Green tea and rambutan dessert

February 23, 2006
Filed under Asia & beyond, Oh so sweet!, Purely experimental

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There were two items in the pantry that we bought before Christmas but never got around to using. One was a box of cherry-flavored Jell-o and the other was a can of pineapple-stuffed rambutan. I started toying with the idea of making a dessert out of them two days ago. I finally did that last night. Squares of cherry-flavored Jello-o and the pineapple-stuffed rambutan with caramel and cream. The Jell-o, however, was too wiggly and broke apart when stirred with the rambutan and cream. The combination of the flavors was perfect, though. The tartness of the cherry and the sweetness of caramel. I decided to repeat the experiment using a more radical combination–lemon-flavored iced green tea mix and rambutan. It was even better. It’s chilling in the fridge right now and we’re going to have it for dessert tonight. Of course, I already sampled it.

green tea and rambutan dessert

I suppose that you can use other flavors for the gelatin. However, I really suggest choosing a flavor that has a note of sourness to create the proper contrast. If you use almond or vanilla flavored gelatin, well, the aroma will be great, I’m sure, but the dessert will probably be just a combination of all things sweet. I mean, even when baking cakes, one has to add a little salt to balance the sweetness of the sugar. Same principle. Sweet plus sweet plus sweet is boring. Sweet plus tart is better. Lime, lemon, raspberry or blueberry flavored gelatin should be good.

In my case, I used unflavored gelatin and lemon-flavored iced green tea mix plus a little of the syrup from the canned rambutan. You can choose any citrus flavored powdered fruit juice or even fresh juice. Just experiment with different combinations until you can decide which one you like best. Of course, you might have added twenty pounds by then… well, if you only eat a small helping with each experiment, it can’t be that bad.

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