A dollop of delight

Prepare Malabari falooda with seasonal fruits and replace the icecream with hung yogurt 

MOST of us know falooda as the vermicelli that comes along with a kulfi, fills the plate and the mouth and serves as a moderator of sweetness and allows the diner to adjust the chill factor as per individual taste. The Parsis have a dessert by this name but none of this prepares us for the Malabari rendering.

Even the mini-falooda comes in a full-sized glass and at first glance looks like fruit salad topped with a scoop of icecream. A closer examination reveals a fair amount of crunchy cornflakes. Digging deeper with the long spoon yielded even richer dividends — dried fruits and nuts.

To be honest, by the time we polished off the mini-version, we had a jumbo guilty conscience. The sweet dish is sinfully rich. So we decided to lighten it, rendering it healthier. Great for the summer if prepared with seasonal fruit and if you replace the dollop of icecream with hung yogurt. We were generous with melon and pineapple.

Also substitute the artificially coloured syrup that streaks the glass innards as garnish with real fruit juice kernels. Drop a few grapes green and black, and fill your cup of happiness with dried figs and apricots. Yes, you may be wondering why the dish is called falooda.

There are a few shreds or threads of thin sevian to meet legal requirements. We recommend you safely give the carb-rich sevian a miss. It doesn’t hurt falooda. After all what’s in a name?

Malabari  Falooda

Ingredients
 Papaya (large chunks) 100 gm

Pineapple slices 100 gm

Musk melon (cut in cubes) 100 gm

Watermelon 100 gm

(scooped into marbles)

Apples (sliced) 50 gm

Plums/kiwi fruit (pitted and cut) 50 gm

Dried figs/ apricots (chopped) 50 gm

Grapes (seedless) 50 gm

Raisins 25 gm

Walnut kernels 25 gm

Corn flakes 3 tbsp

Pistachios 1 tsp

Almond slivers 1 tsp

Hung yogurt 1/2 cup

Honey 1 tsp

Method
Arrange four large glasses at a pinch wine glasses will do or any interestingly shaped tumbler. Put the pistachio and almond slivers at the bottom. Then add the cornflakes. Next layer should comprise dried figs and apricots followed by harder fruit like apples and plums. Top this with papaya, muskmelon, pineapple and watermelon. The crest is a dollop of hung yoghurt. Garnish it with raisins and just a trickle of honey. Chill and slurp.





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