The Recipe: Faluda...The perfect Ramadan dessert

A little off kilter here, but after a recent flurry of activity on my Instagram, I thought I'd write a post here on how to make Faluda. As you may know, we're in the thick of Ramadan, (such long days....aagghh!!) and when you can't eat or drink all day, you end up spending the whole day thinking about eating and drinking...such is life! So if you're thinking about it but can't do it, what's the next best thing? Making it, of course! One of things I learnt to make this week was a dessert from my childhood called Faluda, and let me tell you, it's the easiest thing in the world to make!

So here's what you do:

First off, you need to get hold of Faluda, called China Grass in English. It looks bizarre, like plastic dried straw, and is key to the recipe. Soak the Faluda in a very little amount of water, until it softens, then break it up with the back of a fork until it is completely dissolved. Meanwhile, warm up some milk (semi-skimmed will do) until is boils and dissolve in sugar to taste

Add a couple of spoons of the hot milk to the dissolved China Grass to soften it up. If you want a bit of colour in your Faluda (which is how I've always had it as a child), add a tiny bit of natural red food colouring and mix in. Then finally, add the mixture to the milk, with a couple of drops of Rose Water if you like it, stir in thoroughly, and that's it!

Pour the combined mixture into a mould or bowl, allow it to cool and then refrigerate for a couple of hours until it has set like a jelly. My mother has always added some fruit to the mixture (sliced strawberries always look very attractive); she says she used to do it to make it look pretty, but I'm sure it was just to get more fruit into us as children! 

When you're ready to eat, turn it out onto a plate and voila! It will look like a big opaque pink jelly - the stuff childhood dreams are made of!

xXx

PS: You can find China Grass in your local Asian food shop but I've been told you can use agar jelly as a substitute.