A set cream, white and melting, made with coconut milk and cow's milk, sweetened with cane sugar, perfumed with lime zest, and set like a trembling flan. The quintessential Creole dessert, sweet and refreshing.

Why this dish? Coconut is the other signature flavor of the Antilles. This creamy, perfumed blancmange is the sweetness one offers, the tender pleasure that ends a meal — a sugary caress linking the Parisian muse to the desserts of her presumed island.

Here, taste my little sweet, my child. It's white as milk, but it comes from the Islands: grated coconut that we press, cane sugar, and just the soul of a lime. It was offered to those with a sweet tooth at the end of the meal, cool and trembling under the spoon. A lady does not always admit her weakness — I have never been able to resist that caress.

How it was made : Blancmange is an ancient European dessert (almonds, milk, gelling agent) that Creole cuisine reinvented with tropical coconut. In the 19th century, it was set with isinglass or hartshorn. The coconut version became a classic of Antillean desserts.

The contemporary twist : Upside-down the blancmange onto a passion fruit coulis and a toasted coconut tuile — the 'Black Venus' in pastry form, contrast of pearly white and tangy gold.

Jeanne Duval · Charactorium