Caramelized Pineapple with Chilli and Sweet Coconut Broth

23/01/201323/05/2014 Moya13 Comments

Easing myself into the new year with this light and refreshing dessert for this months blog hop themed Tropical Paradise, hosted by Nic from Dining with a Stud. I love tropical flavours and the combination of fresh pineapple and coconut is a favourite. Our weather is not very tropical at the moment but blasting the fruit with some heat from a kitchen blowtorch and adding a little fresh chilli to a coconut based broth gives this dessert a touch of tropical paradise.

The kitchen blowtorch is a very handy tool to have and I mostly use it for adding a thin crisp caramel coating to crème brûlées, browning some meats and fish, adding a touch of colour to meringue toppings, marshmallows and gratins! Also a great tool for lighting candles and if you are into food styling for photography then a kitchen blowtorch will come in useful!

Using the kitchen blowtorch to add a quick glaze of caramel over fruit and intensify its flavour couldn’t be simpler, especially when preparing a small amount. If I was entertaining a larger crowd I would use the grill. As coconut sugar is quite solid a looser sugar like muscavado is used for sprinkling over the pineapple before caramelizing. The sweet coconut broth can be made ahead and chilled but best to caramelize the pineapple before serving. If you are not a fan of pineapple, replace with bananas, which will be just as delicious!

Caramelized Pineapple with Chilli and Sweet Coconut Broth

Ingredients:

400ml coconut cream
1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
2 kaffir lime leaves
zest and juice of 1 lime
50g coconut sugar
1 ripe pineapple, cut lengthways into quarters, core and skin removed
muscavado sugar, for caramelizing
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and very finely chopped

How to make: Place the coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir leaf, zest and juice of lime and coconut sugar into a saucepan. Gently bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Turn down the heat and gently simmer for about five minutes. Remove from heat and cover the saucepan with a lid and leave the broth to infuse and cool completely. Discard the lemongrass and kaffir leaf.

Pat dry the pineapple with some kitchen paper. Sieve a light layer of brown sugar over the pineapple. Use the blow torch in a sweeping motion over the sugared pineapple to caramelize. Cut the pineapple into desired sized chunks and thread onto a wooden skewer.

Divide the broth into small bowls and scatter over a little fresh chilli, place the caramelized pineapple skewers over the bowl, serve immediately! Serves 4 to 6.

This post is part of the Sweet Australian Blog Hop, head over to Nic’s blog Dining with a Stud to see all the other delicious Tropical Paradise entries!

desserts · food + drink

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

30/12/201228/12/2016 Moya16 Comments

Using left over Christmas pudding to make an easy pudding ice cream is a refreshing alternative and makes a delicious festive dessert. Anytime I’ve served this dessert its gone down a treat. Buying a good quality ice cream saves time with preparation but you could also make your own using this recipe, omit the Kahlua and replace the pumpkin with Christmas pudding. Use individual pudding moulds for dinner parties or, use a large pudding mould for informal gatherings.

The new year is around the corner so I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2013 and hope it’s filled with health, happiness, lots of good times with friends and family and of course… delicious food!

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 liter of good quality vanilla ice cream, softened
175g Christmas pudding, chopped
1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

for decoration

silver degrees
icing sugar

How to make: Before you start; chill the Christmas pudding (if not already in the fridge), bowls and utensils! Line individual pudding moulds (or large mould) with some cling-film, over lapping at the edges.

Place the ice cream, christmas pudding and nutmeg into a bowl and quickly mix until combined. Spoon into 6 (150ml) pudding moulds, cover with cling-film and place into the freezer for a couple of hours before serving.

To serve, turn out the christmas pudding ice-cream onto plates and remove the cling-film. Decorate with degrees and dust with some icing sugar, if desired.

This dessert can be made a couple of days in advance, before serving you might want to leave the dessert in the fridge for about 10 to 20 minutes (depending on size) to soften.

This post is part of the December photography challenge by Simone from Junglefrog Cooking, who is also hosting the Monthly Mingle from What’s for Lunch Honey by Meeta Wolff!

desserts · food + drink · posts

Sweet Date and Coconut Sauce

21/09/201221/09/2012 Moya9 Comments

Everyone gets their own little cup for dunking some fresh fruit into this easy dessert sauce, made from date syrup, fresh coconut cream, flavoured with pandan leaf and vanilla! A sweet exotic sauce inspired by the cuisine of Bali, which use palm sugar, coconut and pandan leaf in many of their sweet and savoury dishes! Attending a cooking class some years back at Bumbu Bali and the many times we dinned at the restaurant gave me a deeper understanding of how authentic Balinese food is prepared and cooked using many wonderful aromatic spices!

Popular in the middle east where there is an abundance of date palms, date syrup is sweet without being overly cloying and can be used to replace other molasses wherever treacle and syrups are traditionally used… delicious drizzled over pancakes and waffles!

Brands of tinned coconut cream vary, some containing lots of additives, do check the label and buy the best quality you can find! If you are lucky enough to have a supermarket that grates fresh coconut (Lulu in Bahrain, saving you the trouble), why not make your own fresh coconut cream… which I will post with another recipe!

Infusing date syrup and coconut cream with pandan leaf releases its earthy fragrance (which needs heat or bruising), adding a subtle unique grassy flavour to this sweet sauce!

A sweet sauce that is easily adaptable by infusing the sauce with other spices, like star anise or cinnamon. Replace the coconut cream with fresh cream or simply serve this sweet sauce drizzled over some vanilla or mango ice cream for another quick dessert!

Sweet Date and Coconut Sauce with Fresh Fruit

Ingredients:

125g date syrup
300g coconut cream
1 pandan leaf (screwpine), tied in a knot
pinch of sea salt
2 teaspoons rice flour or cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (home-made) or store bought
for garnish, freshly grated coconut ( or moisten dried coconut with a little coconut cream)
for serving, fresh pineapple, banana and apple, cut into cubes (squeeze a little lemon juice over the cut fruit to keep its colour)

How to make: Pour the date syrup and coconut cream into a small saucepan, add the pandan leaf. Bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil, reduce the heat and gently simmer for about 3 minutes. Stir in the rice or cornflour mixture and cook for about two minutes, remove from heat and discard the pandan leaf. Stir in the vanilla extract and let the sauce cool before storing in the refrigerator.

To serve: Pour the chilled sauce into small cups or dishes and sprinkle over some fresh coconut, serve with freshly prepared fruit! Serves 6.

This post is part of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop hosted by the The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader check out all the other delicious entries here!