Bionico

The cream thinned with condensed milk and poured on at the table, so the fruit never sits in it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (condensed milk), dairy (soured cream), honey.

Ingredients

the cream

• 300 ml soured cream or crema
• 150 ml condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

the fruit

• 1 papaya, in 2 cm dice
• 2 bananas, in thick slices
• 300 g strawberries, halved
• ¼ melon, in 2 cm dice
• 1 apple, in 2 cm dice
• juice of 1 lime

on top

• 100 g granola
• 60 g raisins
• 60 g shredded coconut
• 60 g chopped walnuts
• 4 tablespoons honey

Method

1. THE CREAM IS THINNED WITH CONDENSED MILK AND POURED ON AT THE TABLE, so the fruit never sits in it. Two things happen if the cream goes on in the kitchen. The fruit -- papaya and melon especially -- keeps releasing water, and within ten minutes that water has let the cream down into a thin pink liquid at the bottom of the cup. And the granola on top goes soft, which removes the only crisp thing in the dish. So the fruit is cut and cupped, the cream is mixed and kept cold in a jug, and the two meet in front of whoever is eating it.
2. THE PROPORTION IS TWO OF CREAM TO ONE OF CONDENSED MILK. Soured cream alone is too thick to pour and too sharp; condensed milk alone is cloying and slides straight off the fruit. Two to one gives something that pours in a ribbon, coats, and balances the sweetness of the fruit against a little acidity.
3. THE BANANA AND APPLE ARE TOSSED IN LIME AND THE REST ARE NOT. Those two brown; papaya, melon and strawberry do not, and lime juice on strawberries draws their juice out and makes them weep. So the lime goes on selectively, which is the opposite of the usual instruction to dress the whole bowl.
4. THE FRUIT IS CUT TO AN EVEN DICE AND DRAINED. Two centimetres, all of it, so a spoonful carries several kinds. And papaya and melon are left in a colander for a few minutes and the released juice discarded -- that juice is what thins the cream fastest.
5. THE GRANOLA GOES ON LAST AND AFTER THE CREAM. On the fruit first it is wet before the cream arrives. Scattered over the poured cream at the table it stays crisp for the first half of the cup, which is as long as anyone needs.
6. The soured cream, condensed milk and vanilla whisked together into a pourable cream. Chilled in a JUG.
7. The papaya, melon and strawberries cut to an even 2 cm dice, and left in a colander a few minutes. The released JUICE DISCARDED.
8. The banana and apple cut and tossed in the LIME JUICE -- those two only.
9. All the fruit combined gently and divided between four tall cups or bowls.
10. The raisins, coconut and walnuts scattered over the fruit.
11. The granola kept SEPARATE in its own bowl.
12. Everything taken to the table: the cups, the jug of cream, the granola and the honey.
13. AT THE TABLE: the cream poured over each cup.
14. The granola scattered on TOP of the poured cream.
15. The honey drizzled over.
16. Eaten at once with a long spoon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes