Gajar Peda / Carrot Fudge - Step by Step

Somehow couldn't push myself to post in the last two weeks. It has been a roller coaster ride of events, some good and some not so. My childhood best friend made a surprise visit to Toronto from California, during her east coast vacation. It was such a treat meeting her after more than decade making old memories come afresh.

Coming to the present, it seems Christmas just went and now Good Friday is already gone and Easter in a day..It is true that in a Christian's life all these three events must have tremendous meaning every single day..but I'm thankful that we observe them outwardly also to proclaim and to seal the truth of Jesus Christ coming into this world. Especially the message of Good Friday helps me to revive, re-commit and re-dedicate myself to follow our Lord to re-fill the gratitude in me for what He has done and Easter re-assures us the power of salvation with the Resurrection of our Lord. Thinking about Easter also makes me so nostalgic about the childhood days when my family used to attend the early morning 4.30 worship service and yes those Easter Saturdays where special too. Preparing for Easter Sunday, threadling the fresh jasmine flowers into garlands to decorate our braids, new set of clothes, waking up at 3.00am midnight to get ready to go church and checking into some star hotel restaurant for after service breakfast with family. Amma, Nanagaru thanks for giving me those precious moments which I will always treasure down the lane. Happy Easter to you and to all our family.


So, celebrating the occassion with a sweet treat. I know, I know, I said I will post more vegan recipes this month, but since i didn't publish last two weeks, guess will have to do a pattern now. Recently one of our friend from our building send some home made Carrot halwa for us. It tasted so good that I was inspired me to try my own. I went a step ahead to make Carrot Fudge/kova or Gajar Peda by adding dry milk or khoya to the regular gajar halwa and making pedas from it which really helps in portion control too. You can freshly prepare khoya from scratch or use store bought or like me use the instant mix.

Ingredients :
1 lb carrots
5 tbsp ghee
1 cup sugar
1 can Evaporated milk
1 pkt Carrot halwa Khoya mix
Nuts of choice.
Here is the step by step making of it:
Shred 1 lb carrots around 3 big ones.

Heat 1 Tbsp of Ghee to a wide pan and then roast the crated carrots for a minute or two.

Now add 1 cup of sugar and cook till the sugar is dissolved into the carrots.

Add 1 can evaporated milk and cook till it is fully absorbed into the carrot mixture.

Once the milk is evaporated, add 2 tbsp of ghee and choice of cashew or pista a handful.

Cook till the mixture leaves ghee.

At this stage carrot halwa is ready, if you want to continue to carrot kova add the sweetened dry milk powder or khoya.

I used the instant khoya mix. Here is how it looks after adding and mixing it thoroughly.

After the khoya mix is totally incorporated into the halwa, add another tbsp of ghee mix and transfer to a greased bowl.


Now grease hand with ghee and take small lemon size balls and press them into pedas and decorate with almond in the middle.

Cardamom Caramel Pudding

AKA The famous Egg Pudding

Happy New Year to all!!! Welcome 2011!!! Hope you bring blessings with you!!! Well its already making news by recording setting temperatures here today at +11c for this time of winter.
Lets starts this new year with a sweet to sweeten our lives all through the year...

Ha ha!!! I know my blog page is filled with dessert posts...I promise my next post will not be a sweet dish..So wait and watch for my next post which will be a spicy yummy flavourful easy to cook dish.

For now lets go ahead with my ever luving Egg pudding, which reminds me of our Telugu version of Junnu..I think I mentioned about it in my Vattlappam post too..but can't help its so delicious that i had to brag about it here too..more over when this egg pudding is so similar to it.

Ingredients:
1 Pkt half and half cream(use skimmed milk for healthier version, if u can comprise taste)
4 eggs
3/4 + 1/4 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
6-8 Cardamom pods
Enough water
a pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 160-180˚c or 350F

Keep the pudding ramekins ready to pour the hot caramel sauce.

To the quarter cup of sugar add water just enough to melt it in a pan and cook it on medium heat stirring thoroughly.

Once the color of the liquid changes dark, pour a little into each of the prepared ramekins and set aside.

Whisk eggs thoroughly and to this add milk and keep whisking till all the egg is incorporated into the milk.

To this add rest of the sugar, and mix till sugar dissolves.

Add Vanilla essence, whole,crushed or powdered cardamom, salt and mix well.

Pour this mixture into each of the ramekins containing the caramel sauce.

Fill a wide, deep baking tray or pan with water up to 2/3 level.

