Dubai Chocolate Inspired Chocolate Strawberry Cups!

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

These chocolate strawberry cups are one of the most addictively delicious strawberry desserts you can have! They're also easy to make and taste seriously good. There's over an entire punnet of strawberries in each cup layered with liquid Nutella and toasted pistachio kataifi pastry! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader and a perfect Valentines Day dessert.

You see a lot of these strawberry cups at markets and at Middle Eastern food festivals. They are made up of cups of strawberries with chocolate sauce but this newer version has pistachio kataifi for an amazing crunch! If you love the Dubai chocolate and strawberries then you will love this strawberry dessert!

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

Tips for Making Strawberry Cups

1 - I used stemless wine glasses and each cup uses up 320g or 11.3ozs of fresh strawberries (you can also easily make these in smaller cups if that's too much). That's a lot of strawberries so this is perfect for make when strawberries are in season. I use the smaller "odd bunch" strawberries for inside the cup because they end up cut in half (otherwise you'll have to quarter XL strawberries) and then I use the premium large strawberries for the end on top!

2 - Kataifi can be found at Middle Eastern or Mediterranean grocery stores. You can toast the kataifi in butter ahead of time (2-3 days ahead). Just store it in an airtight container. I recommend toasting the kataifi in butter or ghee rather than oil because it has a better flavour.

3 - This is the pistachio paste that I use. There are lots of different types but you want a sweet pistachio paste, not a pistachio pesto.

4 - You can replace some of the strawberries with a scoop of ice cream too!

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

A few days ago we visited a suburb called Campsie where I bought these strawberries to make this. Y'all know that I am obsessed with my airtags (notsponsored!). My airtags saved my sanity when I was going through that delayed luggage drama in Sicily with ITA airways and we have one in our car so I know where Mr NQN is when he does wing foiling. But recently I've started to see one of of my 4 airtag's located at a particular address in Campsie. We've never been to this address in our lives and when I showed it to Mr NQN I showed him that it looked like the airtag was in a bush on a residential street.

"I want to get my airtag back and I want to find out why it is there," I told Mr NQN so one afternoon we decided to try and retrieve my airtag. I could also pick up some strawberries as I was craving this chocolate strawberry cup so it wasn't a total waste of time.

We parked on the street and I followed the app to where it was pointing, under a tree.

"Oh hang on," said Mr NQN looking at the house that the tree was in front of. "I think I know what is going on, ping your airtag," he said.

I hit "play sound" and I heard the chirp of an airtag coming from the house.

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

It turned out Mr NQN had sold a wing foil board on marketplace and he had an airtag in the bag. Mr NQN is one of those people that is really a bit slack with his possessions. He doesn't really know where things are nor does he really keep good care of his things. That's why I don't really like loaning him things.

"Let's just knock on the door and explain what happened!" I said. I mean we were right in front of his house.

"No no!! I'll message him," he said backing away. Mr NQN is an introvert and the idea of knocking on someone's door and talking to them was anathema. "I'm sure he'll message back," he said.

After ascertaining if the guy was nice or not (apparently he was nice) Mr NQN messaged him. And that was 4 days ago. I still don't know if I will ever get my airtag back and I still don't know why we couldn't have just knocked on his door to ask for it! I'm tempted to go there myself to get it.

So tell me Dear Reader, would you have knocked on the door or would you have messaged that person?

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

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An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus cooling time

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Makes 2 large Strawberry Cups

  • 75g/2.6ozs kataifi, chopped
  • 40g/1.4ozs butter

  • 140g/5ozs pistachio paste (I use Pisti brand)

  • 600g/1.3lbs fresh strawberries (small ones are good)
  • 2 extra large strawberries
  • 300g/10.6ozs Nutella

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

Step 1 - Chop the kataifi into small, fine pieces. Melt butter in a frypan on low heat and add the chopped kataifi pastry and toss gently to toast all over. Go slowly and gently so that the kataifi doesn't burn. Mix the cooked kataifi with the pistachio paste until the kataifi is well coated.

Step 2 -Wash, hull and and pat dry the strawberries. Halve the small strawberries (or quarter if large). Then place the Nutella in the microwave proof bowl and microwave and heat for 15-20 seconds or until liquid. You can also stand the Nutella jar in hot water for 5 minutes and stir until it becomes more liquidy and pourable.

Chocolate Strawberry Cups

Step 3 -Place a small handful of strawberries in a stemless wine glass. Spoon some pistachio kataifi on top and then some Nutella. Keep layering more strawberries, kataifi and Nutella until you finish with a layer of strawberries at the top. Then add a layer of Nutella to create a smooth top on top of the strawberries. Add the extra large strawberry and a scoop of pistachio kataifi on top.

These can be made 2 hours ahead of time.

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Chocolate Strawberry Cups

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