In the past, my family only grew one rice crop a year. After harvesting the rice, on sunny days, the fields were bare stubble, and on the banks were rows of green bananas. Every year when the rice crop failed, my mother made banana ice cream to sell to earn extra money for us to go to school.

Banana ice cream is a favorite food of children.

Every few days, my mother rowed a boat out to the fields, looked up at the banana rows, and when she saw a bunch of bananas that were just ripe, she skillfully used a knife to cut the tree in half, causing the tree to fall down, cut the bunch of bananas, and gently placed them in the boat. Then she separated each bunch of bananas and put them in a bamboo basket with a layer of dry banana leaves underneath and covered them with another layer of dry banana leaves on top to help the bananas ripen quickly. When the bananas were evenly golden brown, she took them out to make banana ice cream.

Peel the dry coconut, clean the shell, use the wave of a knife to hit the coconut shell hard to break it into two equal parts, breaking the coconut shell is also an art, my mother usually takes care of this task, she said if you hit the coconut shell incorrectly, it will be difficult to scrape. The coconut scraper was made of wood by my father, choosing branches or roots that have a lying shape, then peeling and carving them to make them shiny, the coconut scraper is like a 2-legged wooden horse with an iron sawtooth blade. When scraping the coconut, you have to rotate the coconut piece evenly, not letting it hit the coconut shell and the coconut meat not splash out, slowly taking out all the coconut meat. To squeeze the coconut milk, my mother used warm water, because warm water is the only way to squeeze out all the coconut fat essence.

On the blazing wood stove, my mother put a pot of coconut milk mixed with a little tapioca starch and sugar. When the coconut milk boiled, she used a spoon to stir it evenly until the coconut milk mixed with the flour and thickened, then removed it from the heat and let it cool. The peanuts were roasted until golden and crispy. My sisters and I were responsible for peeling the peanut shells. Four heads put their heads together, curled their lips and blew, the peanut shells flew out, leaving the beans in the pan. When we looked at each other, our hands, faces, and hair were all covered with peanut shells, and no one could help but laugh…

Peel the bananas, cut the large ones in half, leave the small ones whole, and put them in a plastic bag. Place the bananas between two cutting boards, press hard to flatten and thin the bananas. Scoop the cooled coconut milk mixture and spread it evenly over the bananas, sprinkle some crushed peanuts, flip the bananas over and do the same, use your hands to gently press the coconut milk to cover the bananas evenly, fold the plastic bag tightly. Continue with the remaining bananas evenly until all the bananas are gone, the final step is to put the ice layer, the salt layer, and the banana ice cream pieces into the styrofoam box, and close the lid.

The hardest part was shaking the banana ice cream bucket, shaking hard and steadily so that the ice cream would solidify quickly enough for mom to sell at noon. My sisters and I also helped mom, when one of us got tired, the other would take over, but in the end it was still mom, sweat soaked her shirt.

Opening the ice cream box, the cold air blew into my face. Peeling off the banana ice cream, removing the plastic wrap, biting into the cool ice cream, the sweetness of the banana, the richness of the coconut milk, the crunchiness of the roasted peanuts mixed together… made me exclaim. Che Hai’s head hurt so much, I told my mother to sell it, I could eat it in the afternoon.

Mom carried the banana ice cream box to her skinny arm in the sun. Mom said ice cream can only be sold on sunny days. On rainy days, Mom's cry was sad, lost in the distant rain...

With modern technology, you can put the banana ice cream in the refrigerator for a few hours to get a thick, cool banana ice cream, or just click the mouse or pick up the phone and call the staff to deliver it to your home. You don't have to sit and shake it until your hands are sore and your shirt is drenched in sweat to get a piece of soft, fragrant banana ice cream.

“Mom, eat banana ice cream,” my child’s voice brought me back to reality. Taking a bite of the banana ice cream was cool, sweet, fatty, and crunchy, but I still found it not as delicious as my mother’s “banana shake”./.

Bao Han

Source: https://baocamau.vn/thuong-hoai-kem-chuoi-lac--a182.html