Have you ever been in a situation where you’re supposed to bring food for a potluck but you forgot about it, so you don’t really have a lot of time to prepare a dish? Even worse, the rules of the potluck specifically say that you have to actually prepare a dish, and you can’t just bring Publix fried chicken?
Instead of amassing a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, you should instead whip up a batch of delicious Che Thai – a Vietnamese fruit cocktail that literally takes 5-10 minutes to make a batch of.
Never again should you be embarrassed to bring your cooking to a potluck with this dessert in hand.
Che Thai
Ingredients:
- 1 can of toddy palms
- 1 can of jackfruit
- 1 jar of coconut jelly
- 1 can of grass jelly
- 1 can of lychee
- 1 can of longan
- 1 quart of half & half
- Whole milk
Makes enough to serve a small potluck.
Preparation:
- Open all the cans.
- Drain all but two of the cans of syrup. I like to use the longan and jackfruit syrup.
- Cut all the bigger pieces of fruit/jelly into bite size pieces.
- Pour everything into a big bowl.
- Pour the quart of half and half over everything.
- Add whole milk until you reach a milky consistency, or until all the fruit/jelly is covered.
At this point, it is ready to eat.
You can put it in the fridge for a couple hours if you have the time, and the milk will turn slightly green from the grass jelly, making it look a little more appetizing. Otherwise, you’re pretty much good to go. All you needed to know was how to use a can opener.
Now, the cans of fruit and jelly aren’t readily available at any supermarket. You need to find a local Asian-themed supermarket, where it generally has them conveniently in one spot (usually in a nice canned food aisle).
If you’re feeling health-conscious, but you still want to eat your dessert: Instead of using regular half & half, you can substitute it with fat-free creamer or even just milk. This dessert is really delicious and will definitely be the highlight of everyone’s day. The only downside is that there probably won’t be any leftovers for you to enjoy it at home.
