Asian-spiced Valrhona Chocolate Sauce with Seasonal Fruits served with Handmade Green-tea Mint Ice Cream

Charlie Smith/Lauren Freeman

Chef Makoto Tokuyama, co-owner of Cocoro restaurant, has a talent for artfully blending the best of Japanese gastronomy with the finest locally sourced and unmistakably New Zealand ingredients. The results are sublime. As regulars of chef Tokuyama’s elegant, multi-award-winning dining room, Simply You Living has asked him to create, exclusively for us, a feast we could prepare for family and friends.

Green-tea Mint Ice Cream

60 g	White sugar
240 ml	Cream
160 ml	Milk
55 g	Eggs, yolk only
¼	Vanilla pods
6 g	Matcha (green tea) powder
6 g	Mint leaves, chopped

Valrhona Chocolate Sauce

4 servings	Mixed fruit, seasonal, of your choice (Main)
60 g	Valrhona chocolate, Caralbe 66% (Main)
30 ml	Cream
15 ml	Milk
1 pinch	Orange peel, dried
1 pinch	Cinnamon, dried
1 pinch	Ginger, dried

Directions

Ice Cream

1. Beat egg yolk in hot water bath. Add 20g of white sugar and mix well.
2. Pour cream, milk, remaining sugar and vanilla pod into a pot. Heat and mix well until vanilla flavour moves to the liquid.
3. Slowly pour cream mixture into egg mixture. Mix. Pour into a saucepan followed by refined green-tea powder and chopped mint leaf.
4. Heat until the egg causes mixture to thicken a bit. Strain mixture, cool, then place in the freezer.
5. Once frozen, beat in a food processor or blender to make it creamy. Freeze again before serving.

Chocolate Sauce with Fruits

1. Dissolve chocolate in hot water bath. Put cream, milk, orange peel, ginger and cinnamon into a saucepan. Heat on low until the spices' fragrances move to the cream and milk. Set aside to cool.
2. Strain. Pour strained mixture into melted chocolate little by little and mix well.