:

In a thick-bottomed pot, bring the milk, vanilla, cream and 1/2 of the sugar to a boil.

Remove from heat as soon as mixture starts to boil.

In a bowl, cream together the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar.

Add small amounts of the hot liquid to the egg yolk mixture while whisking, until 2/3 of the hot liquid is added. This is called tempering the eggs.

Return the egg yolk mixture to the cream mix still in the pot.

Return the pot to the burner on medium heat and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until it reaches 180 degrees on a candy thermometer (about 2-3 minutes).

Strain in a fine mesh strainer and cool in the fridge. This is essentially an ice cream custard mix.

When ready to make the ice cream, cut paw paw fruit in half and deseed.

Cut out the meat of the fruit and puree in a food processor.

Turn on ice cream maker, add the custard mix and the paw paw fruit.

When ice cream is ready, put into a freezer-ready container and enjoy.