Christmas 2022: Make 3 Festive Desserts With Chef Suresh

Every chef globally looks forward to the holiday season, starting from Christmas eve to the New Year. This period allows them to dish out the time-honoured delicacies, as well as the occassion to create novel culinary fares to add to the festive indulgences. Consenting to it, VH Suresh, Corporate Executive Chef, Platform 65: The train-themed restaurant, says that Christmas is indeed an exceptional time of year for him. Reason? It ushers two things concurrently for him, i.e., cooking food and creating memories. In his words:

"As a chef, we serve hundreds of people every day, but the feeling is different during special occasions like festivals. We create, explore and experiment with some unique food recipes, especially deserts, with our team in our restaurant and serve the food to the patrons with love during these festivities."

Also Read: Christmas 2022: Cook Classic Grubs With Chef Rahul And Abhijeet

The festival of Christmas signals the start of the winter season and the approaching New Year, which excites him more. 

"I can still clearly recall how excitedly I used to await the night of December 24 in hopes of eventually having the ideal chance to finally catch the elusive Santa. But I never succeeded. Now, I look forward to Platform 65's Christmas present each year. The celebration and relishing of the Christmas special cakes and desserts begin the following day with great excitement." 

Carrying forward the same excitement and sentiment, Chef VH Suresh shares three desserts. 

Matka Fruit Rabdi

Creamy matka fruit rabdi, Image Source: Platform 65 

This dessert from the North-Indian cuisine is made of milk. Basically, rabdi is thickened and sweetened milk with layers of malai or cream. It is flavoured with cardamoms and saffron with the addition of fresh fruits and dry fruits. 

Ingredients 

• 50 gm apple 
• 50 gm papaya
• 40 gm pineapple
• 40 gm muskmelon
• 15 gm pistachio
• 15 gm cashew
• 20 gm dry fig
• 20 gm raisins
• 1 lt milk
• 100 gm sugar

Method:

• First, take a bowl and heat the milk on a slow flame
• Let the milk boil on slow heat until the milk gets thick. After that, keep the thick milk aside and cool down for 15mins
• Now cut the fruits into small pieces, and grate the dry fruits.
• Add the fruit pieces and dry fruits to the thick milk and mix well.
• Pour this into a clay pot and freeze it for 8 hours.

Serve the cool matka fruit rabdi.

Darsaan with Ice-Cream

Darsaan with Ice-cream is a traditional dessert from Chinese cuisine. It is made with fried wonton noodles. Crispy flat noodles made from scratch, tossed in a lovely honey syrup, topped with roasted sesame seeds that add a lovely nuttiness to the dessert. It is served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Ingredients

• 15   wonton wrappers (or egg roll sheet)
• 40 gm noodles
• 500 ml cooking oil 
• 100 ml honey
• Choice of ice-cream
• 50 gm mixed dry fruits

Method

• First, take the wonton sheets and cut them into slices
• Now take a wok, add oil, and deep fry the wonton wrapper. Take it out and keep it aside
• Repeat the same with noodles, i.e., deep frying
• Once the noodles are evenly deep-fried, remove them from the oil and set them aside
• Dip the fried wrapper and noodles in the honey
• Take a desert bowl, place the honey-added fried wrapper and noodles 
• Now add 3-4 scoops of your choice of ice cream into the Bowl.
• Top it with the dry fruits as garnish
• Add any flavoured syrups to it if required

Serve it chilled!

Strawberry Pudding 

Pudding is a delectable dish that can be served as a cold, creamy accompaniment to cakes or used to create a variety of desserts when combined with jam, fruits, berries, chocolate chips, and other ingredients. 

 Ingredients 

• 100 gm strawberry
• 40 gm litchi
• 40 gm pineapple
• 40 gm sugar syrup
• 60gm Milkmaid
• 300gm sponge cake
• 60gm finely chopped apple
• 60 gm muskmelon
• 60 gm fine chopped pistachio and cashew

Method

• First, cut the sponge cake into 4 slices and ensure that all the slices are square.
• Now add sugar syrup to it and keep it aside.
• Add the crushed litchi and chopped apple to one slice.
• Add a slice to it and add fine chopped muskmelon and apple. (Repeat the process) add one more slice on it and add strawberries and dry fruit.
• In the final step, add the final layer of sponge cake slice and add some milkmaid and dry fruits as a top-up.
• Garnish with nonpareils (tiny balls made with sugar and starch)

Let it cool for 30 minutes and server cool!