This recipe from Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes (Paperback Edition, W.W.Norton, June 2012) by Adam Ried is actually not technically a shake since no ice cream is involved.
Cholado
Cholados come from Colombia, but I encountered them first in the Latino neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, in New York City. There is no ice cream involved, so a cholado isn’t a shake, per se. With distinct fruity, icy, and creamy elements, you might think of it as fruit salad meets Slurpee meets melted sherbet. Eat the fruit with a spoon, and by the time you’re done, the ice will have melted and blended with the syrup and milk. The mixture will be ice cold and thick, yet liquidy enough to slurp through a straw.
Within the basic formula of ice, syrup, fruit, and sweetened condensed milk, vary the syrup flavor and types of fruit however you wish. In my Jackson Heights experience, tropical fruits, cantaloupe, and strawberries were popular. Dynamic Health Laboratories (www.dynamichealth.com), Goya (www.goya.com), and Dafruta (www.wegmans.com) all make fruit concentrates that are great for cholados. You can even use thawed frozen orange juice concentrate, or your favorite fruit-flavored sorbet (I like raspberry, passion fruit, mango, or tangerine) in place of the syrup.
By the way, every cholado I’ve ever had was served in a plastic cup, so there is no need to get fancy with your glassware here. The standard garnish is a maraschino cherry and wafer sandwich cookie.
makes 2
3 cups shaved or crushed ice (about 20 ounces/568 grams)
6 tablespoons fruit concentrate or syrup, flavor of your choice (about 3 ounces/90 milliliters), or partially thawed frozen orange juice concentrate (about 3 ounces/90 milliliters), or 2 medium scoops sorbet, fruit flavor of your choice (about 1/2 pint/6 ounces/ 170 grams)
1/2 cup regular or lowfat sweetened condensed milk (about 4 ounces/125 milliliters)
2 cups mixed, cut fresh fruit, such as sliced banana or strawberries, halved grapes, and finely diced mango, papaya, pineapple, cantaloupe, peach, or nectarine (about 16 ounces/454 grams)
3 tablespoons shredded coconut
2 maraschino cherries
2 filled wafer cookies, for garnish, optional
Place 1½ cups (10 ounces/284 grams) of ice into each of two glasses. In each glass, top the ice with 3 tablespoons (1½ ounces/45 milliliters) fruit syrup or orange juice concentrate, or 1 scoop (¼ pint/3 ounces/85 grams) of sorbet, 3 tablespoons (1½ ounces/45 milliliters) sweetened condensed milk, and 1 cup (8 ounces/227 grams) of fruit (it’s okay to mound the fruit above the rims of the glasses). Top the fruit in each glass with 1 tablespoon (½ ounce/15 milliliters) sweetened condensed milk, 1½ tablespoons coconut, a cherry, and a cookie, if using, and serve at once with a spoon, a straw, and lots of napkins.
* Cholados photo above is not from the book, it was taken by Geminder on June 4, 2006 in NYC and shared on Flickr.
(* Reprinted from Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes: 100 Thick and Creamy Shakes You Can Make At Home by Adam Ried. Copyright © 2009 by Adam Ried. Photographs copyright © 2009 by Andre Baranowski. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.”)