Maguni Ice Cream Recipe

By Christie Keulder

Maguni (monkey orange) ice-cream recipe

Maguni has the flavour of a very complex, tropical fruit salad and is the ideal local fruit for making frozen desserts such as ice cream, sorbet and parfait. It can also be used for tart fillings, jellies or dessert sauces. The fruit is available only during the rainy season (November to March) and can be bought along the main roads in the eastern and western Kavango and Zambezi regions. In Windhoek these fruits are sometimes available at local street markets.

The fruit has a thick skin that has to be cut open and removed to expose the inner core. The core consists of a large number of pips with flesh attached (very much like a mango, although the pips are smaller, and magunis have much less flesh). The sought-after part is the juice. So work carefully and make sure that none is wasted. Once the skin is removed, put the core into a fine sieve or china-cap strainer set over a clean bowl, then press to extract the juice. It takes some effort, but the result is well worth it. Keep going until all the juice has been extracted. The juice of up to six average magunis (depending on how ripe they are) is sufficient for making one litre of ice cream or a parfait large enough to serve six to eight people. The juice can also be frozen until needed. This basic recipe yields about 1.5 litres of maguni ice cream.

Ingredients

• 500 millilitres cream
• 250 millilitres full-cream milk
• 175 grams sugar
• 250 millilitres maguni juice (juice of about 3 to 4 medium-sized magunis)
• 4 egg yolks

Method

1. Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil.
2. Put the egg yolks and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until pale.
3. Add about one third of the warm cream and milk to the egg yolk mixture and whisk to temper the eggs. Keep whisking until combined (if you don’t whisk while adding the warm milk, the yolks will cook and scramble). Then, while whisking, add the remaining milk-and-cream mixture in two more batches. Once all the milk and cream has been incorporated, return the mixture to the pot and cook while stirring. Heat the mixture to 80°C or until the custard has thickened sufficiently to coat the back of a spoon. It will take only a few minutes, but do not stop stirring or the mixture will stick to the bottom of the pan. Do not heat the mixture to more than about 80°C or the yolks will scramble, causing the custard to taste like sweet scrambled eggs.
4. Remove the custard from the heat and add the maguni juice. Stir to combine. Once combined, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean bowl set over an ice bath. Allow the mixture to cool completely, then cover with a layer of cling plastic laid directly onto it (this prevents the development of a skin). Transfer to your refrigerator and leave overnight for the flavours to develop fully.
5. Pour the cold custard into the bowl of your ice-cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churned, spoon into a plastic, airtight container and freeze for a few hours to allow the ice cream to mature and harden.

Maguni Ice Cream. Photo ©Christie Keulder