Mango Pudding

If you ask me which is my favorite color, the reply would most likely be a long & inconclusive answer. Coz I love them all! I am pretty sure there are others that have the same opinion. Or, my short answer would be, 'it depends' :)
Like the smell of my favorite foods, each color to me brings fond memories of dear ones, like yellow. It is my dad's absolute favourite color. My mom has all kinds of saris in all shades of yellow-bright yellow being the most prominent of them. She even has more than two that are the exact same! When I was a little girl, all the dresses he would bring me after his trips were yellow. As a newly married couple, he took us to this new mall in Chennai to get our onakkodi for our first Onam. It was this beautiful beautiful salwar in this bright yellow and white and lovely green. Absolutely lovely. After almost 10 years, the style of the salwar is not trendy anymore but I looove wearing it.

After that intro you wouldn't be surprised that I picked yellow for FIC:Favourite, conceptualized by Sunshinemom of TongueTicklers and hosted by Curry Leaf. My parents just got here to spend the summer with us, so I made mango pudding for my dad on Sunday. We enjoyed the bright yellow, sinfully yummy (with all the calorie rich ingredients!) pudding. But then when I sat down to write about it, I realized that the deadline for FIC:Favourite was yesterday which I narrowly missed.

Since this is a dessert with Mango, I am sending it to Srivalli's Mango Mela.

Being a novice blogger, it is great to discover creative blogs and interesting events every day. Awesome blogs and really lovely events, ladies. Hats off to you gals!

Now off to the recipe -
This is quick to assemble. Like someone said, this is the dessert you make when you've planned to put together a nice fancy dinner for a bunch of people but don't want to compromise and serve store bought icecream, at the same time, you are so overwhelmed to think about dessert :)

I have made this two or three times with gelatin earlier, before I knew that gelatin is of animal origin. Ever since I knew that, I have been wondering about agar agar, the plant substitute for gelatine. I used agar agar on Saturday morning according to package directions on one of my own test recipes. It was yummy to eat when slightly warm before I chilled it in the fridge, but it turned stone hard in a matter of 2 hours! I couldn't even scoop it out. Yes, it was that bad :(
I am so glad I didn't try agar agar for the first time in the mango pudding. Phew! So when I made the pudding on Sunday, I used much much less than the suggested quantity of agar agar, it turned out just the way I wanted.

Ingredients -
1, 8 oz pack of Cream Cheese (I used the Philadelphia brand)
1, can of Kesar Mango Pulp - the can I used was 1 lb and 14 oz (850 gm)
1, 8 oz can of sweetened condensed milk (I have used Carnation and La Lechera, both are fine)
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon agar agar powder - I read somewhere that it is also available as flakes. This is a fine powder that I used. I bought this one at the healthfood store. It's brand name is 'Now'.

Method -
It would be better to take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator and leave it on the countertop for 1 or 2 hours before you mix everything together. This makes it easier to beat.
Warm 1/2 cup of water in a pan and add the agar agar powder slowly while stirring the water so no lumps are formed. Alternatively, you can mix the agar agar powder in 1/2 cup water very well and bring it to a boil while stirring really well. Boil for a good 4 or 5 minutes so the agar agar powder sortof dissolves in water and the whole thing becomes semi jelly like. Set aside. (I kept an eye on it, stirring it once in a while.)

In a medium to large bowl, empty the cream cheese from the pack and beat well with an electric beater for 2 or 3 minutes without any lumps. To this, add the mango pulp and beat well for another 2 or 3 minutes. Now add the can of condensed milk and beat again to incorporate everything. To this add the agar agar mixture and beat it; make sure it is well incorporated. Pour this mix into a serving bowl and cover it, chill in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 hours or overnight.
There you have it, creamy and delectable mango pudding. We loved having this luscious pudding for dessert after our Sunday lunch. Made from the high calorie condensed milk and cream cheese, what's not to like? :)

Enjoy!