Street Food Asia by Luke Nguyen

Street Food Asia by Luke Nguyen

Avocado & Chocolate Smoothie - Jus Alpukat

SERVES 4

4 tablespoons chocolate  sweetened condensed milk

3 ripe avocados, stones removed

4 tablespoons sweetened  condensed milk

250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) full-cream (whole) milk

1 cup crushed ice

Having avocado in a sweet scenario might sound really unusual but being Vietnamese, I grew up with the concept and don’t find it strange. We had plenty of avocado shakes and avocado ice cream as kids and I still enjoy the rich, buttery texture that avocados give to sweet snacks and desserts. On Jalan Sabang in Jakarta I do the most wonderful street food crawl –  I eat satay for entrée, fried rice for my main and then I notice a tiny  stand selling these shakes. I can’t resist, as the Indonesian version of this long-time favourite of mine is divine. The main difference between this and a Vietnamese avocado shake is the addition of chocolate condensed milk. Yes, you heard right. Chocolate. Condensed. Milk. (On top of some regular condensed milk, I might add.) Combined with avocado and ice,  it’s wickedly good and you could serve this as a sweet pick-me-up or even  a dessert.

Pour the chocolate sweetened condensed milk into a squeezy (chef’s) bottle.

In a blender, blitz the avocado, sweetened condensed milk, full-cream milk and crushed ice together until smooth.

Squeeze the chocolate sweetened condensed milk around the inside of four tall glasses to coat. Pour the avocado smoothie into the chocolate-coated glasses and serve.

This is an edited extract from Street Food Asia by Luke Nguyen