Lal Nil Sobujer e Mela boseche….Lal Nil Sobujer e Mela re…Ai Ai Ai re Chute khelbi jodi ai notun se ek khela re….
No this Bengali song is not about Tutti Frutti but is about the underlying beauty of various colours…I was listening to this song while playing the colour game with my little one with freshly made Tutti Frutti…..
Few days back we were having Tutti Frutti Ice-cream in a nearby Ice-cream parlour and I found Pasta was super excited with tiny colored things than her portion of Ice-cream! Me and hubby started playing colour game with her with the Ice-cream and she enjoyed that game a lot and even after returning home she was trying to recall colours! Use of Tutti Frutti is quite common in Indian desserts and cakes but I never thought of preparing those at home before; in fact I had a weird idea about it that those are by-product of Areca nuts as Red Tutti Frutti is often used in “Meetha Paan” (stuffed Betel leaf) and in Bengal those are known as “Misti Supari”! 😯 What a pathetic thought! However, after observing Pasta’s excitement over Tutti Frutti, I started exploring internet and what I found is hilarious! It is is nothing but a by-product of raw Papaya or it is better to say Indian Tutti Frutti is Candied Papaya! 
My venture started on Friday night after returning from office and it took me 2 long days to get my multi-coloured Tutti Frutti. I’ve prepared Red, Blue, Green, Orange and White Candied Papaya. After getting her colourful Candied Papayas Pasta, was excited like anything and that made my day….We both played colour game and enjoyed a lot! 🙂
Recipe of Tutti Frutti that I found in internet is really easy and can be prepared with minimal ingredients but is time consuming! When I told Mehebub about my Tutti Frutti venture he didn’t even believe that Tutti Frutti are made of Papaya and as usual was not confident over it 👿 . However I have decided to prepare multi coloured Tutti Frutti for Pasta since I am not much willing to give her Tutti Frutti available in market as I am not confident on the colours used in market bought Tutti Frutti. I’ve followed the recipe of Tutti Frutti of nishamadhulika.com and those came out superb!
- Raw Papaya: 1 (500g)
- Granulated Sugar: 400g
- Vanilla Essence: 2-3 drops
- Food Colour: 2-3 drops of each colour (I've used Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Gel Colour)*
- Water
- Wash Papaya thoroughly and peel Papaya Skin using a peeler.
- Cut Papaya into 4 equal halves and then remove Seed and also remove soft white inner skin from the Papaya.
- Now cut Papaya into small cubes. Refer to the picture for size of each Papaya Cube. From 500g Papaya I had around 2 Cup full of Papaya Cubes.
- Now take 5 cups of Water in a vessel and start boiling the water in medium flame and add Papaya Cubes and then blanch for around 3-5 minutes or till Papaya Cubes turns translucent.
- Switch the flame off and cover the vessel containing papaya and water with a lid and give it a stand for 5 minutes.
- Strain Cooked Papayas from water and discard the water.
- Take Sugar along with 2 cups of water in a vessel and start boiling it in medium flame till sugar dissolves completely.
- Add Cooked Papayas in the Sugar Syrup and cook till the syrup turns into one string consistency and then switch the flame off.
- Add Vanilla essence to the Papaya mix and give it a light mix.
- I've prepared 5 coloured Tutti Fruitti.
- Now take 5 small bowls and 2-3 drops of food colour in each bowl (Red, Green, Blue and Orange); no colour is required for White Tutti Fruitti viz. Red, Orange, Blue , Green and White.
- Now divide cooked Papayas along with Sugar Syrup into the bowls and mix with spoons to coat Papaya Cubes with the colour.
- Cover bowls with lid and leave those overnight to help Papaya cubes to absorb colour.
- After 6-8 hours strain Candied Papayas from the Sugar Syrup and then spread those over wire net and dry those under open air.
- My Tutti Frutti took 1.5 days to dry completely. Completely dried Tutti Frutti won't stick together.
- Store dried Tutti Frutti in Airtight container for future use.
Use of Tutti Frutti: Candied Papaya can be used in Ice-cream, Cakes or in cookies or if you have a little child as me you can use those for playing colour game with your little angel. I often make Tutti Frutti Cake (click for recipe) using candied papaya.
