Buko Pandan

Pearl of  My Sassy Chef and Thea of Words and Nosh are January's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge hosts...and since Thea's birthday is this month, they came up with a birthday celebration theme. The challenge is to prepare a favorite birthday dish (entree, dessert, snack, or drink) and make it more healthy by making it into a vegetarian/vegan, lower fat, dairy-free or low sugar version.

My birthday falls on Dec. 25, and I grew up celebrating my birthday with lots of mouthwatering holiday food. But aside from Beef Caldereta and Pancit Canton, if there's one thing that I always want on the dining table for my birthday, it's Buko Pandan...a very simple yet so deliciously refreshing dessert that I really love.

Buko Pandan is a favorite Filipino dessert which is a combination of shredded buko(young coconut) and pandan(screw pine) jelly mixed with table cream and condensed milk.

In the Philippines where pandan can be found everywhere, this dessert is traditionally prepared by boiling pandan leaves until all the juices are released. After removing the leaves, the liquid is then used to make the jelly. Here in my side of the world where pandan is hardly available, I use pandan extract instead. To give the jelly a richer flavor, I use coconut juice in place of water. 

So how did I make my usual version of buko pandan healthy? Well, I made it low fat by using light table cream and fat free condensed milk. And instead of powdered gelatin, I used agar-agar bars. Though a bit tougher and less floppy than gelatin, agar-agar which is made from seaweed is a great and healthier substitute. It is fat free, low in calories and high in calcium.

With those simple alterations I made, I can say that I made a totally healthy version of buko pandan...

Check it out and let me know what you think! 

Cheers to good health!!!

Ingredients:
*Makes six 12oz. dessert bowls

• 2 cups shredded young coconut
• 2 cans (7.6oz.) Lite Nestle Table Cream
• ½ can (14 oz.) fat free condensed milk
• 2 bars Green Agar-agar (gulaman) bars
• 1 bottle sugar palm (12 oz.)
• 1 tsp pandan extract
• 4 ½ cups coconut juice
• ½ cup sugar

* If you want to use fresh pandan leaves, boil 6 pandan leaves in 6 cups water. Remove the pandan leaves and use the liquid to replace the buko juice and pandan extract in this recipe.

Procedure:

1. Boil coconut juice in pot. Add pandan extract then add green gulaman bars. Stir well continuously, while adding sugar until gulaman is well dissolved.

2. Pour into a flat mold. Use a strainer to remove any remaining solid particles. Let it cool and harden. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.

3. In a bowl, mix the shredded coconut, sugar palm, condensed milk and all purpose cream. Remove gulaman from refrigerator, slice into cubes and combine with the mixture. Chill until ready to serve.

 

 

 *I love eating my buko pandan with vanilla ice cream and coconut flakes topping! Ok, ok...I know we're talking healthy here...so, coconut flakes will do! But if you want it with ice cream...there's always sugar free ice cream! ;)

Don't forget to check what other Kulinarya Cooking Club members came up with for this month's theme.

 

If you haven't joined PiTCC's 1st anniversary giveaway, you still have time to do so.  

The giveaway will run until January 22, 11:59PM EST.