Easiest Dessert Ever: Pineapple Delight

Pineapple Delight

A couple of friends of mine made this for their desi dinner parties. It was always a hit at their houses. I could never get an exact recipe from either friend, but here is what I came up with to replicate what I had tried before. This is a fire-free, egg-free icebox recipe. It's an easy crowd pleasure to put out to make your dinner party/daawat dessert selection more lavish. It is light on the palate and complements richer desserts. I've served this with heavy cream cheese coconut flan before and they went so well next to each other.


Ingredients:

8 oz heavy whipping cream

16 oz sour cream

1.5 cans sweetened condensed milk

1 can crushed pineapple in syrup

1 can pineapple chunks in syrup

*if you can find mango chunks, add some

Method: Strain pineapple in syrup and pineapple chunks. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, mix, sour cream and sweetened condensed milk. Add in crushed pineapple and pineapple chunks. You can also add mango (like a cup of chunks) if it is in season. You can use frozen mango, but I find those to be a bit flavorless and fibrous. Keep aside sour cream-condensed milk pineapple mixture. Now whip your heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. Once this is done, gently fold in the pineapple mixture. Transfer into serving bowl. Refrigerate at least 4-5 hours or overnight. 

*I suppose you could add any fruit you want into this or make a fruit salad with a medley. I recommend using fruit that won't add color to the dairy ingredients, though.

Pineapple Delight served with flan de coco and fresh watermelon.

Capirotada de Cuernitos or Croissant Bread Pudding

Capirotada de cuernitos

This is a Mexican bread pudding. Traditionally a lenten dish, it exists with many variations, and here is my recipe using mini-croissants. I give it a little desi twist in a couple of ways. First, I use golden raisins or sultanas instead of dark colored raisins.  Paneer is used instead of salty cheese, but you can use queso fresco if that is what you have around. 


3/4 cup fresh paneer or queso fresco mixed with 2-3 tbs sugar, crumbled.

-To make the jarabe:
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 cone of piloncillo
1 star anise
2-3 cups water to cover
1 tsp lime juice to add when boiling
1 tbs orange marmalade to add when done
1/2 cup white sugar to add when done

Boil cinnamon, cloves, water with piloncillo for about 20 mins till
all the piloncillo is melted and the jarabe is a little thick but
still pretty liquidy.
Add in 1/2 cup sugar and orange marmalade and allow to cool.

-The bread:
8-10 mini croissants, cut in half to open up.


1 stick butter, melted

Paint croissants with butter, bake for 10 mins at 400 degrees to dry out.

-To make the pudding:
For the layering: 1/4 cups sultanas, 3/4 cups mixed nuts (pecans, pine
nuts, walnuts) 1/4 cup sweetened coconut shreds, the cheese mentioned above

In a 8/10 baking dish, place first layer of baked croissant halves. Cover
completely with half of the syrup. Add a layer of raisins, coconut,
nuts, then cheese. Add second layer of croissants. Cover with syrup. Push down 
the croissants to flatten them into the dish and make sure everything is soaking in syrup. Add second layer of garnishes. Bake uncovered at 350 for about 15 mins, taking care not to burn.

Pastel de Tres Leches or Tres Leches Cake (Halal)

In Spanish, tres means three, leches means milks. Tres leches is a cake moistened with three types of milk.

This is a common party cake in my home state of Texas, especially among Mexican-American families. I read that the origins of this cake are that it is based on traditional Latin American syrup soaked sponge cakes, but the tres leches concept was created by a canned milk company to promote their products during the 1950s. Versions of it exist all over Latin America, and some include coconut milk or alcohol. My recipe is a simple Tex-Mex version, and the tres leches or three types of milks are sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and half-and-half.

To begin, you need to bake a yellow cake from a box mix. I use Betty Crocker's Supermoist Yellow cake. Bake this according to the instructions on the box in a 9 by 13 inch glass baking pan, but add a dash of alcohol free vanilla. I use Frontier brand, and I find that it is very delicious. Allow the cake to cool completely for several hours. Then, using a fork, poke holes all over the cake.

Take note of the holes poked in the cake. Feeling stabby?

For the leches, mix together:
3 tbs plain sugar
1/8 teaspoon (pinch) cinnamon
few drops of alcohol free vanilla
1 14 oz can of evaporated milk (I use Carnation)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (I use Eagle)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
(or use 2 cups half and half, which is half cream and half milk)

Ladle this milk mixture over your sponge, ensuring that you moisten all parts of the cake. Cover cake and allow to absorb the milks overnight in the refrigerator.

