If you are thinking this is a Jamaica weather report – you are wrong. This is about a Mexican treat. In Mexico we have jamaica (Ha-MY-Ca) blossoms available at Super Chedraui (our local supermarkets) and in bins at most Mercados.

I seldom list recipes or food information as there are better Blogs that focus on food like my Global Post amigos Mexico Cooks and then there is Don Cuevas’ My Mexican Kitchen – both great sights for Mexican cooking.

Of course my longstanding amiga  Billie over at BillieBlog is also a gourmet cook with a terrific Blog interspersed with lots of recipes and cooking tips.

But those great sites withstanding I am going to give you the details of Jamaica ice because it is soooo darned good.

Last year we bought a series of videos by Rick Bayless. His PBS series Mexico One Plate at a Time has some terrific recipes as well as some great travel logs.

In a few of the series of video programs Bayless uses a small ice cream maker – several actually. He had both a Krups and a Cuisinart. We opted for the Cuisinart during our last visit to the United States.

In my Blog entry  Jamaica Sorbet in Our Future – Yum! I wrote about  acquiring the Cuisinart. Before leaving Las Vegas we prepared a batch of margarita mix in the little ice cream make to be sure it worked before hauling it home here to Mexico. A good idea because warranties of any kind will be hard to enact – but especially for something you have purchased in another country.

Truthfully we have been here for about four months and had yet to try it. We decided to take a crack at the jamaica ice recipe that inspired us to buy the thing – finally.

So we are clear jamaica  blossoms are the flowers of a Hibiscus plant. Sometimes you will see it as jamaica (hibiscus) blossoms. It is said that the darker blossoms are preferred if you have a bin where you can select the blossoms.

The recipe is:
3 cups water, 2 cups jamaica blossoms, 1 cup sugar, a third of a cup of corn syrup; and three tablespoons of lime. Simple really!

Mix this all together and simmer for about a half hour. Then let this sit for a couple of hours. After strain the blossom carcassesfrom the liquid syrup. The new frozen yogurt, sorbet and ice cream maker  has a drum that you will keep in the freezer until moments like these. Assemble the drum in the housing and pour the Jamaica liquid in the drum.

We let it run for about 35 minutes. It should nearly double in volume and lighten in color; and of course have the consistency of soft sorbet or ice cream. Transfer this into a bowl you can cover and freeze for about 2 hours (no less – be patient).

If you want to dress up the already beautiful colored desert, top with a couple mint leaves – then you will have the $6.95US  Rick Bayless  Frontera Grill version. It tastes simply divine!

On a personal note the Calypso Couple is celebrating their 20th anniversary of marital bliss. It has indeed been that. I count myself among the very lucky in the romance department.  This will be my last recipe of the year – hope you try it. Stay Tuned!