Lebanese Style Fruit Cocktail with Ashta and Avocado Cream
Fruit Cocktails is one of the many desserts on the list we rush to have when we visit Lebanon. It's a delicious fruit dessert topped with avocado cream and home made ashta, filled with nuts and finally drizzled with honey. It's one of the healthier dessert options.
I have always loved fruit cocktail but never tried to make it before. So this Ramadan after all the heavy desserts we had, I decided to try making home made ashta to top my fruit cocktail. I tested some of the ashta recipes on the instagram that everyone is sharing. But none tasted the same as the one we have in Lebanon (plus the added vinegar and cornstarch yielded a chalky taste.)
But I remembered one lovely follower has sent me her ashta recipe a few years back. The method of making ashta is a little complicated. It requires full fat cow milk to be boiled over medium heat and you scoop the face that develops on top, and you repeat until the milk in the pot is by half. I, on the other hand, do not have that kind of time or full fat milk from the farm. But with a little lemon juice and vinegar you can speed up the process and the milk will start to curdle. Below I go over the details of making this delicious dessert.
A. Fruit Base Mixture:
The fruits that go into a Lebanese Fruit Cocktail are the following to make 3 large mugs:
1 Apple, 1 Pear, 1 medium Banana, 2 Kiwi, 5 Strawberries, 4 slices Pineapple (preferably canned), and 1 Mango.
You can choose to put all these fruits (highly recommended) or choose your favorite.
Directions:
1. Wash and peel fruits. Then dice into 1 inch cubes.
B. Strawberry Juice:
The fruit is then topped with strawberry juice. A store bough juice is fine, but it can also be home made.
1 cup frozen strawberries
1+1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
Directions:
1. Add everything in a blender and blend well. If the strawberry juice is too thick add one more 1/4 cup water. Sugar can be adjusted to your taste.
C. Avocado Cream
In Lebanon Avocados are used for sweets instead of actual meals. Adding an Avocado cream to your cocktail will not only give you a beautiful color and flavor. But it also helps the ashta from sinking into the strawberry juice when serving. Just F.Y.I.
1 ripe Avocado
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp rose water
1/4 tsp orange blossom water
Directions:
1. Add all ingredients to a clean blender and puree until smooth with no chunks.
Alternatively, you can mash the rip avocado in a bowl with a fork and mix the rest of the ingredients.
D. Ashta
Make sure your milk gallon says pasteurized milk and not ultra pasteurized milk if purchasing in the U.S. With Ashta you are trying to separate the fat in the milk from the liquid to create something like ricotta cheese. But that also means with 8 cups of milk you will only get 1 cup of ashta afterwards. The reward is in the taste afterwards.
8 cups Whole Fat Milk
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 tablespoon White Vinegar
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp rose water
1 tsp orange blossom water
Prepare a cheesecloth inside a sieve and place the sieve over a bowl. Have a skimmer spoon next to you. (The large spoon with holes used for frying)
Directions:
1. In a large pot, add milk and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Constantly mix the milk so it doesn't burn at the bottom of the pot.
Note: If you are measuring with a food thermostat. It should reach 180 F before adding lemon juice and vinegar.
2. Once the milk has reached a simmer. Lower the heat to low and add Lemon juice and vinegar. You will start to see that the milk is starting to curdle (The process of curdling should take seconds). Keep mixing and scooping the curdled milk into the cheesecloth.
3. When you have scooped all the curdled milk, discard the remaining water in the pot.
4. All the curdled milk to sit for 1 hr. in the cheesecloth to strain any excess liquid.
5. Remove curdled milk and place in a small bowl. Add powdered sugar, lemon juice, rose water, and orange blossom water. Mix well.
6. Place in fridge until use.
Nut Topping:
For this cocktail you can use: whole almond, pistachios, pine nuts, walnuts, and raisins. Your nuts will taste better if they are whole, unsalted, and blanched.
You will need 1/2 cup mix of your desired nuts.
Directions to blanch nuts (specifically almonds and pistachios). Place nuts in a bowl with boiling water. Let sit for 10 min. Then rub nut between your finger and the skin with come off.
TO ASSEMBLE COCKTAIL:
Add diced fruits to a mug, then fill mug with strawberry juice, spoon avocado cream on top, then spoon ashta on top, add nuts, and drizzle with honey.
Sahteen!!