Now place the milk filled ramekins on the tray containing water and bake for 45 - 60 mins or till the pudding is set at 325-350F.

Once the pudding looks firm and not wobbly you can be sure it is done.

Remove from the oven and let cool till room temperature, then chill it in the refrigerator till cold.

To serve run a knife through the edges of the ramekins and turn it upside down onto a serving plate to just enjoy it like that.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake - Going C agian for Christmas

So Christmas is finally here..Merry Christmas to all my family, relatives back home and my friends, my blog viewers and readers across the globe. May the joy and peace of Christmas fill your hearts and overflow abundantly. Though we miss a full white Christmas here in Toronto we are happy that we have clear roads to drive back and forth for Church services...

Being Christmas, I'm still continuing the sugar rush here on my blog. As promised, here is the Chocolate Chip cake which was made by default by using chocolate chips as excuse for raisins or other dried fruits...To my surprise the day i was baking i ran out of raisins in my pantry. Then suddenly i remembered that i had this small packet of semi sweet chocolate chips lying in one of the shelves for a long time..I actually bought them to bake some chocolate chip cookies for my kids who just luv them. But when we get PC's chocolate chip cookies for just $1.99, its easier to pick them up and treat kids rather invest my precious time on baking them. So this unused pkt of choco chips came to my rescue that day, also making me create a cake which i had never baked before.

I also noticed that my kids never do like raisins added in cakes, cookies or bread..they prefer to eat them just like that. So when i declared to them that i was baking chocolate chip cake, they were overjoyed so much that they even wanted to be a part of the picture I wanted to click to post here.

So going beyond the idea of using chocolate chips in cookies and muffins, this chocolate chip pound cake is born.

Ingredients250 gms butter(softened)
1 cup white or brown sugar
3-4 eggs
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup all-purpose flour or use whole wheat flour for healthier choice
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nut meg powder
1/4 cup Cocoa powder if you want color and cocoa flavour(I used very sparlingly, cause i had only unsweetened one)
A pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup frozen juice of ur choice( I used orange and passion fruit)
1/2 cup Evaporated milk to adjust the consistency of the cake batter.

Procedure:
Cut the portion of butter required and place it out of fridge before an hour to soften it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour your desired cake pan.

Measure all ingredients and keep them ready,

Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl until they turn creamy. Add eggs one by one and beat on low speed of electric mixer until blended, then on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Combine and swift together flour, nutmeg, baking powder cocoa powder(if using)and salt in a separate bowl, and fold these dry ingredients alternately with orange juice and evaporated milk to the batter mixture. Keep mixing while adding. add the milk only if necessary.

Mix half of the chocolate chips with a little flour and add to the cake mixture. Gently mix..Do not to over-mix.

Pour into Prepared greased pan/pans.

Add a layer of chocolate chips on the top

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes

As the cake rises fully and gets its shape, remove from the oven and add the last layer of chips. Return to the oven.

Once the cake gets a golden brown color, cover it with foil, shiny side up, and bake for the remaining time or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely

Mini Cashew Coconut Rum Cup Cakes with a hint of Cream Cheese - Going "C" for Christmas

Somehow this year I didn't marinate/soak any dried fruits for the traditional Christmas cake. So was not in a mood to bake at all. Then, last weekend when holidays started for kids, thought of making it special for them and suddenly I got a sprout for baking..after all it is not right for me to deprive kids of their childhood baking memories with mamma.

Since I did no planning for this cake baking...and didn't want to drive to pickup any stuff from the store too..I had to be creative to whip up with the ingredients at hand in my pantry and fridge.

So baked Cashew Coconut Rum Cake, in a loaf and in cake cups to make it kids friendly. Also baked a Chocolate Chip Cake which I will post next.
Cashew Coconut Rum Cake with Cream Cheese Incorporated :
Addition of cream cheese gives a dense texture to this cake. To keep the spirit of traditional Christmas cake, I thought of adding rum. Since i had open Malibu Coconut flavour I used the same. You can experiment with any flavour of choice. Since this rum is too sweet, I reduced the amount of sugar to adjust the sweetness.

Ingredients :
250 gms butter(softened)
1/2 cup Cream Cheese
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs

Flour & Powders:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice (optional)
1 pinch salt

Liquids
1 tbsp Vanilla extract or Coconut Essence
2 tbsp lime juice
1 cup Malibu Rum Coconut flavour
Milk or cream if necessary

Nuts:
1/4 cup Cashew nuts broken

Garnish:
Broken Cashew pieces



Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a loaf pan or which ever shaped pan using. Insert paper cup covers into tray of cup cake moulds.

