Glittering Raspberry Kulfi

I really don't consider myself a competitive person. Honestly. But at the moment there are about three or four food related competitions that I am just desperate to enter. Or maybe I just like the fit of my 'Blogging Community' apron, I don't know.

Not all of the competitions are blog based, mind you, but one that is is Sanjana's. I don't really want the prize for myself (although would it be so bad if I did? It's the 21st Century - if I, as a man in my mid late twenties want to wear a charm bracelet, I will!), but I know some people who would like it a lot, and I love the idea behind this competition... To create a dish inspired by the bracelet itself.

Well, I am a sucker for sparklies. It's an oft-told story in my family that I was basically a magpie as a child. Anything that sparkled, I wanted. Badly. In my early years, I referred to such items as 'Peter likes'. To this day, it is pre-requisite that the birthday card my mum sends me each year will be glittery.



So, I figured, if there's sparkling food to be made, then I, missus, am in.

I took my inspiration from this particular photo - the ice cream with the diamonds really called out to me. Can you imagine eating diamond studded ice-cream?



Well, you won't have to imagine for much longer.

Obviously, my budget didn't run to real diamonds, but I did find some silver dragees which have sat in place of their less inexpensive cousins quite happily, and come with the added advantage of being entirely edible. Always a nice quality to have in food, don't you think?

I was going to make real ice-cream, but have noticed over the 6 months or so that I have been reading her blog that Sanjana favours eggless cuisine. So ice-cream as I usually make it was out. I could have done frozen yogurt, but it didn't seem very inventive, and I've always liked to think of myself as inventive. So I decided to try and make kulfi.

I love kulfi! I had the most amazing pistachio kulfi in a street café in Delhi once, as well as some pretty good stuff in Rusholme years ago with my mum, and have always wanted to try and make some at home. But I hadn't the foggiest idea how to, so politely asked Google for help. Google is usually quite helpful.

Though not this time.

Cue Problem Number One. There are more ways to make kulfi than I can bear. Some suggest using cream (not doing it, there's been too much cream on desserts in our house recently, we're not getting fat if I have anything to do with it), and most don't seem to add any fruit, only saffron and nuts; I wanted to make a raspberry version.

After much research, I finally found a fairly simple looking recipe for rosewater kulfi that calls only for milk, and decided to just wing it with the raspberries and hope for the best.

Cue Problem Number Two. The recipe requires me to reduce the milk (2 litres of it) by half.

Long story short, the recipe went into the circular file (that's polite office-speak for I BINNED IT!), and I decided to go it alone. Well, not quite alone. It was me and the blender. But you get the idea.

Shall we go all floral? Yeah, let's.

I used a tin of evaporated milk, and whizzed it with the other ingredients. The result was a party-pink mousse that tasted like Mini Milks and froze into the most perfect kulfi I can ever imagine making.

So what do you think? Glittering Raspberry Kulfi. It's my new best friend.

One word Sanjana: winner.

Mr. P's Glittering Raspberry Kulfi

You will need:

1 x 410g tin evaporated milk
large handful of frozen raspberries
2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Whizz everything together in the blender for 30 seconds; you should have a thick mousse. If not, whizz in 10 second bursts until you do.
2. Transfer to washed out yogurt pots (or kulfi moulds, if you run to that sort of thing), cover with clingfilm, and freeze for at least 4 hours.
3. That's it! Run under the cold tap just before serving - it helps you to turn them out.