Dragon fruit and an angelic dessert | a dessert with dragon fruit and coconut cream



 And this angel of a dessert is refreshing to the core...

I don't know who named this wonderful fruit a Dragon. It's angelic to me. Such a bright fresh color and no barbs or stones to encounter. Pun intended :-)

May be the dragon is an auspicious creature in some parts of the world. Especially those where this fruit grows and flourishes. And is valued. Not just for the beauty, for nutritional qualities too.

Normally I don't buy or eat any imported fruits but his one somehow captures my attention whenever I visit INA market. Till I go choose a heavy fruit and get it weighed and it gets paid.

Heavily. It is one of those exorbitantly priced fruits, reserved for some special occasions. Or if you want to make a seemingly boring working weekend special. Yes I made three wonderful desserts with just one fruit. This long weekend was not that boring in the end.


Okay it was for just the two of us. And this fruit weighed 600 gm.

While buying the fruit take care to feel the skin. It should be firm, bright and tout. When pressed it should give in a little bit. Like a ripe mango. I wish the brightly colored skin was edible too. Such bright pigments going to waste bin is not a good idea.


The white flesh makes up for it. No stone in the fruit means more flesh and all those tiny black seeds are a refreshing soft crunch.

The skin peels off like a charm. Just halve the fruit and hold the half in one hand and pull off the skin like you peel a banana or a mango slice. The white blob is yours' to devour.


Chop it in cubes, mash it or liquidise.

The flavor of the fruit will be there even with a overpowering dose of coconut cream. Although this fruit is quite bland but the flavor is unmistakable when it is there in a dessert.

This dessert has quite a lot of it.

ingredients....
(2 servings)

Dragon fruit cubes 1/2 cup
mashed pulp of Dragon fruit 1/2 cup
Coconut milk/cream 1/2 cup (from a carton or freshly made if you can)
I use a 25 gm packet of Coconut milk powder dissolved in 100 ml warm water or thick coconut cream
sugar 2 tsp
6-7 black grapes + 1/2 tsp of sugar for the garnish (optional)

procedure...


Cut the grapes, sprinkle sugar and microwave for a minute till the juices ooze out and get syrupy. The syrup thus made is used in my dessert. You can blend the cooked grapes, and use the thicker jelly for garnish. In that case you would like to use more grapes too.

Prepare the coconut milk/cream if you are making it fresh, or dissolve the CM powder if you are like me. Using a thick milk/cream(as used here) or only the cream will result in different textures in this dessert.

Mash half cup of the dragon fruit like you would mash a banana using a fork.


And pour the half coconut milk/cream into the mashed fruit pulp. Add in the sugar too. Mix well to dissolve.

This bowl of mashed fruit and coconut milk mixture would go into the freezer, including the fork.

Every 30 minutes or so the pulp will be mashed again as the ice starts setting in. Making it into a sorbet kind of texture.


The cubes and leftover coconut milk/cream would go into the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours.

At the time of assembly, scoop out the frozen pulp into serving bowls or glasses, arrange the cubes over it and pour chilled coconut milk/cream to fill the bowls or glasses.

The black grapes syrup or coulis can be dripped over the top for a flash of color. Or even as a thicker layer if you want those flavors to be there. You would like a thicker coulis made in that case.


Mine is runny and trickles down the frozen sorbet and the coconut cream, passing between the cubes of the fruit. There is no apparent taste of the black grapes here.

Go ahead and add a dollop of a thicker jelly like black grapes coulis if you want another dimension into this dessert. It would be a good decision if you have to woo an audience :-)


Dragon fruit is anyways capable of doing that. With coconut cream it becomes something you would like to repeat again and again. Especially if there is no cooking to be done and there is not much sugar going into a dessert.

Just take care to serve it chilled.

Blessed by an angel !!!

Comments

  1. Wow ! What a lovely dessert ! Have never seen this fruit before ! Will look around for it. I wonder if it hs a vernacular name ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Suranga.
      The fruit is not Indian so we don't have an Indian name for it.
      It's called Pitaya in some countries.

      Delete
  2. wow... such a healthy dessert with beautiful colors. i had brought dragon fruit sometime back and this was the first time i had it. it was sweet with flavors i had never had before.... amazing..

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