I’ve always wondered what two of my favorite fruits -Lychee and Mango- combined will taste like. I could just imagine the two flavors together, but never really got around to trying it. I finally got the perfect opportunity this month, when I picked Lychee as the Fruit of the Month, and to my utter shock realized that there are some Lychee haters in this world! How can anyone not love Lychees? So, in my attempt to popularize this amazing fruit, I will try to come up with a few recipes with Lychees this month.

Then, there are those who love Lychees, but just the fresh kind! Believe me, unless we are talking about just eating the fruits as such, the canned ones taste almost as good as fresh ones, especially in drinks and desserts. I never have the patience to skin and pit fresh lychees for a recipe. So unless I am sitting in front of TV with a big bowl of Lychees in my lap, I always prefer the canned ones. So give canned Lychees a try. It is available in Asian stores, and I even found some at Trader Joe’s marketed under their own brand!

Anyway, coming back to the subject of this post, when I finally combined these two wonderful tropical favorites together, it was all I was hoping for and more! The two flavors go so well together! If you have any doubts, start out with a simple fruit salad with the two, drizzle some honey on it, and you will know what I am talking about!

Here I have a two layer pudding with Mango Jelly as the top layer, and a Lychee Panna Cotta as the bottom layer. I drizzled some mango syrup around, and served with lychees, diced mangoes and pistachios.

The texture of the mango jelly layer was a little tough, guess I put too much gelatin. I would’ve liked that layer a little softer. Also, since the lychee flavor is more subtle compared to the mango flavor, it would’ve been better balanced with a thinner layer of mango jelly, here I made both layers in equal thickness. But none of my guinea pigs tasters complained.

Another point I want to note is that I started using Agave Nectar in place of sugar in desserts. My parents are controlling their sugar intake, and I’ve been trying to find a good natural sugar substitute, and Agave Nectar is all the rage these days. Agave Nectar has a lower glycemic index than a lot of natural sweeteners in the market. It has natural fructose, and does not contain processing chemicals.  My parents are not diabetic, they are just being on the safe side, trying to reduce the sugar intake. So I didn’t do very extensive research, but all-in-all it sounds like a safe natural alternative to sugar. Leave a comment if you know more about this.

By all means substitute sugar for agave nectar. Agave is sweeter than sugar, so you will have to increase the quantity of sugar.  

Mango Jelly

Ingredients

• 1 cup Mango Puree
• 1/2 a packet of powdered gelatin (1/2 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp Agave Nectar

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp cold water in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.

In a non-reactive pan, combine the mango puree, milk and agave nectar and cook on medium heat stirring frequently till the liquid is heated through but not boiling.

Remove from the heat and keep a little away for serving over the dessert later.

To the rest of the liquid, add the softened gelatin and stir well till the gelatin is dissolved completely.

Pour this into six ramekins or pudding cups to form a layer of desired thickness.

Refrigerate for at least three hours till this layer is set.

Lychee Panna Cotta

• 1 cup lychee puree (1 can lychees in syrup)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1.5 cups low fat butter milk
• 4 tbsp agave nectar
• a few drops of vanilla essence
• 1 packet powdered gelatin (1 tbsp)

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp cold water in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.

If using canned lychees, drain the lychees and process in a food processer or blender on high to form a smooth puree. Pass through a fine meshed sieve, while press with the back of a wooden spoon to remove the bits and pieces.

In a mixing bowl, add the butter milk and the lychee puree and whisk well to combine and keep aside.

Heat the cream, vanilla essence and agave nectar in a non-reactive pan on medium heat, till the cream starts to boil.

Remove from the heat and add the softened gelatin and stir well till the gelatin is dissolved completely.

Add the buttermilk-lychee mixture to the heated cream and whisk well.

Pour into the half-jelly filled cups from the above step, and refrigerate for another 3 more hours.

To serve, dip the cups in hot water, and separate the pudding from the edges with a sharp knife. Be careful, you can see the damage done to my panna layer in the above picture. I strongly advice making this in transparent glasses, and serving it as such and avoid the disaster.

Pour some mango syrup from the first step over the dessert, and serve with a side of diced mango pieces, lychees and some crushed pistachios.

You can even totally skip the Mango jelly layer, and just drizzle mango syrup on the Lychee Panna Cotta. The Panna was amazingly smooth in texture, and was wonderful on its own.