Eggless Tender Coconut Souffle

The day I dug my spoon into a tender coconut souffle years ago, I knew I had to make it. This dessert makes me fall in love with it with each passing bite. The restaurant I had it in served it as part of their buffet and I remember shamelessly serving myself again and again and again. This is a famous dessert in Kerala and there are loads of recipes on the net. Many call it a  pudding too. I didnt want ANY recipe. I wanted an easy peasy exact tasting recipe. After several tries, I did stumble upon this recipe and its super duper awesome. The sad part is I dont remember the source as I had written down too many versions of the souffle.

This has become such a popular dessert now at Just Like Mum's, Bangalore that I get many orders for this one. 

All this takes is three simple ingredients - coconut milk, condensed milk and gelatin. Well, the other recipes on the net have a lot more ingredients and the results were not great. 

Here's my treasured recipe of the tender coconut souffle. 

Ingredients: Sweetened Condensed milk - 400 ml Gelatin - 3 tbsp Tender Coconut water - 5 cups
Method: Take half a cup of warm water and dissolve the gelatin making sure no lumps are formed. In a large bowl, add the condensed milk and dissolve the gelatin mixture in it slowly without forming lumps. Now pour the coconut water into this bowl and mix well.

  Pour into desired serving glasses/bowls and refrigerate for  3-4 hours or until set. Garnish with fruit of your choice or chocolate decorations like I have done and serve chilled.

Note:

• If you have unsweetened condensed milk, add about 2 tbsp of sugar.
• Use tender coconuts which have cream (malai) in them for better taste and texture.
• I have not tried this with agar agar, you are free to try it and let me know.
• This recipe serves a llloooottt of people. Feel free to reduce it as per your choice.
• Refrigerated, this stays good for a week. 
• Use garnishes just before serving.

Fort Cochin

If Kerala is God’s own country, then their cuisine should definitely be heavenly. I couldn’t agree more after I visited The Fort Kochi Connection (FKC) a great addition to restaurants in Koramangala. Situated on the Jyoti Nivas College Road, a basement provides ample parking for two and four wheelers.

I had heard great reviews of the food here especially the buffet. While we could not make it for the lunch buffet, we decided try the place for dinner. A group of friends meeting after long and FKC seemed like the perfect place.

With Mals and half-mals in the group….there was no reason to complain of the choice of cuisine. The ambience is mixed. One section had red lighting making it look like a lounge bar. We skipped that owing to a birthday party that was happening there. We chose the normal seating area. Bright yellow walls and photoframes of the typical Kerala landscape made a decent ambience.

The menu was vast with several cuisine options spanning across food from Kochi, Syrian Christian, Malabar, Chinese, British, Portuguese and Dutch. I am yet to decide if that was a good idea but yes, if you had an idea of the history or Kerala and the influence of various cultures, this would probably make sense. I was there for the food so totally counted on the waiter to recommend the different courses of our meal. 

We had a vegetarian among us who chose the must-try kappa (steamed tapioca) with kadala curry (a traditional favourite made of black chickpeas and served with a red chutney. All three were very good. I made sure I had a bite of each before I lost myself to the meat.

Kappa

Kadala Curry

This place serves great seafood, chicken and beef. I will be telling you what we ordered through the evening. Get ready for a crash course in Malayalam. Our first choice for starter was Achayan Pothularth which were beef cubes sautéed in spices. Reminds one of the typical Kerala beef fry and make sure you don’t miss this if beef is your thing.

Achayan Pothularth

On the recommendation of the waiter, next on our plates was the Chemmeen Ularthu – a delectable dish of fresh prawn in a semi-spicy mix. The non-Keralites and non-beef eaters seemed to like this one. For me it didn’t score that well, as it was close to what we made at home. To keep the egg lovers happy, we picked the Mutta Chikkiyathu – a variation of egg burji with coconut and mild spices. What I likes about this one was that there were onions or tomatoes to adulterate the taste of eggs and the coconut added a special flavoring.

Chemmeen Ularthu

Mutta Chikkiyathu

So many starters and no chicken. That’s not possible. Again on the waiter’s recommendation, we went for the Dak Bungalow Chicken Fry. The name had a history to it. The taste was good with boneless chicken cooked to perfection in homemade spices. This one was a good choice again though the beef still is my favourite.

Dak Bungalow Chicken Fry

When you have many girls at the table, you end up being full mid-way through the starters. Well, counting on the two boys who were with us, I went ahead and ordered an elaborate main course. We ordered many gravies and to go with it the Kerala staples of appam and iddiyappam (string hoppers). 

Appam

Iddiyappam

The Pachakkari Istew (veg stew) for the vegetarian was a good one with rich coconut milk added to it. To ensure we tried more seafood, we opted for the Neimeen Moilee, seer fish cooked in a coconut based gravy. I liked this one. A little extra tanginess and this would have scored a 10 on 10. The gravy was little on the salty side as well but that could be ignored.

Pachakkari Istew

Neimeen Moilee

We even tried the Syrian Christian Prawn Curry. This was a good choice as well. All the gravies went very well with the appam and idiyappams and a safe bet considering the spice levels are suitable for all palettes.

Syrian Christian Prawn Curry

One of the other must-try items here is the Kappa Biryani which was a great mix of mashed tapioca and spiced beef. This was a first time for me and I loved every bit of it. I wonder why I hadn’t tried this earlier.

Kappa Biryani

The place offers some mocktails as well, but I really missed out on taking down names. So here is one of the pictures. 

Overall, I think the Fort Kochi Connection has done a fabulous job with their food. All that we had had authentic flavours and a home made comforting taste. We decided to give one dessert a try at the end of a sumptuous meal and picked the Vattelappam. This pudding of coconut and jagggery was so good, that I will start my course with it the next time around. A dessert to die for.

Vattelappam

Pay by : Cash and cards

Average meal for two : Rs 1000 (including mocktails). For 5 of us, it worked up to close to Rs 3000

Mel’s overall rating : 4 out of 5

Location: Ground Floor, 77/A, Cygnus Chambers, Jyothi Nivas College Road, Koramangala, Bangalore

Ph:  080 67947389 ext:253