Sri Lankan Coconut Crepes

Today we do another lovely dessert from Sri Lanka, a lovely and yes very sweet dessert.

We have plenty of coconuts here on the island, nobody really knows how many exactly but the guesses are all around 3000 trees, so there is a year round supply of fresh coconuts which we serve daily to our guests. I this amazing to see how the guys go up the trees with the simplest method of having a towel wrapped around the feet and the tree and off the go to the lofty heights to get the coconuts

Of course we have some older coconuts as well and that is exactly what we need for this dessert. The fresh coconuts have very little meat, but of course lots of juice so perfect for drinking

The filling is very sweet, typical for desserts from Sri Lanka and India, they are all sugar loaded, but taste delicious

The garnish you can see on teh photo is a sesame brittle. I simply caramelize sugar, just to a light caramel. I take the caramel off the fire and add the sesame seeds in it. You don't need to toast the sesame before because the heat of the caramel will toast teh sesame automatically. Then I pour it on a slightly oiled cold surface and when it is cold and hard I break it into small pieces. This makes a great garnish for many desserts

But here is the recipe, you will see, it is actually very easy to do

Recipe
2 Ea Eggs
2 Ea Egg yolk
80 G Sugar
250 G Flour
25 G Butter
550 Ml Milk
10 Ml Vanilla essence
5 G Salt

200 G Coconut, freshly grated
200 G Palm sugar
20 G Mixed spices
1 Ea Orange zest
1 Ea Lime zest

Method
Melt the butter, then mix all ingredients for crepes
Let it rest for an hour in the fridge
Bake thin crepes in a crepe pan

Chop the palm sugar (Jagery)
Mix with lemon and lime zest
Add a little water
Bring to the boil Add grated coconut
Cook for just a couple of minutes
Cool down completely

Fill the crepes with the coconut and roll them

Watalappan (Jagery coconut caramel pudding)

We have buffet night again, this time it is an Indian and Sri-Lankan buffet and the food is as usual absolutely delicious. Of course I have to say it is delicious as I am the chef here, but honestly, the food was really amazing again, so I want to share some lovely recipes with you

The attention tonight is on one of the desserts, the Watalappan, a pudding from Sri-Lanka. Our Pastry Chef, Shanta is from Sri-Lanka, so this dessert is about as authentic as it goes. It is actually very similar to the traditional Creme Caramel, just a little sweeter and richer. The mixed spices that go in give it a lovely flavor that makes it very different in taste, so the making of it is simple. To get the right ingredients might be a little more complicated and you will have to go in an Indian specialty shop. Just some explanations:

Jagery is actually just simply palm sugar, so this ingredient is easy to get as it is available in most Asian shops

Kithul Treacle might be a bit more of a challenge, but I know everybody likes a bit of a challenge. The English word for it is actually Palm Molasses. But if you can't find the Palm Molasses, you can substitute it for brown sugar.

As for the spices, I use Cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise and a little cloves. The go in my spice grinder to make a powder of t. If you don't have a grinder or a very good blender you can just buy the spices in powder form. Just be careful with the cloves, they can be very overpowering

Just a little tip: Leave your pudding in the fridge for 2 days, the spices will develop a much better aroma

Recipe
250 g sugar

1 l  Coconut milk (fresh)
600 g Jagery (palm sugar)
100 ml Kithul Treacle (can use brown sugar)
25 g mixed spices
15 ea Eggs

Method
Take the 250 g sugar and caramelise till light brown
Pour in a creme caramel mold.
Mix all the other ingredients well together
Pour carefully over the hard caramel
Poach in the oven in a bain marie at 125C for about 30 to 45 minutes
Cool down completely
Take it out the form
Garnish with toasted Pecan nuts