Measure all ingredients and keep them ready, Take butter out of fridge before an hour to soften it.

Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl till blended and then add cream cheese and beat again till it is incorporated into the butter sugar mixture.

Crack eggs into this one by one beating in between . After adding all the eggs beat on low speed of electric mixer until blended, then on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Combine and swift together flour, allspice baking powder, soda and salt in a separate bowl, and fold these dry ingredients alternately with liquid ingredients. Keep mixing. Add enough milk if the batter is too thick to arrive at the right consistency for baking.

Add half of the cashew pieces to the blended mixture.

Pour into Prepared greased pan and cups tray.

Garnish with remaining broken cashew pieces.

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes for the loaf and 20 - 30 mins for the cup cakes.

Tip : Once the cake rises and gets the shape and is browning on the top, then remove from the oven and cover it with foil, shiny side up, and bake for the remaining time or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Remove the cup cakes from the tray and store separately.

Mango Kesari

AKA Mango Sujji Halwa / Mango Rawa Kesari
Can't believe its December already and we have less than a month to start another new year. December brings the sweet memories of preparing and celebrating Christmas back home..oh how I miss home especially this season. Thought it would be nice to post a sweet dish to kick start this festive month.

Regular readers of my blog would have followed my desserts with semolina. Its like I started making kesari with different fruit flavours..pineapple, banana and now mango..yea blog hopping one day lead me to Mango kesari..and boy it was simply delicious, though i was not welcoming the idea in the beginning, this turned out to be a really flavourful fudge like dessert. Choose ripe sweet mangoes or good quality sweet mango puree for better results.

Ingredients :
3 to 4 Tbsp - Ghee
1 cup - Semolina/Suji/Rawa
3 cups - Pureed Alfonso Mango pulp (I prefer Kesar brand)
1 cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cardamom powder
Few Saffron strands
2 Tbsp - Choice of nuts and dry fruits( I used cashew and raisin)

Method :
In a wide pan, melt ghee and fry cashew and raisin till color change, strain and remove. Keep aside.
In the same pan, add one more tbsp of ghee and add rawa to roast evenly till semolina turns the color slightly.
Now add mango pulp, slowly and mix thoroughly into the rawa. Keep adding and mixing till all the mango puree is incorporated into the semolina.
Add sugar and saffron milk and mix till sugar caramelizes and dissolves into the mango rawa mixture.
Add salt and cardamom powder.
Add the remaining ghee and continue mixing till the kesari leaves the surface.
Add half of the nuts and raisins. Remove from heat.
Pour into a greased tray. Cut into desired shapes or just scoop into serving dessert bowls and garnish with remaining cashew and raisins.

Banana Sujji Halwa

Toronto was under heat alert this week..Thank God we are getting some showers to bring down the temperatures. It has been a severe summer this year. Kids will return to school next week. They did have a good vacation. My kids are not so fond of Indian sweets, infact they don't like goodies if they too sweet. Good for them..They enjoy the roasted rava more whenever I make any sweet with semolina..And with deserts like these being loaded with sugar its a no-no for parents too.. Thanks to get togethers, pinics and some special events, which inspire us to venture into making of sweets too.

I saw this Banana Kesari one time when I was blog hopping. Had some ripe bananas at hand too..so likely whipped out a dessert for my after church fellowship time.


Ingredients :
1 Cup Rava or Semonlina
1 Ripe Banana thoroughly mashed
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 Tblsp Ghee or Butter
1 Tsp Banana Essence if available
1/2 Tsp Cardamom powder
1 Cup Water
2 Tbsp Cashew and Raisins
Green food coloring(optional)

Method
Heat one tbsp of ghee in a deep pan or kadai and fry the cashew and raisins till cashew turn golden brown and raisins pop up.
Remove and set aside.
In the same kadai add one more tbsp of ghee add rava and fry till all the ghee is absorbed by the rava.
Add sugar and mix well.
Now add the mashed banana to the rava and keep mixing.
Now keep adding water little by little till the rava is fully cooked.
If adding color mix it with the water as you are adding it.
Add the caradamom powder and mix well.
Add the remianing two tbsp of ghee and mix nice till the mixture leaves the surface of the pan.
Add cashew raisins and empty it in a wide plate greased with ghee.
Let it cool and cut into desired shaped or just serve in desert bowls.

