Colourful Jelly Art Dessert

If you remember I had shared the Striped Chocolate Jelly with you the last Christmas season. That was the first gelatin dessert I had ever tried out. That time I had melted the gelatin over a pan of hot water; but this time I did it a different and easier way. Read on to learn about it. I have been meaning to try this out for quite a while and so I finally decided to make this for our family Easter lunch. There were double helpings so I was pretty pleased. This dessert is light and not rich at all; ideal for this hot season.

Ingredients:
4 boxes jelly crystals, each in a different colour/flavour (You could also use just three if you'd rather have some more white than colour in it)
1 tin condensed milk - 450 gms (I used Amul's Mithai Mate; you may choose to use Nestle's Milkmaid)
2 sachets (10gms each) gelatin crystals
1/2 cup water
1 cup boiling water

Method:

• Make the jellies in 4 individual vessels as per the instructions on the box and  refrigerate.
• Once the jellies have set, proceed.
• Put half a cup of water in a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin crystals into it.
• Let rest for about 2 minutes.

• Pour the boiling water into it and stir till the gelatin is completely dissolved.

• Add the condensed milk and mix well.
• You may keep this in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes so that it cools.

• When the jellies are set, cut into cubes.

• If you want to decorate the top, you can slice the jelly and use moulds to cut out the desired shapes.
• Lightly oil a glass bowl.

• Mix together the different coloured jelly cubes into the bowl.
• Keeping aside some of the milk gelatin mixture to top the dessert in order to get a clean white finish, pour the rest over the jelly cubes.
• The jelly cubes will float and come to the surface.
• To avoid this you can pour some of the white mixture first and then let it set before adding some more and more.

• Finally top the dessert with the white mix that was kept aside. I'm afraid I almost forgot to do this so my dessert is not a full white on the top even before I decorated it.
• Refrigerate again and once firm, decorate as you wish. My little niece helped me with this.

• Take out of the refrigerator, after a few minutes, overturn onto a plate.
• Slice with a sharp knife and serve. 

Deviled Eggs for Easter

It's Easter time again and I have been looking for something different and in theme to make for our Easter family lunch! We came up with these adorable little hatching chickens and bunny rabbits; a great way of producing artistic deviled eggs in sync with the Easter theme.

Deviled eggs - hatching chickens

Deviled eggs - bunny rabbits and chickens

Ingredients:
11 eggs, hard boiled
1 green coconut, grated (only the white part) taking care to avoid the skin
1 cup grated cheese
1 big onion, finely cut into bits
1 big tablespoons full mayonnaise
3 small boiled and mashed potatoes

A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper powder

For decoration :
1 carrot
1 capsicum
A few pepper corns

Method:

• Cut the eggs horizontally for the hatching chickens in the first picture and vertically for the bunny rabbits and the chickens in the second picture.
• Remove the egg yolks from their white shells and mix with all the other ingredients.
• Put the mixture in a piping bag, and pipe it out into the empty egg whites as seen in the pictures.
• Cut out the beaks and feet for the hatching chickens using the carrot.
• Cut bunny ears, nose and whiskers from carrot and capsicum.
• Cut some grass for decoration from the capsicum for the hatching chickens.
• Serve as a snack.