China grass Pudding

        This is one of the most quickly prepared puddings mom used to make, when she had unexpected guests. Along with payasams and caramel pudding, it was one of the desserts which frequented in get togethers and family gatherings. The easiness to prepare and fuss free, 'quick fixable' character makes it one of the popular desserts in my household.
        As for me, it was a saviour dessert in my earlier days of cooking, and have saved me from serious embarrassments many a time, when I had guests. There are times when you go awfully wrong while making a new found or sophisticated dessert for a much anticipated party, but there is always the china grass pudding to be whipped up at the last few minutes and showed into the fridge to save you from disastrous shame. So it was and still is a dessert which I could count on.. to never go wrong, no matter how quickly it is prepared. I usually serve it plain with caramelised nuts and roasted coconut as topping..

      It can be made into different variations like fruit pudding, chocolate pudding, carrot pudding etc simply by adding fruits, chocolate and the like. It is basically made with milk, condensed milk and china grass or agar agar. Agar agar makes the pudding set into slicable soft mass. It is desirable for vegetarians who are reluctant to use gelatin due to its animal origin.


  Here is the recipe..

Basic China grass Pudding  with roasted coconut and nuts topping

Things you need:

1 litre full fat milk
1 can (430ml) condensed milk.
1/2 cup sugar
10 to 15 g of agar agar
1/2 cup pure water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For topping:
25 g almonds or cashew nuts
1/4 cup grated coconut
3 tbsp sugar

Method:
      
            Soak the agar agar in water (in a pan) for 10 to 15 minutes. Heat milk in a sauce pan and add sugar to it, stirring to dissolve. At the same time heat the soaked agar agar along with the water in another pan in medium to low heat. When the milk starts to bubble, add condensed milk, reducing the heat to low and stirring continuously. Add dissolved agar agar into the milk through a sieve and remove any undissolved residue.Stir well and remove from heat. Add the vanilla essence and transfer to setting trays. Refrigerate after cooling until set for 1 to two hours.
          Mean while prepare the topping: Roast the coconut in a pan, until light brown and fragrant. Add the nuts and roast for a few more minutes. When it becomes crispy, add sugar and mix well. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.
         Slice the set pudding into squares and serve, topped with the coconut and nut mixture.

A travelogue and Mango Pudding

            A week long detachment from the blogging world and from my kitchen has made me a bunch of lazy bones. I know there is lot out there new in every body's blog and am so eager to find out the latest culinary developments. But I just doesn't get the nerve to get on the road. All I want to do in these nippy mornings is cuddle up as much nearer to the room heater as possible and bask in the memory of last week's eventful vacation.

           UAE is a place with innumerable wonders and Dubai is its heart which leave us non.plussed. Though the global recession stuck it with awful force, the past glory still reverberates in the atmosphere. From the world's longest musical fountain to the world's tallest tower, the extravaganza of luxury speaks its volume in every phase of Dubai.

Inside the Grand Mosque in Abudabi

Longest Musical fountain in the world, in front of Burj Khaleefa

'Burj Khaleefa'- the tallest tower in the world

The first metro train in the middle east

Burjul Arab

Fire works in the sky for the opening ceremony of DSF

         We found ourselves in the middle of the opening ceremony of Dubai Shopping Festival(DSF) and had half an hour long fire works in the sky together with various cultural processions by artists from around the globe to feast our eyes. Travelling from one wonder to other, I felt Dubai was on the run to gather the largest number of Guinness world records to its hat. That must have been when the blow of recession struck it unawares. You could easily imbibe the recession struck face of Dubai from the half way dropped projects of unusual sky scrapers and artificial island resorts.

         We visited many of our relatives in UAE and stayed with brother in law and family. My sister in law (Fathima Sinsi aka Sheri) is a great cook and she fed us with a wide variety of her delicacies. I must confess that I found myself weighing a couple of kilos more after a week of enjoying her food. So I thought I must post one of her recipes on the blog. Mango pudding was something the adults and children enjoyed alike and so I took particular care to ask her the recipe and took the pictures from Dubai when she served it.

Here is the recipe..