Cherry Almond cake

No doubt desserts are packed with calories..but its not just the cals that count but the effects of them on our bodies. If we can't give up them at least find out ways to make these desserts as much diet friendly..

Wiki says Almonds are a rich source of vitamin E. They are also rich in monounsaturated fat, one of the two "good" fats responsible for lowering LDL cholesterol.

Claimed health benefits of almonds include improved complexion, improved movement of food through the colon and the prevention of cancer.
Almond is considered a nutritive for the brain and nervous system. It is said to induce high intellectual level and longevity.

Due to its low-carbohydrate ratio and its good dietary fibre almond flour is very desirable for use in cake, cookies and bread recipes by people on carbohydrate-restricted diets and patients suffering from diabetes.

This said I got an opportunity to make use of my stocked up almonds. To add a little color and fruit I choose to go with sweetened juicy cherries which where in my fridge for a long time. These cherries remind me of my childhood days when my granny use to(very rarely) buy them and treat us. There was this big jar of sweetened red juicy cherries in one of the most popular sweet shop in the city I lived back home. I used to drool at that jar of cherries when ever I visited the sweet stall. Since they were expensive, elders at home used to buy them only when we baked cake at home. So the moments with these cherries were precious.

Now here we go with the most nutritious almonds and treasured cherries to bake one sumptuous cake.

Ingredients
400 gms butter(softened)
1 -3/4 cups sugar
5-6 eggs

Flour & Powders:
1-1/2cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice (optional)
1 pinch salt

Liquids:
1 tbsp almond extract
1 tbsp Cherry extract
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 - 1 cup Evaporated milk

Fruit & Nut:
1/2 cup cherries in syrup (assorted, sliced)
1/2 cup Almonds made into Almond Paste or use store bought

For Almond Paste :
1/2 cup ground almonds
4 Tsp of milk
a pinch of rose water
2 Tbsp Sugar or Honey

Garnish:
5-7 Cherries sliced
5-7 Almonds chopped

Directions:

Blanch Almonds by adding them to boiled water and peel off skin. Dry them fully.

Grind Almonds to make powder.

Boil sugar with just a little water to soft ball consistency and add all the other ingredients under almond paste. Once the paste leaves the vessel remove from heat and pour into a small bowl for later use.

Alternatively you can use store bought Almond paste too.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour your desired cake pans. I usually use a loaf pan and a square pan.

Measure all ingredients and keep them ready, Take butter out of fridge before an hour to soften it.

Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl until they turn creamy Add in eggs. Beat on low speed of electric mixer until blended, then on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Combine and swift together flour, allspice(if adding, baking powder, soda and salt in a separate bowl, and fold these dry ingredients alternately with liquid ingredients except milk. Keep mixing

Add almond paste, mix. Add milk according to the consistency of the batter. Keep mixing while adding. Add sliced cherries. Gently mix to combine.

Pour into Prepared greased pan/pans.

Garnish with sliced cherries and chopped almonds

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes

Once the cake rises and gets the shape and is browning on the top, then remove from the oven and cover it with foil, shiny side up, and bake for the remaining time or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Sweet Potato Laddus/Balls

In my previous post of sweet potato, I had mentioned all the goodness that this root vegetable has to offer us. So to find a way or two to include this in our diet helps. In my childhood, apart from eating it just in boiled form, we use to enjoy it when granny adds it to a curry or my dearest aunt used to make these sweet laddus.

In fact once when I was visiting my cousins for a vacation in childhood, my Aunt made these laddus, with which I totally fell in love with. I was all praises for her that she could transform the just boiled sweet potato into this flavourful dessert treat in no time.

After marriage I too try to make these laddus once in a while.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Ghee
1 Tbsp Sugar
or
1 Tbsp Condensed milk
1/4 cup grated Coconut
Little salt to add while boiling the potatoes

Directions:
Cut the Sweet Potatoes into large chunks add enough water and salt and Pressure cook for 10 - 15 minutes.
Check to see if the potatoes are done by passing a knife through chunks.
If the knife passes freely, then remove from heat and discard water.
Remove skin once the potatoes can be touched without burning fingers.
Mash them a little and keep aside.
Roast the grated coconut in 1/2 tsp of ghee for a minute or so and add it to the mashed potato.
Now add ghee, sugar, condensed milk to the potato mixture and thoroughly mash and mix till all evenly mixed and the sugar is melted.
Grease fingers with the remaining ghee time to time and make small lemon size balls and serve immediately.
Good accompaniment for breakfasts.

