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Ideally I should be making a hot bowl of soup for this climate. Nope its not snowing or raining in Bahrain, but we have a chilled climate, perfect for sipping a warm soup. Moreover both of us Jose & myself are busy sneezing & coughing. Yet I went ahead & made a pudding, that’s how crazy I am ;) It all started with my desire to be a more organised person in the new year. As a first step I wanted to arrange my kitchen cupboards and there I met one of my long lost friend, sitting all alone in a corner ….Milkmaid ;). After exchanging initial greetings, we got into the details. It’s expiry date was a few days ago!!  Something had to be done urgently and I started going through my recipe collections and finally landed on this recipe. See, I cant be blamed for making pudding, it’s all for a cause – to be a more organised person. Ahhh… I feel so much relieved now, I’ve passed the blame to resolutions ;)

Now about the recipe, its a pretty basic pudding recipe and as usual its a very simple & easy one. No baking or steaming or fancy ingredients and you wont take more than 20-25 mins for making this (excluding chilling time). If you compare the effort you put in for making this, with the outcome, its worth trying :) and its eggless too.

Here is the recipe:

For chocolate pudding

1. Milk – 2.5 cups
   Sugar – 4 tbsp
   Chocolate chips- 3/4 cup (refer notes)
2. Cornflour – 4 heaped tbsp
3. Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp

For Vanilla sauce

1. Milk – 1 cup
   Sugar – 1 tbsp
   Condensed milk (milkmaid) – 1/2 of a standard size tin
2. Cornflour – 4 tsp
   Water – 1/4 cup
3. Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
4. Butter – 50 gms (refer notes)

Pudding preparation:

Grease a pudding dish with butter & keep aside. Add 4 tbsp heaped cornflour to 1/2 cup milk. Mix well without any lumps and keep it aside. Combine remaining 2 cups of milk, 4 tbsp of sugar & 3/4 cup of chocolate. Keep stirring & bring this to a boil, reduce the heat and add the cornflour milk mixture to this. Stir continuously till it becomes a thick & pouring consistency. The chocolate should also be melted by now. Remove from fire and add vanilla essence. Mix well. Pour this pudding mixture to the prepared pudding dish. Let it cool to the room temperature. Refrigerate it for 4-5 hours.

Vanilla sauce preparation:

Add 4 tsp of cornflour to 1/4 cup water & mix well without lumps, keep it aside. Combine 1 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tin of condensed milk. Stir well & let it boil. Reduce heat and gradually add the cornflour mixture. Mix & cook till you get the consistency of a sauce. Add vanilla essence & mix well. Remove from fire. Add chopped butter to the sauce & stir till it melts. Cool it to room temperature. Refrigerate and serve with chilled pudding.

Notes:

You can use any cooking chocolate (grated or cubed) instead of chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate chips. Though the original recipe uses 50 gms of butter, I used only 25 gms for the vanilla sauce. I used low fat milk for both the pudding and the sauce. You can make this a day or two in advance & refrigerate it. You can also serve the pudding with whipped or fresh cream instead of vanilla sauce. I used a bundt pan for the pudding. Once the pudding is set, unmold the pudding to a serving dish and pour the vanilla sauce over the pudding.

Recipe source: Lakshmi Nair, Magic Oven, Kairali TV

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It’s that time of the year when the whole world is in a festive mood. Peace & joy are the two words that come to my mind whenever I think about Christmas time. I think those two words are very much relevant today especially in the background of Mumbai terror attacks. It is a sad fact that frequency of such brutal attacks are on the rise in present times. Hope and pray that all the responsible parties will stop the blame game and do something meaningful and productive to prevent such evils.

Along with millions of people I also pay tribute to those who have lost their lives & their loved ones. Also pray that those who have sustained through that nightmare find the courage to overcome that horrifying experience. Let this Christmas time help us to regain the hope for a peaceful & joyous world.

