Saturday!
Oh my! It was hot yesterday afternoon and all of a sudden, I started to miss ‘Palm seeds’. Back in India when it gets hot all I do is wait for coconut and Palm seed vendor. It is absolute divine enjoying fresh tender coconut and palm seeds, instantly you will feel the body temperature cool. I kinda miss the fresh tropical fruits after moving to California, especially mango, jackfruit and palm seed.
Scooping out the palm seeds straight from its shell, is the most freshest feel. Late afternoon all those memories was running in front of me and I went straight to a nearby Filipino store. I loaded my shopping cart with some canned palm seeds. I know it is not fresh the way I like it, but I settled for canned palm seeds. I had a few palm seeds straight from the can. Yum!!!
I just wanted to make something with palm seeds. When I was telling Andy that I wanna cook with palm seeds, he told me ‘pair it with pineapple’. Seriously I have to keep competing with him in kitchen. Lets get straight to the recipe.
Coconut filling:
Ingredients,
1 cup of thick coconut milk
2 tbsp of corn starch/arrowroot starch
½ cup of syrup (reserved from palm seed can) or ¼ cup of granulated sugar
¼ tsp of salt
Prepping,
Mix all the ingredients together in a sauce pan and simmer it over a medium flame. Stirring constantly. Strain it for clumps. You will get a silky coconut cream.
Transfer it to another bowl and cover it with a plastic wrap directly over the cream itself. Refrigerate to cool. This step avoids the formation of the film.
Crust:
Easiest crust recipe, you can make it effortlessly.
Ingredients,
1¼ cup of all purpose flour
8 tbsp of unsalted butter, room temperature
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
Prepping,
Mix all the ingredients in a food processor or a stand mixer. You can make it with a wooden spoon too. It is such an easy dough to make. Your result will be a soft dough.
Roll the dough flat and line it over the tart pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
I used three 4-inch tart pans. You can use any size and shape. You can also use a muffin pan.
Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Poke the crust dough with fork and blind bake them for about 25 mins or until golden brown.
Note:
Blind baking- Place a plastic wrap or parchment paper over the molded dough. Pour in some dry beans and bake. Helps to get crispy crust.
Caramelized Pineapple:
It is optional to caramelize pineapple, you can by all means use fresh pineapple.
Ingredients,
1 cup of fresh pineapple, cubed
2 tbsp of brown sugar
Prepping,
Mix pineapple and brown sugar in a sauce pan. Heat it over a medium flame.
Stir occasionally and cook until the pineapples are tender. Let it cool down.
Palm Seeds:
1 cup of canned palm seeds/fresh palm seeds
Strain the syrup and keep the palm seeds aside, ready to be assembled.
Assembling Fruit Tart,
Let the crust cool down. Fill it with the coconut cream.
Arrange the pineapple and palm seeds as you like. Refrigerate the tart and enjoy.
The creaminess of the coconut cream, just smoothes the sweet palm seed and pineapple.
Andy spooned some of the brown sugar syrup (left out from cooking pineapple) over his tart.
Cardamom Twist 