Wednesday 21 July 2021

Just A Can Of Evap...


In my childhood, there was always a can of 'evap' in the cupboard - evaporated milk [
usually Carnation brand]. Mum would whisk it up till it thickened, and pour it over tinned peaches for a Sunday Tea treat. Or she'd dilute it, to make a creamy rice pudding, or thick custard for her suet roly-poly pudding. 

If we ran out of regular milk [very rarely] she would dilute evap and pour it into the milk jug for tea or cereal. If I see evap on offer in the supermarket, I occasionally pick up a tin to go in the cupboard.

Last week, they had some beautiful raspberries on sale, when Bob and I went to buy our veg. He loves these ruby red fruits. I bought a punnet - then came over all 'retro' when I got home. I decided to make a milk jelly. M&S have a good recipe.

INGREDIENTS - SERVES 8
135g raspberry [or strawberry] jelly
150ml just-boiled water
175ml evaporated milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
fresh raspberries [or strawberries]

PREPARATION
Snip the jelly into small pieces. Chill the evaporated milk.

METHOD

1 Measure the just-boiled water in a jug from the kettle and immediately add the chopped jelly cubes. Stir well and set aside for 5 minutes to melt completely, stirring now and then.

2 Add 150ml cold water to the jug, stirring well again, and put the whole lot in the fridge for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until almost (but not quite) set.

3 Whisk the chilled evaporated milk and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl until thick and frothy. Add the not-quite-set jelly and whisk again until the mixture is smooth and frothed.

4 Divide between eight glasses or cups and chill for at least an hour or up to 24 hours before serving. Top with the berries to serve.

I garnished each dish with a spoonful of thick blueberry Skyr and a raspberry. Very cool and refreshing on a hot day. 

These keep well in the fridge [ungarnished] in small screwtop jars. 

Mum never added the lemon juice - but I found it really helped thicken the milk when I whisked it. You will have to wait to find out what I did with the remainder of my can of evap...






14 comments:

  1. Years ago I used to make a dessert with evaporated milk, you whisk the milk in a big bowl until its twice the volume. Melt a jelly using a very small amount of water and then whisk into the milk, pour into individual bowls and put in the fridge. I have tried using a small can and just half a jelly, it works and its enough for two. Strawberry and blackcurrant were the best jellies because of the colour. I also used it in the trifle at Christmas instead of custard.

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    1. I've never thought of using it like that in a trifle

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  2. How yummy! Did you know that you can freeze evap milk?

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    1. No! Wow-that IS useful if a recipe only needs half a tin...

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  3. I used to love milk jelly - so much better than blancmange which is one of the few things I've never liked.
    More often we had evap milk pored over jelly with fruit in it - usually a tin of fruit cocktail - Sunday tea with cousins! There would have been a tin of ham to start with - we lived miles from a shop so tins were always useful

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    1. Sounds like my childhood Sunday tea too (Mum kept a tin of ham in case of emergency visitors needed sandwiches)

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  4. I was telling my daughter in law about ‘milk jelly’ last week. It was a special treat! If we were very lucky we had raspberries from the garden, too.

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  5. Evaporated milk is handy in our house as we live out away from the town and with the pandemic I was restricting grocery runs for a long time, so running out of milk needed an alternative, and like your Mum I diluted it if I ran out of regular milk. I haven't made a milk jelly in years. By the way, we have jelly crystals in Canada, easier to dissolve, but I felt a certain nostalgia when I read about cutting up the jelly in order to melt it! I remember those jewel-like slabs.

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    1. You can get jelly crystals here too. But I prefer the slab of cubes. It is easier to make a half-size jelly

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  6. My only experience of using evap milk was when I had to make Raspberry mousse in Year 8 HE. You did a good job- it looks good!

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    1. Check out the carnation website, it shows the versatility of this convenient product

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  7. I, too, keep cans of evaporated milk on hand for emergencies (usually earthquake related, but, I stocked up during the pandemic, too, to substitute for milk). It is an essential ingredient when making pumpkin pie, too. :)

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    1. Do you make your pumpkin pie with a CAN of puree, I wonder, or do you hollow out a fruit yourself?

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    2. I've made them both ways; canned pumpkin puree is much easier!

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