Rava Laddu with Grated Coconut

Though I have a sweet tooth, when it comes to making traditional sweets I have always enjoyed them store bought or prepared by someone else.

As working women we some how squeeze time to cook for our daily meals. So taking time to make something extra like sweets or savouries is not much in my dictionary. I feel investing so much time on making these sweets is not much worth when we can get professionally made ones in sweet stores. More over sugar is one thing that is out of the menu list when it comes to a healthy diet. Nevertheless, blog hopping always inspires us to try new dishes. All the more when it is raining traditional Indian sweets in all the Indian Food blogs.

So this weekend I adventured on Rava laddu. Rava laddu is a traditional sweet made in South India..I think most of our South Indian food blogs have this in their "Sweets Recipe Index". Growing up I was not much a fan of this sweet, except when made by one of my aunt as a must for very Christmas.

Unlike most traditional sweets which take time and difficult steps to make, "rava laddu" can be made in a jiffy. It takes less than thirty minutes to make a plate full of laddus, provided all ingredients are available in our pantry. Its like you just thought to make them and in the next half hour they are ready for the family to enjoy, if you put your thought into action.

There a few different ways to make this sweet. Addition of ghee, grated coconut and milk make it moist and to enhance the flavour cardamom powder is added. After trying for a couple of times I really dicovered the secret of making moist firm laddus which are not too soft or too brittle to break. So here is the test and tried version of my Rava laddus.

Ingredients :
1 cup Semolina/Rava
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Ghee
1 Tsp Cardamom powder
2-3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp Cashew nuts and Raisins mixed



Directions:
Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a pot/Kadai/Pan, add cashew and raisins and fry till raisins are puffed up and cashew changes color slightly. Drain and remove. Set aside
Now add Grated Coconut and roast for a minute or two and then add 1/2 tbsp more ghee and add the rava to roast it thoroughly.
Keep stirring continually for 5 - 7 minutes coating the rava with ghee and mixing it with coconut. Add the cardamom powder and mix well.
Add sugar and keep stirring till the sugar is almost dissolved.
Add the roasted cashew and raisins.
Now add 1 Tbsp of milk and mix thoroughly as the rava tends to thicken up.
Remove the container from heat and spread a part of the rava mixture on a greased plate.
To this part add enough milk when still hot and mix to keep the rava moist and to make the laddus easily and to retain their shape.
With the remaining ghee keep greasing the fingers and quickly make ladoos of small lemon size.
Repeat the same with the reamining portion of rava mixture.
Usually for one cup of rava you can get 8- 10 laddus.
Store in a air tight container for up to a week.
Sending the Rava laddus for the Food blog events Sweet Series hosted by Sirisha and FIL -Ghee Sweets hosted by Sanghi

Gulab Jamun

As yet another Mother's day is just here...I thank the Lord for giving me mothers in my mom & grandmothers and blessing me to be wholesome women by making me mother to two sweet little sons. Incidently mother's day is more special in our family as my fisrt son Josh's b'day also falls during this time.

Nothing like celebrating this time with some traditional Indian sweets and savouries.
Think about Indian snacks and desserts ...who won't long for those chatpat Pakoras(Hindi), Pakodi(Telugu), Pakoda(Tamil) and those mouth watering Gulab Jamuns.

These two have been my favourite savoury and sweet from childhood. To light up your evening there is this Pakora with the desi chai, and to round up a meal there is this Jamun
One is a Starter and the other a Dessert.

So wishing all the mothers a happy motherhood, here is a the most famous Indian sweet - Gulab Jamun.

You can check out my recipe for pakoras here

Recipe for Gulab Jamun:
Ingredients :
1 cup Whole Milk Powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
(Alternately you can use 2 packets of store bought ready made gulab jamun mix)
1/2 tsp baking soda
75 gms thickened cream
2 Tbsp Ghee
approx 1/3 Cup Whole warm milk to make the dough
Oil for deep frying
A pinch of salt

For the Sugar Syrup
2 cups Sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tsp Rose essence/extract
1 tsp cardamom powder
A few Saffron strands(Kesar) - optional

First prepare the sugar syrup :
Dissolve 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water and bring to boil on meduim heat.
Add the rose essence, cardamom powder and saffron strands to the syrup.
Keep warm on stove to add the fried gulab jamun.

