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!

A simple dessert with MSCG (Milk, sugar, coconut, ghee) - no, not MSG!

This is probably the first dessert I made on my own as a teenager.

It was easy for me to make because there was no guesswork invloved - the ratio of ingredients is 4:3:2:1. (Needless to say, just make sure all ingrdients are measured using the same measuring cup!)

In other words, these are what you need:

Milk - 4 cups
Sugar - 3 cups
Grated Coconut - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup

In my family as I am sure in many other families, I have never seen anyone tasting any dish during the cooking process. My mom, father, (he is an expert cook!) grandmother, aunts, could easily tell there was not enough salt (or sugar, or anything) in a particular dish by just the aroma floating around when it cooks. This was critical in our tradition because pooja & naivedyam(offering to the deity) are so a part of our every day lives.

Eagerly starting to cook as a teenager, I used to have a hard time in the kitchen with my grandmother watching me and gently reminding me, making sure I don't taste anything. So, no wonder in those days my dishes turned out either saltless (or saltful, for that matter) or very bland or realllly spicy. As I recall now, the best part is, she would give me tips to fix my dishes. As most grandmas, she didn't have a recipe book, she just made finger licking food!!

So this recipe was a godsend for an eager and amateur cook like me. This was taught to me by my great aunt who visited us from Delhi.

Method:
Measure all ingredients into a thick bottomed pan. Mix well to flatten any lumps.
On the hot stove, keep stirring it so it does not stick to the bottom. When it all comes together and the ghee starts separating, remove from fire.
Sprinkle powdered elaichi (cardamom) if you'd like. I love cardamom!

That's it. You could add fried cashews, fried raisins, unsalted pistachios, etc to make it more festive (and rich!). I like to make the basic recipe every once in a while, because I can really make as little as I want.

Talking about not tasting while cooking, I lost those talents acquired from my moms' kitchen (or the kitchen my mother and grandmother shared) as soon as I arrived in my own kitchen. This I attribute to all the new ingredients I started experimenting with all of a sudden. These days, I'd have a general idea but definitely check for salt/sugar or anything before I serve.