Quinoa 'blanc manger' with lytchee and rose jelly.

Blanc-Manger is a typical French sort-of-but-not-quite pudding: you can read some fascinating information about it here. There are a number of traditional and nouvelle cuisine recipes and when travelling throught France, I would definitely suggest you to try at least one!

This is the English translation of Bea's recipe.

For two glasses, 180 ml in volume each.

Blanc-manger :
* 50 gr of quinoa
* 2. 5 tablespoons of cane sugar
* 100 ml of coconut milk (7 tablespoons) + 60 ml of water (4 tablespoons)

* 2 gr of agar-agar for the blanc manger
* 40 ml of coconut milk(2.5 tablespoons)

**

For the bottom of the glasses :

* 2 tablespoons of coconut jam (If you do not have coconut jam, prepare in less than two minutes and excellent substitute making boil the same quantity of cane sugar together with water, until the sugar has completely dissolved. At this point add some grated coconut: you should get a thick coconut paste.)

**

Lytchee and rose jelly :

* 8 preserved lytchees
* 120 ml of the syrup the lytchees were preserved in (about 1/2 cup)
* 2 teaspoons of rose water
* 1 gr of agar-agar

**

PREPARATION:
Rinse the quinoa and eliminate all water. Bring to a boil the cane sugar and the coconut milk+water mix, add the quinoa and let it cook on very low fire until the ring separate from the quinoa and the quinoa grain has absorbed a good portion of the liquid and has become tender.
Mix the agar agar powder in the 40 ml of coconut milk and then pour over the quinoa mix and let it boil for 2 or 3 minutes.

During this time, put 1 tablespoon of coconut jam at the bottom of each glass, which you will then put into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Let the blanc-manger cool 5 minutes and then place it, one spoonful at the time, over the coconut jam. Cool for half an hour in the fridge or freezer.

Open a bottle of preserved lytchees. Melt the gram (about 1 teaspoon) of agar agar powder in 120 ml of the lytchee syrup on the stove, together with 2 teaspoons of rose water. Bring to a boil for 2 or 3 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Cut each lytchee in three pieces, and place them on the blanc-manger. Then pour the lythcee syrup and rose jelly. Cool util room temperature before putting in the fridge.

Finally, take a little spoon and dive with it in the heart of Paradise, melting jelly, lytchee petals, crunchy quinoa dressed in cocnut pudding, bottom layer of sweet jam.....