Through this post I’ve revisited one of the recipes I posted during the initial days of blogging. I’ve made only minor changes in the recipe (back then I wasn’t able to post a pic of the same). So am posting the recipe again. I would say this is one of the easiest and yummy deserts that you could make at a very short notice.

Here is the recipe:

1. Bread – 4 slices
   Butter – 2 1/2 tbsp
2. Milk – 3/4 cup
   Egg – 1
   Sugar – 1/4 cup & 1-2 tbsp
   Vanilla essence – 1/4 tsp
   Cinnamon powder – 1/4 tsp
3. Cashew nuts & raisins – a handful,chopped

Grease a steaming dish. Remove the crust from bread pieces & apply butter to both sides. Cut in triangular shape or cubes. Spread these pieces in the dish. Sprinkle the chopped nuts & raisins over the bread pieces. Combine milk, sugar, egg, vanilla essence & cinnamon powder. Beat well. Pour this over the bread pieces. Cover the dish with aluminium foil.

Fill water to the 1/4th of the steamer/appachembu. Place the pudding dish in the steamer. Cook on high flame for 14 minutes. Switch off the gas and keep the steamer closed for 4 more minutes. Open the steamer and take out the dish and remove the foil. Allow it to cool for sometime. Serve warm or cold.

Notes: I used butter bread and Amul butter. I think these two factors enhanced the flavor of the pudding (You can use either salted or unsalted butter, it’s a personal choice). Though you can serve it cold, we preferred it warm. If leftover is there, refrigerate and microwave the pudding for 15-25 seconds before serving. There are a variety of recipes for bread pudding, so I don’t claim any authenticity for this recipe. It’s just the way we like it, hope you also  like it :) . The above measurements is good to serve 3 persons.

You can see the old version here.

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I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Though we celebrated, I didn’t cook much this time…I outsourced everything for a change :)The only thing I made was mousse pudding with stewed pineapple and praline. Mousse pudding is nothing but china grass pudding, it’s very basic stuff and easy to make. I’ve posted the recipe of mousse pudding in the initial days of my blogging and I wasn’t able to put the picture that time. Moreover I used to have it without pineapple those days, so am just publishing the modified version.

You can see the mousse pudding recipe here.

For the base:

Pineapple – 2 medium chopped

Sugar – 1 cup

Cook the chopped pineapple with sugar, till the juice is completely dried and the pineapple is coated well with sugar. Let it cool. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

For the topping:

Cashew nuts – 10 – 15

Sugar – 2-3 tbsp

Melt sugar in a bottom heavy pan. Once the sugar is completely melted and becomes golden brown in colour add the cashewnuts. Switch off the gas and stir the cashew nuts so that it is coated well with the caramel. Transfer the nuts to aluminium foil or butter paper. Once it is cooled, crush it with rolling pin and later grind it coarsely.

Serving suggestion: Spread the stewed pineapple as the base layer, moose pudding as the middle and praline as the top layer.

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This pudding was made to celebrate a small milestone that I achieved in blogging. This is my 100th cooking post! ~WoW~ When I started blogging… I never thought I’d be able to maintain it for more than a few months. But MariasMenu.com is now more than a year old and am still blogging. I’d like to say a “BIG THANK YOU” to my husband (who inspired me to start this), my family & friends (and blogging friends) and ESPECIALLY my main motivator… YOU, my readers, for your unending support and encouragement.

Speeches apart… now let’s start cooking :)

This is a simple & easy to make pudding. The base is mostly bread pudding and the topping is meringue. You can stop with the base if you like it that way. So here is the recipe for the Queen of Puddings.