Making Jamuns:
Combine the milk powder, flour, baking powder, ghee and a pinch of salt
Add thickened cream to this.
Add enough milk to make a medium-hard dough.
Grease to your hands and make even size balls and place them on separate plate, taking care that the balls have smooth finish.
If the balls appear to be dry and crackled, see that your hands are greasy enough and add a bit more milk to the dough to moist and smooth.
Heat the oil on high and then lower the heat to medium.
Now slip one ball into the hot oil, it should rise to the surface slowly and not at once.
If the ball rises at once that means the temperature of the oil is too high which will burnthe balls and not cook them from inside.
If the first ball rises slowly, then add the remaining balls and fry till they turn brown.
The balls must be fried very slowly under medium temperature to ensure completely cooked inside and even browning outside.
The balls swell and become bigger in size and surface up as they fry and cook.
Once the jamuns are cooked drop them in the prepared warm sugar syrup.
Soak the gulab jamun in the sugar syrup for atleast 2 to 3 hours. You can soak overnight too for best results.
Serve them warm or at room temperature.

This is one sweet I use to make a number of times from my teenage.

My two little brats and hubby always enjoy the gulab jamuns.

A good combo with gulab jamun is ice cream, topped with dried crated pistachio or almonds. In Indian buffet restaurants this is a staple both here and back home.

Vattlappam - Coconut Jaggery Egg pudding

Vattlappam is a South Indian, Sri Lankan Tamil dessert. I had never tasted this when I was in India...But this so much resembles the Andhra special dessert preparation called 'Junnu'. The major difference in preparation of both these puddings is the kind of milk each use. "Junnu" is made with a special kind of milk called "junnu pal(in telugu) milked from a cow which has just delivered. Usually up to to 6 - 7 days you can get this concentrated milk from the new mummy cow. In Vattalappam we use coconut milk..People also mix evapourated milk in proportions.

So the 3 main ingredients for this pudding are Coconut milk , jaggery and eggs. Well in other combination if you replace the coconut milk with the regular milk and jaggery with sugar or brown sugar this can be the regular conventional "Egg pudding" or "caramel pudding" in simple terms.

I have tasted this in special Srilankan parties...It just took me back to those days when my mom used to make the fresh junnu, which is my favorite dessert, I literally die for it. I miss it so much. In my childhood days I used to enjoy this rare treat, when supplied with "junnu pal" by family friends who own a cow or the milk lady who supplies fresh cow milk door to door,( when the proceesed milk in packets was not so popular). Now from where will I get junnu pal in Canada. So thanks to coconut milk, which replaces junnu pal to make this pudding.

Lets see the recipe now.

Ingredients:
1 Can( 2 cups) Coconut milk (use 2 cups fresh coconut milk for best results)
1 Cup Evaporated milk
1 Cup Powered Jaggery ( depending upon how sweet you want)
4 whole Eggs plus 2 egg white
1 tsp Cardamom(Elachi) powder
A pinch of Nutmeg powder
A pinch of salt
1 tsp Black Pepper dust(optional)
2 tbsps roasted Nuts and Raisins(optional)

Procedure:

Whisk/beat eggs in a bowl with a hand blender.
Add coconut milk, evaporated milk, blend again.
Add powered jaggery whisk thoroughly till all the jaggery is dissolved in the milk and egg mixture. Taste for sweetness and increase if desired.
Add salt, nutmeg, elachi powder mix well.
Meanwhile boil hot water in a kettle.
Preheat the oven to 350c
Choose two deep baking trays(metal/glass) so that one easily fits into another leaving enough gap between the borders of the other.
Now pour the pudding mixture into the smaller tray and place it in the bigger one.
Fill the bigger tray with boiling hot water till the water comes half way to the tray inside.
Now sprinkle Black Pepper powder on top of the liquid mixture..(this is my addition)
Alternatively if you want you can use small ramekins to bake this pudding and place them in the hot water filled tray.
Now place all this equipment in the oven and bake for 45mins or till the pudding sets.
You can also steam this pudding in a cooker.
Arrange the fried cashew and raisins at this point on top of the pudding.
When the point of the knife comes clear when slipped into pudding, remove from the oven and let cool outside till room temperature and then transfer to the fridge for 1 or 2 hours.
When chill cut into desired shapes and serve.
To enjoy the flavours in this pudding it should not eaten be not too cold.
The coconut milk and jaggery contribute to the unique taste of this dessert.