This weekend I got my first fresh habs from Sainsburys. Surprisingly enough they were grown in Jamaica - so doesn't that make them scotch bonnets? Funnily enough, the flesh is very mild and sweet - however, the placenta and the seeds are of neutorn bomb intensity - but, like preparing Fugu, if you were to trim carefully, one could make some acceptable rellenos out of them providing one carefully sculpted out the seeds & placenta without 'contaminating' the flesh. I know, it seems a waste to use a hab in this way, but some of us are just too wimpy to take the full force of the chile. So - I realised early on in my chile appreciation days that the chance of coordinating fresh habs and a ripe mango were slim. All mangos are sold underipe mainly, and habs are very thin on the ground here in the Uk - But this time it happened and I picked up a very ripe and fragrant mango which coincided well with the habs I found.

I used a tub of Haagen-Daaz vanilla, mixed the mango and one hab (no seeds!) with it - refroze and produced probably the most interesting ice cream I have ever tasted (except for the unroasted coffee bean ice cream I tried once). I really recommend this recipe - it is quite a gustatory experience - talk about mixed messages!