Food for thought | Luscious lychee
Food for thought | Luscious lychee
If you see a lychee tree and think for a split second that it looks strikingly similar to something out of one of those Chinese paintings, you won’t be quite off the mark. The lychee was a celebrated delicacy in the court of Imperial China and has been the subject of many Chinese paintings from the first century. In fact, such was the demand for fresh lychees that a special courier service was organized to bring the fruit from the south-eastern province of Guangdong to the emperor’s court in the northern city of Bianjing.
The lychee is favoured most in dessert form and continues to be extremely popular in China, South-East and South Asia. Lychees are popular in fruit salads and dressings and lychee drinks are hugely refreshing in tropical summers.
They are, of course, best eaten fresh.
shreya.r@livemint.com
Eat it this way
Lychee Jalousie with Lychee Granite
Serves 2
To prepare the puff pastry for Jalousie
Ingredients
• 5-6 lychees
•1 tbsp icing sugar
•270g flour
•170ml water
•1 tsp salt
•1 tsp melted butter
•75g milk powder
•100g butter for layering
Method
To prepare Lychee Granite
•500g lychee juice
•50g sugar
•200ml water
Method
Boil the ingredients and set in the freezer for 4 hours. Remove and crush with a fork. Serve frozen with Jalousie.
—Narendra Lendave, pastry chef, The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace, Hyderabad.
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