dessert

We mark our 10th anniversary this year (wow). It was a small wedding; we chartered a yacht and a live jazz trio for a brunch cruise around New York Harbor with just our closest friends and family. Great memory. Our wedding cake (first photo above) got rave reviews. And now I want to recreate it, but I’ll have to experiment a bit because I lost our records.

I wasn’t a cake fan. We considered doing without one but we found a pastry chef who, back then, was still practicing and perfecting her craft, so she was open to ideas. The typical western cake flavors weren’t very inspiring. I wanted tropical mixes – using real fruits and roots, not powdered versions or syrup flavoring or extracts. She was quite accommodating, and agreed to experiment with the ingredient mix I wanted even though she hadn’t worked with them before. Coconut icing? Mango or passion fruit cream filling? Taro cake? Even though it wasn’t widely used, she agreed that coconut and mango would complement each other in a cake. But taro? We had several conversations about that.

I love taro. While in grad school in New Orleans I frequented a bubble tea shop. This shop was there way before the bubble tea trend took off. The Vietnamese couple who ran the place used real fruits and vegetables in their drinks, and one day they suggested I try the purple root. I thought they were nuts. I go out of my way to avoid potatoes and anything remotely related or similar in consistency. But I was game, and thereafter I was hooked.

So taro made it into our cake. It became my all time favorite flavor in ice cream, shakes and other sweets. It’s popular in Asia because its natural sugars and nutty flavor complements other ingredients well. In Cambodia it’s used as a filling in all sorts of foods – fried spring rolls, dumplings, steamed buns, pastries. They mash it up (much like mashed potatoes) and mix it with palm fruit, chopped steamed pumpkin, jelly and shaved ice, then top it with a dollop of sweet or evaporated milk – much like halo-halo in the Philippines.

I would never have thought of this root as a dessert ingredient. Would you? The photo above is from a blog post by Ayesha Hak. If you want to know more about taro, she has a very informative post on the origins and uses of taro root around the world.

Now to experiment in these coming months, recreating that awesome cake :-)

As with any recipe, there are so many creative ways to have this dessert. It can be a drink or a thick creamy dessert. I first had it at Nathaniel’s Bakeshop on Timog Ave in Manila. (If you are in Manila, you have got to make a stop at this shop to try all manner of Filipino desserts and food. It’s on a foodie strip, so there are other restaurants and chains on the same road).

Again, I haven’t the foggiest clue how to make this since Openg our helper in Manila whipped it up often while I was busy with a newborn. So here again is a recipe straight from Jun-Blog, below. His pictures look more like the creamy dessert than a drink. Check out his range of Filipino food recipes. I think I can spend hours drooling over his pictures. [Click! Add rss feed!]

Buko Pandan Recipe, makes 6 to 8 servings (recipe from Jun Belen)

2 3-ounce packages Alsa green, unflavored gulaman
4 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a simple knot
1 12-ounce jar nata de coco, drained
1 16-ounce bag frozen, shredded young coconut, thawed and drained
1/2 cup Nestlé cream
1/3 cup condensed milk
Prepare gulaman according to package instructions. Dissolve gulaman in a pot of water, add pandan leaves, and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Remove pandan leaves and pour gulaman into two 8×8-inch glass baking pans. Once gulaman has set, cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
Combine gulaman, nata de coco, young coconut, cream, and condensed milk in a large bowl and mix well. Serve chilled.

Dessert ingredient: Taro

Filipino food: Buko Pandan