An annoying day turned into a delicious one…
Yesterday dawned as a gloomy, lousy day for me. A day when I wished the sun had set the moment it had risen. Looked at the sky now and then through my window and eagerly waited for the shades of darkness to spread the sky. It bloomed as a bad day and it ended in the same way too. After all the frustration, I was neither in the mood for cooking nor for devouring anything.
Late in the evening, while surfing through the refrigerator my eyes fell onto the canned lychee that had been sitting there for several months. Every time I opened the refrigerator for no specific reason, this continued to happen. Finally I seized the can from the refrigerator and placed it on the counter top hoping for some ideas to trigger me. First thought I had was to eat the fruit straight from the can, which didn’t sound that impressive to me. Slowly my frustrated brain started to get active and on the other hand my exhausted taste buds pleaded for something sweet. When these two combined, I felt like I was getting out of my blues and was soon seen myself getting along well with the lychees. After a couple of mixings, canned lychee turned into a delightful pudding. Witnessing this, my taste buds danced with joy and a forkful of this lychee pudding managed to put a smile on my face.
This pudding having the flavor of both coconut and lychee and the crunchiness from the almonds and pistachios will turn your any day into a delicious one.
Lychee Pudding
Ingredients
- Milk- 1 cup
- Coconut milk, thick- 1/2 cup
- Canned lychee, rinsed, coarsely pureed- 3/4 cup
- Condensed milk- 3 tbsp if using sweetened canned lychees or depending upon your needs
- Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
- Almond slices- 2 tbsp
- Pistachios, shelled, sliced- 1tbsp
- Agar-agar strands or china grass, 1 inch strands- 1/4 cup, (soaked in water and boiled to melt the strands)
- Unsweetened Cocoa powder- 1 tsp/bowl to sprinkle over the pudding
Note: You could substitute agar-agar with Gelatin.
Gelatin-1/2 tbsp, sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp cold water in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.
Instruction:
- Soak the agar-agar strands in 1/4 cup water for 5 minutes and boil it stirring continuously to melt the strands.
- Keep aside the melted agar-agar, don’t keep it too long as it hardens pretty easily.
- In a saucepan, heat milk over medium heat.
- Add coconut milk and lychee puree to the milk.
- Add condensed milk, vanilla extract and combine everything well.
- Heat the mixture but don’t allow the lychee mixture to come to a boil.
- When the mixture is heated through, add the melted agar-agar or softened gelatin and give it a stir.
- Remove from the heat, add the sliced almonds and pistachios.
- Pour into dessert bowls or ramekins sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and let cool down.
- After it has cooled down, keep it in the refrigerator to set, maybe for an hour.
- While serving, cover the dessert bowl with the dessert plate, turn it upside down and tap on the back of the bowl, the pudding will fall onto the plate.
- Sieve cocoa powder over the pudding.
Tips:
- If you are using sweetened canned lychees, add less condensed milk, taste it and add according to your needs.
- You could use gelatin instead if agar-agar.
- Milk- 1 cup
- Coconut milk, thick- ½ cup
- Canned lychee, rinsed, coarsely pureed- ¾ cup
- Condensed milk- 3 tbsp if using sweetened canned lychees or depending upon your needs
- Vanilla extract- ½ tsp
- Almond slices- 2 tbsp
- Pistachios, shelled, sliced- 1tbsp
- Agar-agar strands or china grass, 1 inch strands- ¼ cup, (soaked in water and boiled to melt the strands)
- Unsweetened Cocoa powder- 1 tsp/bowl to sprinkle over the pudding
- Soak the agar-agar strands in ¼ cup water for 5 minutes and boil it stirring continuously to melt the strands.
- Keep aside the melted agar-agar, don't keep it too long as it hardens pretty easily.
- In a saucepan, heat milk over medium heat.
- Add coconut milk and lychee puree to the milk.
- Add condensed milk, vanilla extract and combine everything well.
- Heat the mixture but don't allow the lychee mixture to come to a boil.
- When the mixture is heated through, add the melted agar-agar or softened gelatin and give it a stir.
- Remove from the heat, add the sliced almonds and pistachios.
- Pour into dessert bowls or ramekins sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and let cool down.
- After it has cooled down, keep it in the refrigerator to set, maybe for an hour.
- While serving, cover the dessert bowl with the dessert plate, turn it upside down and tap on the back of the bowl, the pudding will fall onto the plate.
- Sieve cocoa powder over the pudding.
You could use gelatin instead if agar-agar.