The whipped cream frosting topping:
2 cups organic* heavy whipping cream
4 tbs powdered sugar
few drops alcohol free vanilla
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 tbs chopped pecans

Blend ingredients and using an electric beater, beat your whipping cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla until it forms stiff peaks. Spread this on top of your milk-soaked sponge. Garnish with the coconut and nuts. You can experiment with garnishes of fruit, cajeta, caramel, chocolate shavings, or whatever suits you.

I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but on the day I was taking these demo pics, my kids came and smashed the cake with the cake server before I had a chance to snap a picture. Mine is a very home-made, non-fancy look, though. The end result is a sweet, super moist but not soggy, delicious cake!

*I use regular heavy whipping cream in the tres leches mixture but I go for a superior tasting organic heavy whipping cream for the whipped cream frosting to achieve the best taste. Organic cream is more expensive.

Mangoes 'n Cream or Aam ka meetha

This is a recipe from my mother in-law. It is not a fancy party recipe, but just something to serve at home after a family meal.

Mangoes are so delicious by themselves when they are in season. But what do you do if you have mangoes that are from towards the end of the season or overripe, or the mangos weren't handled well during transport/export so they will never develop their full sweetness even when ripe? What if you only have frozen or canned mangoes available in your location? This is a super simple recipe that allows you to take advantage of delicious mango flavor even though the mangoes you may have aren't in their prime state of sweetness.

Just cut about 3 mangoes (+/- 2.5 cups or so) into bite sized, mushy chunks. Mush them a bit more with the back of a spoon. Whip 1 cup of regular or double cream (!) with 1/4 cup sugar. Use just a tablespoon or so sugar for canned mangoes as these have been soaking in sugar syrup. Beat well to ensure sugar dissolves. Then stir in the mangos. Transfer to a serving dish. Chill in the fridge for a few hours, then serve. The cream will thicken very slightly and you will have a sweet and creamy mango delight! You can also do this with any other juicy pulpy suitable fruit like peach or apricot.

Strained Yoghurt Delights

In desi English, strained yoghurt is called hung curd. It is another desi ingredient that you can do lots with. Use it in place of sour cream, or as a base ingredient for dips and spreads. What an amazing substance it is...and you don't have to strain yourself to make it :-P . But how ever do you make it? Start out with some yoghurt, a strainer, a dish to simultaneously hold the strainer and catch the water which separates from the yoghurt, and some kind of thin cloth. For the cloth you can use a very well worn cloth kitchen towel or even a thick, high quality paper kitchen towel, as pictured above. You just lay the cloth into the strainer, prop strainer on top of dish, and dump in some yoghurt. Place this in the fridge and let it strain for about 3 hours or overnight. Seeing the liquid accumulate beneath my strainer gives me a sense of self-satisfaction, though it is a completely effortless procedure to strain. You can make strained yoghurt with full fat or low fat yoghurt.

Now you've strained your yoghurt. What are you gonna do with it? How about...

Yummy Mint Dip


I got this idea from a lovely cooking class I attended. The instructor showed us several dip recipes for strained yoghurt, and after experimenting, I have decided to create my own.

1 cup strained yoghurt

1 heaping tbs dried mint

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp or so salt or to taste

1 tsp white vinegar

1 heaping tsp chile flakes (you can use chile powder but it will turn your dip pinkish)

1 tsp honey OR plain sugar OR Splenda

1 tbs sugar free peanut butter (crunchy or pasty is fine)

Take your garlic clove and put it in a small microwaveable bowl of water. Put in the microwave and nuke for 1 minute. Remove the garlic clove from the water and mash it into the strained yoghurt. (Microwaving the garlic reduces its strength and prevents your dip from having an overpowering raw garlic taste) Add in all of the other ingredients and mix very well. Serve as a dip for chips, celery sticks, carrot sticks, etc, or use it in place of mayonnaise on a sandwich.

Sri Khand

Sri Khand is a dessert. I usually associate it with Gujaratis, but I think these days it is widely enjoyed by people of many communities, and you can enjoy it, too because it is killer easy to make. It is silky and somehow light and rich at the same time.

2 cup strained yoghurt (make sure it is very fresh yoghurt and not sour)

2.5 tbs sugar

10 strands of saffron soaked in 1 tbs milk (just add to milk and allow to soak for a few minutes)

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

for garnish: Roasted almond slivers and pistachios, a few strands of saffron

Whip all of the ingredients into the strained yoghurt. Whip for a while to ensure that the sugar completely dissolves. Pour into a serving dish and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Before serving, garnish with the almonds and pistachios and a few more strands of saffron if you like. Dish out into small dessert bowls, or even eat it with hot puris.

In both recipes, low fat yoghurt and Splenda can be used.