RECIPE - Watermelon and Guava Sundae (Sundae de Goiaba e Melancia)

To honor the victorious Brazilian team, who brought home two first-place trophies from the recent Ice Cream World Cup in Rimini, Italy, here is a easy-to-make Brazilian recipe for a composed ice cream dessert - what we (and the Brazilians) call a sundae.

A sundae is a dish of ice cream (usually but not always vanilla-flavored) topped with one or more sweet sauces and possibly finished off with nuts, chocolate sprinkles, small candies or other treats. The word sundae, most dictionaries agree, is a variant spelling of Sunday, but exactly how the name came to be applied to a dessert and why the spelling was changed seems to be an unsolvable conundrum among linguists and etymology nerds.

This dish adds chopped fresh guava to the basic sundae ingredients, and layers the dish like a parfait. The sauce is a fresh watermelon coulis, laced with the strong flavor of fresh ginger. The resulting sundae is tropical, vibrantly-flavored and light - well-suited to Brazil's tropical climate. The only ingredient that might be difficult to source outside Brazil is fresh guava, but in areas where there is a Latin-American or Asian community ethnics markets often sell fresh guavas. Try to choose guavas that yield just slightly to the touch - if they don't give at all, the fruit isn't yet ripe, and if they are very soft, it's a sure sign of spoilage.
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RECIPE - Watermelon and Guava Sundae (Sundae de Goiaba e Melancia)
Makes 6 sundaes

1 cup chopped and de-seeded watermelon
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (use rasp-type grater for best results)
3 Tbsp potato starch
4 Tbsp granulated white sugar
5/6 guavas, peeled and cubed
good-quality vanilla ice cream
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Use a blender or food processor to liquidize the watermelon. Transfer the watermelon puree to a medium saucepan, add the ginger, potato starch and sugar, stir thoroughly to mix, then heat over medium-high heat. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce is hot and has thickened. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Using transparent parfait or sundae glasses, fill each about halfway up with guava cubes. Add one or two scoops of ice-cream, then top with a few spoonfuls of watermelon sauce. Garnish, if desired, with a small wedge of watermelon with peel and serve immediately.

Recipe translated and adapted from Gastronomia & Negocios UOL