Things you need:

2 ripe mangoes seeded  and sliced
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp gelatin soaked in 2 tbsp of cold water
250 ml or 1/2 tin of condensed milk
2 tbsp chocolate grated (optional)

Procedure:

    Blend the mango in a blender adding the milk and sugar until well blended and pulpy. Dissolve the gelatin by double boiling method. Add this to the blended mango milk mixture. Add the condensed milk and stir well to form a uniform mixture. Pour this to a pudding dish and refrigerate for two hours. Serve after cooling garnished with chocolate flakes.

Recipe by : Fathima Sinsi

Lemon Pudding

          It had bugged me for some time  how I could incorporate lemon into a pudding or ice cream. The fact that lemon curdles milk, irked me and kept me from experimenting... Nevertheless, the thought that the tangy flavour of lemon would be too good in a pudding, took my fancy. It was one of my friends who suggested that we might add cold milk because most of the fermentations  and curdling processes happens in a particularly warmer condition or climate. In fact, I have been peeved more than once, when my batter for 'dosha' didn't ferment in cold weather. That really piqued my interest and nudged the sleeping scientist in me to awakenness. So I added cold milk taken right out from the fridge and Hooray! you have a very handsome lemon pudding... no signs of curdling..! I also took great care to add milk at the last moment, just before cooking. So there.. this pudding is too easy to make and has a very distinguished flavour.

Things you need:

1 cup of cold milk
2 medium sized eggs beaten
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp lemon zest/ lemon skin scraped
1 1/2 tbsp white flour/maida
6 tbsp sugar
1 tsp butter

Method:

   Grease a round shaped vessel with butter. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add lemon juice to it. Add lemon zest and beat again. Dissolve the sugar in 1/2 cup of cold milk and pour it into the egg mixture. Dissolve the white flour or maida in another 1/2 cup of cold milk without any lumps and pour this into the mixture. Mix everything well. Pour it into a buttered bowl. Cook by double boiling method by keeping it in a closed vessel with water for half an hour over low heat. Take off from heat and serve with caramel syrup after cooling. Decorate with lemon slices. Preparation of caramel syrup have already been explained in Caramel Banana Pudding recipe. But you need to add more water so that you have enough syrup for the pudding to bath in...
 

                                                     
                                                                    Njoy.... :)

The Evolution

                  While at home, in my homeland, it is fun tracking the cooking careers of my kith and kin.Some have evolved from amateur cooks to utter professionals..some have found better meanings to their cooking saga..still some have stood stagnant in their culinary skills unable to balance between cooking and other more important chores they have..It was my younger sister in law Shebi, who left me spell bound with her cooking advancements.She had come to her in laws with nothing on her plate, like all of us, but has improved dramatically.The fact that she got more time to be with our mother in law, who is a great cook, would have served as the stepping stone..She has a lot of quick to cook dessert recipes with her and this is one of them...Caramel Banana Pudding.When she transferred it to the serving plate, I couldn't help taking its pictures, coz it looked awesome..


          Caramel Banana Pudding

Things you need:



1/2 Lr milk
6 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 ripe plantains sliced thinly
10-15 dates seeded and sliced
3 tbsp ghee
3 tbsp custard powder


For caramel syrup:


1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water


Cherries for decoration


Procedure:


                Blend together the milk,eggs,custard powder and sugar with a whisk and keep aside.Cut the ripe plantains to small pieces and saute in heated ghee until brown. Seed the dates and slice to small pieces and saute in ghee after plantains.Add this to the milk egg mixture.Now add vanilla essence to it.


Caramel Syrup: Heat a thick bottomed pan and add sugar to it.Stir continuously till brown and add water to it.Stir well and keep aside after it boils.


  Method:        
                  Grease a baking dish with ghee or butter and pour the caramel syrup to it.Now, pour the pudding mixture and taking care not to tilt the dish, keep it in a vessel containing water and cook in medium heat, cowering the vessel, for half an hour.Check by inserting a bamboo skewer in the middle of the pudding, and if it comes out clean, pudding is done.Switch off burner and allow to cool.After cooling, transfer it to a plate carefully detaching the sides first.Decorate with cherries and serve after cooling.
                                  

                             Recipe by: Shebini Hejas