1. Fresh white bread crumbs – 75gm, 3 pieces approx
   Granulated sugar – 25gm
2. Full cream milk – 450 ml
   Butter – 25 gm
   Grated rind of 1 lemon
3. Eggs – 2 medium, separated
4. vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
5. Seedless raspberry jam – 2 tbsp
6. Caster sugar – 50 gm

Preheat the oven to 170 degree/325 F. Oil a 900 ml/ 1 1/1 pint baking dish. and reserve. Mix the breadcrumbs and sugar together in a bowl. Pour the milk into a small saucepan and heat gently with the butter and lemon rind until the butter has melted. Add the vanilla essence & stir well. Allow the mixture to cool a little, then pour over the breadcrumbs. Stir well and leave to saok for 30 minutes.Whisk the egg yolks into the cooled breadcrumb mixture and pour into the prepared dish. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until firm and set. Remove from the oven. ( If you don’t want topping, you can stop at this stage. Once the pudding is cooled, keep in fridge and serve cold)

Allow to cool slightly, then spread the jam over the pudding. whisk the egg whites until stiff and standing in peaks. Gently fold in the caster sugar with a metal spoon. Pile the meringue over the top of the pudding. Return the dish to the oven for a further 20 -25 minutes, or until the meringue is crisp and just slightly colored. Serve hot or cold.

Happy Cooking!

Notes: Be careful to use baking dish of the correct size to get the right thickness for the base.
Recipe source: Everyday Cookery, Baking

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A traditional & easy desert recipe with simple ingredients.

1. Milk – 1/2 litre
2. Eggs – 4
3. Condensed milk – 1 tin of 400 gms (approx)
4. Corn flour – 2 teaspoon
5. Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
6. Sugar – 2-3 dessert spoon

For Pudding

Beat condensed milk & eggs well. Add milk to this mixture & beat well. Take a little of this mixture & add to corn flour & make a paste. Add the corn flour paste & vanilla essence to the milk mix. Mix well.

For Caramel

Spread 2-3 dessert spoon of sugar in the caramelising dish. Add some water & caramelise it. When it becomes golden brown colour, take it off from stove. Let the caramel set. Once it is set pour the pudding mix over this. Cover the dish with aluminium foil. Pour 2 glasses of water in pressure cooker. Keep the pudding dish in that & cook for 10 minutes on slow fire after putting the weight. Turn off the gas. Keep the dish in pressure cooker for another 30 – 45 minutes. Once the dish is cooled keep in fridge for 3- 4 hrs.

Check out the photo of Caramel Custard, made by Rekha Unni, one of the readers of MariasMenu, based on the above recipe. Thank you so much dear :)

Check out the photo of Caramel Custard, made by AshithaAmeen, one of the readers of MariasMenu, based on the above recipe. Thanks dear :)

Source:My aunty,Litty aunty

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1. Sponge Cake/White cake – 1/2 kg
2. Pineapple – 2cups(chopped)
   Sugar – 1/2 cup
3. Custard Powder – 2 tablespoon
4. Milk – 1/2 litre
5. Sugar – 5 tablespoon
6. Whipping Cream – 1 cup
7. Mixed fruit jam – 5 tablespoon
8. Vanilla essence – 1/4 teaspoon
9. Cherry – to garnish

Add chopped pineapple to a pan along with 1 cup water. When it is almost done add 1/2 cup sugar. When the sugar is melted remove from fire. Let it cool. Take 1/2 cup milk from 1/2 litre & keep it aside. Boil the rest of the milk.Add 5 tablespoon sugar to this & stir well. Add custard powder to the 1/2 cup milk which is kept aside & mix well without any lumps.When the milk is boiled add custard mix & stir well on low fire for 5 minutes.Let it boil. Remove from fire & cool it. Add vanilla essence to this & stir.When it is cooled add whipping cream to the custard & mix well.Add Jam to a pan & add 3 tablespoon water & boil it to make a syrup.

Spread cake pieces in the pudding dish as the first layer.Pour jam syrup over all cake pieces. Spread the pineapple along with the syrup over this. Add custard to the fruit layer. Make one more cake layer & repeat the same. Decorate with pineapple & cherry pieces. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Source:Lakshmi Nair

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