Coconut Pudding

Yesterday my mother’s friend came home…I call her S aunty.it being new year’s eve, she and some  other friends wanted to have a small get together  .We decided we would each get a dish or two and meet up at my mother’s friend ‘s place. Quick Phone calls and the menu was decided. I decided to make Ghee rice, Vegetable Kurma and Coconut Pudding.

It was a hectic day. For starters I realised that my pantry was under stocked. I did not have all the vegetables required to make the kurma and my stock of basmati rice was depleting….So I put Aniket to sleep and hopped over to a nearby supermarket. When I came back home Aniket had got up. He got inquisitive the moment he saw me with all the bags. Did it have any goodies for him or not?Good question.He decided to find out for himself .He pulled out the bags kept on top of the table found a packet of biscuits and asked me to open it for him.

 Finally I started  to cook. First I made the pudding, then the ghee rice and the kurma came last .Of course I took intermittent intervals to stop Aniket from unpacking the bags I got ,pulling this and that and generally messing up my already messed up kitchen. His loves playing around with kitchen vessels and plastic containers .So he just put this fascination to good use, brought down all the vessels pretending to cook with me.

All the dishes came out well….but the pudding took the limelight…I caramelised the nuts but couldn’t find our little kitchen pestle so I had to break it with the back of a spoon…and they didn’t look crumbly like praline.

I got nice juicy coconuts today…I scraped out only the white part without the brown flakes because that makes tastier Coconut pudding. You can see the recipe below-:

Ingredients

Milk-500 ml(boiled)

Coconut-1 grated

Sugar-8-10tbsp or more

Gelatin-30gms

Condensed milk-1 tin

Vanilla essence-1 drop

Method

 Grind the coconut in a blender to strain out thick coconut milk. Keep it aside. Grind it again with little water and strain thin coconut milk. Mix thin coconut milk, 1 tin condensed milk and milk .Heat it. Add required sugar. Then add thick coconut milk. Boil. Add sugar if required again. Add water to gelatin just enough to soak it. Then double boil it or add hot water to it to dilute . Add gelatin to milk mixture. Stir for some time. Add the essence. Give a good stir. Allow to cool. Refrigerate( at least for 5 hours). Serve with praline.

Notes:

Make sure you use only white part of coconut without the brown flakes

Sugar can be increased accordingly.

Verdict: My mom’s friends loved it….Even my mother who dislikes condensed milk lovd it…She asked me to make more…. and  surely I will….

Coconut Barfi

Coconut barfi-This was the first sweet I made.This was  in my 12^th grade and all through college when you would get galvanized watching ace chefs and savvy housewives weaving their magic in the kitchen in innumerable  TV shows. During these shows I would promptly prop myself against the TV diligently noting down the ingredients and instructions of many unheard recipes ,confident that I would recreate the magic in my own kitchen.I would get up , stride into my kitchen still under the spell.But I would begin cooking only to realise that   my chapathis were , not yet, -so perfect or that  the curry had turned out to be too sour.  Experience would let me know that -Only Practice makes a man perfect.

But things were different with coconut barfi.

Coconut barfi was  my  first expedition  into the kitchen .To my surprise it came out really well, the first time itself ,and rekindled my faith that I am a Chef in the making.

And now  I was reminded of this easy to make sweet again ..May be it was the commercials aired for the movie Barfi.One cannot draw a tangent- I know.But oh!This humorous me …I did draw one.Every time I would see the trailers I don’t know why I would also feel like eating coconut barfi.Funny a`int ‘I?

So I rummaged through my grocery and found a packet full of dessicated  coconut .Making coconut barfi is easy and it was  ready in minutes-spreading  the aroma of  coconuts and cardamom  in its each bite…

Ingredients
Coconut-2 cups(I used dessicated coconut)
Sugar-21/4-11/2 cup depending on how sweet you want it to be
Ghee-2tbsp
Water -¾ cup or just enough to cover sugar
Cardamom -4pods

Method
Take a heavy bottomed pan .Add the sugar and water. Keep stirring consistently .Let it boil till it reaches two- thread consistency..Then add the grated coconut. Keep stirring consistently. When the mixture bubbles,  add  ghee and cardamom pods.Stir till the mixture becomes thick and gets frothy at the edges .  The mixture should  start leaving the sides of the vessel and It comes off easily without sticking to sides of the vessel.(Some people add ghee and cardamom now).At this stage transfer the mixture  to a greased pan.Level the mixture with a flat spatula.Let it cool .Cut it out  into squares within 10 minutes.Serve or refrigerate if it is to be used later than 3-4 days.


Notes
Please ensure that only the white part of the grated coconut is used for the preperation.Avoid the brown flakes of coconut from getting mixed with it
Run the coconut in the grater couple of times so that the burfi turns out to have a smooth surface if you donot preferit to have a coarse surface.
You can also add 1/4 cup of milk after coconut is added to sugar syrup and bubbles come.However continue stirring till the mixture thickens.

Verdict:My coconut barfi  was “coconuty”- as delicious as ever.Little Aniket,my sonny, loved it.Thats the biggest pat on my back.