Strawberry fluff - Ammi's version of an old favourite (Pineapple Fluff)

Pineapple fluff is a dessert many of us grew up with in Sri Lanka in the sixties and seventies.

Until I travelled overseas I thought of it as a quintessentially Sri Lankan dessert. It was a surprise to discover that the English made it and I realised much later in life that it must be another of those colonial inheritances to Ceylon.

My mother whose repertoire of desserts was rather limited to bread and butter pudding dotted with sultanas, a caramel pudding (the Lankan version of a crème caramel) and Watalappan (a delicious baked or steamed custard made out of coconut milk, eggs and palm sugar flavoured with nutmeg). However, once in a way, she referred to cook books and tried out other desserts and Pineapple fluff was one of those.

Since we had no electric beater in the house, a hand egg beater or a well-worn fork was used to whisk the chilled evaporated milk for the "fluff". As canned pineapple was not common in a land that grew the most luscious of fresh pineapples, fresh pineapple cubes were stewed gently in a sugar syrup spiced with a cinnamon stick for the fluff. The resulting dessert was airy and light, foamy and of a delicate creamy colour and had the tiny bits of pineapple floating in it and the top of the pudding was sprinkled with more tiny pineapple cubes.

I had forgotten about this old fashioned dessert until a few years ago, when I started making it for my aunt to take to the temple for her monthly retreats where the devotees took a dish for a shared  vegetarian lunch. My aunt kept on praising my dessert as it was a hit with all the other aunties as it didn't have eggs in it. I didn't point out to her that it contained gelatine which was non vegetarian but the aunties in their bliss of ignorance enjoyed it.

After my aunt passed away, I don't think I've ever made Pineapple Fluff but last night I came across a can of evaporated milk in my pantry when I was looking for ideas to create a dessert to take for a dinner tonight. Since I didn't have any pineapple cubes on hand, I decided to use some strawberries instead along with a handful of ginger preserve.

The resulting Strawberry Fluff not only looked fine but also tasted pretty good. In fact, it tasted way better than my usual Pineapple Fluff.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 can chilled Nestle Evaporated milk (chilled for at least a day)
4 tsps. of gelatine
1/4 cup milk or water
3 tbsps. castor sugar
a small punnet of strawberries
pink food colouring
juice of a medium lemon
about 50 g crystallized ginger, chopped very finely

Method:

Sprinkle the gelatine on the milk. Leave aside to swell for a few minutes. Microwave for 3 bouts of 10 seconds or dissolve over a pan of boiling water. Leave aside.

Meanwhile, leave 3-4 strawberries aside and chop the rest finely.

Place the evaporated milk in a large mixing bowl and whisk until very light and frothy. The trail of the beater starts showing when it is done.

Whisk in the sugar and lemon juice and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Whisk in the dissolved gelatine, spoon by spoon and continue to whisk. Add a few drops of food colouring to tint the foamy milk a light pink. Stir the strawberries and chopped ginger.
Pour into a pretty glass dish and decorate the top with a few sliced strawberries.

Chill for at least 6 hours until set.