Passport & Plate - Archie's Yummy Avocado Dessert
Sri Lanka | Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Two very slightly overripe avocados, not mushy but not too firm.
Two seeded Lychees.
One tablespoon of condensed milk.
Two pieces of chocolate.
A sprinkling of sugar-especially for children.
A nice ripe mango.
How to prepare this recipeThis is the easiest most tasty dessert to make and will turn out best if a child assists.
Scoop the Avocado flesh and place into a bowl with a tablespoon of condensed milk. With a fork lightly mash the avocado mixing in the condensed milk to creating puree but leaving plenty of solid pieces for a firm texture. (In fact the yellow parts of the avocado are best to leave solid.)
Melt the chocolate in a warm pan then spoon or syringe the chocolate into the lychees. There should be just enough chocolate to satisfy your child assistant.
Fill a red wine glass with your yummy avocado mixture then place the lychees in the centre of the mixture and if the desert is for children sprinkle sugar on the top to produce a fine crystalline texture. Cut the mango into fine strips and shapes, of your child’s choosing to decorate the top.
Place in a fridge to solidify the chocolate but do not cool too much.
Eat with gusto.
The story behind this recipeTHE ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY OF DIYATHALAWA ARCHIE’S YUMMY AVOCADO DESSERT.
The first time I ate Diyathalawa Archie’s avocado desert I was four. This desert draws me back to people and places I pine for from that time. My Archie (grandmother) lived in Diyathalawa, in Sri Lanka’s central high country (though even we natives called it Ceylon then). We never addressed grandparents by name, but by the title Archie, and added Diyathalawa to distinguish her from Dehiwala Archie with whom we lived in Dehiwala, on the coast.
Driving from Dehiwala we arrived at dusk. My grandfather, Clarence De fonseka (I’m named after him, so is one of my sons), met us at the gate of The Nest, the house of my mother’s childhood, so named, for it perched on a hill. Dusk was the best time to visit for my grandfather took us down the hill to the plateau where his herd of ten buffalos, were milked.
To a four year old boy the sight of an enormous buffalo, with its sharp grey horns, being milked by a tiny man between its legs was incredible. My grandfather then led me along a trail that seemed long then but may have been just a few steps. He passed under a guava tree and plucked one out for me. It was delicious, juicy and pink. In The NEST is a little hallway in which stood a glass with water and a few rose petals. I remember clearly my grandfather explaining that he was making rose water.
The highlight of the day, of course, was my grandmother bringing out her Avocado Desert. Served in a simple bowl it was divine. Buttery, creamy, rich avocado, sweetened with condensed milk and a few sugar crystals on top adding texture. I knew they loved me. There seemed to be an unlimited supply.
Whenever I make Diyathalawa Archie’s Yummy Avocado Dessert I smell and taste a time gone by when I lived In Dehiwala, with my parents, Dehiwala Archie, uncles, aunts and cousins under one roof, and was deliciously indulged.
