A Minty, Gingery Frozen Papaya Delight
I have eaten a lot of papayas in my life. Back home in Kerala, we had plenty of papaya trees in our backyard. They didn’t need any special care or attention; you eat a papaya, throw the seeds out into the backyard, boom.. the next season there are a bunch of new papaya plants sprouting out. During the season, mom would make a variety of dishes with green papayas and we used to eat a lot of those ripe too. I love the crunchy texture of the semi-ripe papaya, but at the same time I prefer the sweetness of the overripe ones. To combine the two, we used to cut up the ripe papayas into cubes and freeze them – crunchy sweet papaya cubes, best of both worlds!
When Papaya was picked as the fruit of the month by my hometown gal Nags of For the Cook in Me, I had grand ideas as usual… I picked up a fully ripe papaya last week without any specific recipe in mind. But it was a bad week to pick up a random perishable ingredient, we had way too many things going on last week. The only day I cooked, I had to cook up a feast, it was Siv’s birthday, and I made all his favorite items. Needless to say, I couldn’t fit a ripe papaya into any of his favorite dishes.
So, the weekend came, and I had to think of something fast to use up the poor papaya waiting for it’s destiny in my fridge. The first idea I thought of was to cut it up and freeze the cubes like we used to. But I couldn’t send that as an entry, and show my face around the foodie community, could I? So, I decided to make an infused sugar syrup to coat the papaya pieces and then freeze them… As long as I used my stove, I can get away with calling it a recipe, right?
But as fate had other plans, I had to use one more kitchen appliance along the way, increasing the authenticity of calling this a “recipe“. Instead of frozen papaya cubes as I had originally planned, I made a papaya puree, using a hand blender as my second appliance. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t wait to cool my sugar syrup completely before mixing the cubed papayas. The hot syrup on the ripe papaya cubes produced some thick juice from the papayas. The liquid tasted so good, so much better than the syrup coated papaya cubes, I decided to make the whole thing into a thick puree to totally integrate all the good stuff that went into my sugar syrup infusion. With the addition of the blender, this is a recipe for sure…
Wow, that is a long-winded introduction for a simple dish, huh? Let me get into the recipe without any further delay..
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups ripe papaya cubes
- 1 cup water
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp torn mint leaves
- 1.5 tbsp crushed ginger
- 5 cardamom pods – slightly broken
Method
In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, ginger and cardamom pods and bring to a boil. Cook to reduce the liquid down to about 1/4 of a cup, stirring occasionally. Switch off the stove, add the torn mint leaves to the liquid, mix well, and keep it closed for about 5 minutes. Pass the liquid through a fine sieve, while pressing down with the back of a heavy wooden spoon to get the juices out completely.
Combine the papaya cubes with the sugar syrup, and puree coarsely with a hand blender or in the food processor. I left a bunch of chunky pieces in mine, just because the outer part of the papaya was very firm, and wouldn’t puree with my hand blender. I was too lazy to bring the food processor out, but I thought the chunky pieces added a nice touch to the dish. Transfer to serving bowls, cover and freeze for about 2 hours to form a papaya slush. If freezing for more than three hours, thaw it to soften a bit before serving.
Sending this to Nags of For the Cook in Me who is hosting this month’s A fruit A Month event. This event is the brainchild of Maheswari of Beyond the Usual.
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Whoa lady! This looks delicious!
I’m not a ripe papaya fan by any means, but I’ve read this recipe thrice already! Ok, I’m definitely trying this one out. Unbelievable
I have those dizzy cocktail glasses too
thank you so much for your beautiful entry
rock on sig!
lol sig… u crack me up… the end result is so good. i feel like having this even when the temp here is in -ve degrees
Yes):
Hey Sig..lovely shot…looks great
I’d loove to have this anytime…ripe papayas are one of my favourites.
Sig!! Amazing!!! Love the picture!! its looks perfect and your frozen papaya delight looks so vibrant!!
papayas not my food
No): adore your presentation and the writing 
Sig, looks absolutely lovely, but not for me. I am not a papaya fan
Looks delicious. I love ripe papaya but never made a drink from it. And anyway i checked the shops here don’t have any papayas not at this time of the year.
yummy drink…great pic and lovely glasses…boy! am i seething here
..and where is my entry maam…
lovely shot
the drink sounds d-lish with all those yum spices & herbs, a must try.
can never get a good papaya where i live!!!
i’ve grown up eating papaya for brkfast, my parents still hv it, while the dotr has graduated to some boxed cereal
hmm … have never been a fan of ripe papaya in anything tho’ I love it by itself … am waiting for the round-up
Love the glasses!
Hey, Sig, aren’t sending this to click for this month’s theme – liquid delights..
Love the drink. 
Flower):
I know what you mean with a boom of papaya plants. We had the same thing going at home and my dad would have papaya everyday… maybe because they were so readily available, i never cared for them. But the flavours going into this drink sounds great!
Oh !!! Thats why i see papaya recipeson all blogs
. Just wondered why everyone is amzingly cooking with papaya 
) , so the reason behind that is AFAM.
.
good choice though , and yours is a perfect entry fo that event too !
thanks for sharing Sig
Not a fan papaya, but I love those glasses
What? No Alcohol?
:(
I know I already told you this but your blog looks very stylish and professional now. Love it!
Hee…no booze in it Sig?? Are u sure u didn’t sneak in some
?
Love the picture Sig. How did you make the second glass black and white? It looks gorgeous….
This is a joint effort by Sig and me, Nags…
Sig… you should have just added my name na.
Looks delish
Oooh yeah! My queen of drinks and desserts. This would go in for both. I’ll one for dessert and one to drink please and also a few for in between!
Nice! I remember papayas from childhood too, but from Mysore.
Great drink …new to me …this does need a try girl!!
Hey, you’ve been tagged…do hv a look at my blog!!
frozen papaya very nice recipe sig pic looks beautiful
Oh wow, this has got to be the best papaya drink I’ve come across, looks awesome Sig..love it!!
ooh, I’ll have one please.
This looks so delicious and Papaya had lotsa health benefits, either raw or the fruit itself. Didi u ever tried to rub some papaya fruit pulp on your face, it give a natural glow to our skin, juz rub the pulp and massage with it for few mins and let it dry, rinse with cold water and check the difference…
huh! am not a papaya fan
..What kind of mallu falls into that category??? 
no..u can’t outsource soy
…waiting for ur entry sweetie :nerd: ha ha!!
Mmmuah!
..Surprisingly this girl wonder can even turn papayas to mocktail!!!Cheers!!!
the cocktail lady back into action!
:nerd: …pls read it as… Surprisingly this wonder girl can even turn papayas to mocktail..
Martini):
..OOPS!!…Belated birthday Greetings to SIV..How come I dont see any greetings up?? :sealed:
Hey Sig, that’s so totally refreshing! We still have papaya trees back home, always fun to have home grown, fresh papayas
and i love your idea of freezing papaya cubes too 
OMG!!!! it looks heavenly!!! And you can never go wrong with the pic…. It looks gr8!
Yes):
I stand in awe of my body.