Dark Chocolate Halloween Pudding with meringue ghosts and fondant pumpkins on cookie dirt. It’s our favourite pudding in yet another avatar. What’s not to love about pudding that comes together with pantry essentials in next to no time! What if I told you the pudding is eggless and gluten free too? All that and more. No refined sugar, and addictive good, it’s a pudding that’s been made often at home.This oat pudding turned out to be very popular and was made several times over when I shared it on Instagram stories. Folk found it addictive, easy to make and comparatively guilt free. Then again, anything chocolate is always popular. The Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding from my previous post was just another version of my original recipe.The pudding was inspired by these beautiful Daniel Wellington watches I was gifted recently. The classic good looks, vintage tans and smooth finish inspired how my puddings looked. I had such a great time bringing these together! It was published in The Hindu a few days ago.The original pudding had walnuts, but this Dark Chocolate Halloween Pudding went fall flavoured with cinnamon to stay in season. I wasn’t too sure cinnamon and chocolate would pair well. Of course I was proved quite wrong. They paired beautifully. The rest of the assembling is quite simple. You can make the meringue ghosts in advance. If you’d like to go completely egg free, skip the meringue ghosts. Maybe use marshmallows, or pipe ghosts out of stiff whipping cream, using chocolate chips as eyes.
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding with Pumpkin Mascarpone Mousse … dessert that was waiting to happen. Some things are meant to be and this certainly was. It’s a little late but is headed off for the #virtualpumpkinparty hosted by Sara over at Cake Over Steak. I had pudding ready in the fridge and some fresh pumpkin puree that I made yesterday.
There’s something about the season. The minute summer ebbs away, I reach out for the pumpkin. More often than never, you will find some oven roasted pumpkin in the fridge. On luckier days, I’ll have already made it into a puree! I love the sweetness it offers, and the ease of use. This was breakfast a few days ago, a very inspired one actually. The fresh pumpkin puree that I made day before was calling my name. So was my hungry rumbling tummy.
Trying to stay more full and get healthier everyday with least fuss {and more veggies!}, this fall inspired breakfast bowl was goodness stirred together. Greek yogurt whisked with honey and a 1/2 cup of fresh chilled pumpkin puree. Some absolutely delicious granola and a drizzle of honey finished it off. I roast pumpkin for salad too quite often. This is one of my favourites, a tossed salad with chickpeas!
So you can imagine that I’m a huge fan of this humble vegetable and the #virtualpumpkin party was just the thing to grab my attention. I read it off Amisha’s instastory on instagram, and Sara was good enough to have me over, even though I was late. The requirements for the pumpkin party were simple … ‘share an original pumpkin-based recipe on your blog. It can be a dessert, a main dish, a cocktail, etc. – it just needs to incorporate pumpkin or a similar winter squash in some way.‘
So here I am, with a really simple, fast track dessert, which is quite healthy actually. The base is a Dark Chocolate Oat Pudding, slightly different from the one I shared here a few days ago. I skipped the walnuts, made the process simpler, and used cinnamon to tie in the flavours. The layers are chocolate pudding, spices sweet pumpkin puree, and a whipped pumpkin mascarpone mousse. I made tiny fondant pumpkins too!
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding with Pumpkin Mascarpone Mousse
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding with Pumpkin Mascarpone Mousse is a simple, fast track dessert, which is quite healthy actually. The layers are oat chocolate pudding, spiced sweet pumpkin puree, and a whipped pumpkin mascarpone mousse. Eggless, wholegrain & gluten free, it’s truly yum!
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Total Time 4 hourshours20 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding
400gmilk
200mllow fat cream
30gcocoa powder
1tspcinnamon powder
35gbreakfast oats
150gdark couverture chocolatechopped
75gbrown sugar
30ghoney
Pumpkin Mousse
Fresh pumpkin puree from 400g pumpkinchilled {100g+300g}
450gmascarpone
4-5tbsppowdered sugar {to taste}
2tsppumpkin pie spice mix
Pumpkin seeds to garnish
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Oat Pudding
Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom pan and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.
Once it becomes as thick as a custard, take off heat, allow to cool, then puree with an immersion blender or blend in a food processor until smooth.
Pour into serving bowls / glasses.
Cool and then chill for 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.
Pumpkin mouse
Whisk the pumpkin puree with sugar to taste and the pumpkin pie spice. {Reserve the remaining pumpkin puree}
Whisk 100g of the pumpkin puree with about 100g of the mascarpone until smooth.
Gently whisk/fold in the remaining mascarpone so as not to lose volume. {Gently add more sugar if required.}
Place into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
Assemble
Divide the reserved pumkin puree over the set chocolate pudding using a piping bag. Level out gently.
Pipe the mascarpone pumpkin mousse over the pumpkin puree.
Dark Chocolate Oat Pudding … eggless, vegetarian, indulgent, healthy. Life has such a fine balance as far as desserts and the sweet tooth goes. The advent of the holiday season makes it guilt ridden. Often you crave for something seductive, sinful and indulgent, yet cannot afford to swallow the calories that come with it.
With the festive season well underway, it’s always the more the merrier when it comes to desserts. Leave it to me, and I would pretty much try and squeeze and recreate every dessert to fit into wine glasses, or any glasses for that matter. There is something quite ethereal and fun about doing desserts in glasses. Convenient and quick too!
This dessert was no different. It was simple, quick to make, served individual portions and looked quite good. Deeply soul satisfying, smooth with beautiful texture, it’s quite delightful for an eggless chocolate pudding.
It’s also got ingredients that scream “we are good for you”. I am very fond of using oats in everything. I discovered there goodness a few years ago and have never looked back. From thickening soups to crumbing chicken, I find a way to include oats in just about every recipe I create. Sweet stuff too. From oats in cakes, cookies, biscotti, granola, I try and include them as much as possible.
Other than being a concentrated source of fibre, oats are big on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. They leave you feeling full, help boost metabolism and help maintain immunity. Of course they lower cholesterol too.
Now pair them with dark chocolate and you have more magic. Dessert for one. Dark chocolate has the goodness to reduce blood pressure, improve brain function and above all, makes you feel good. Yes, it’s a spirit booster, mood elevator and makes you feel happy. So go on, INDULGE!
The Dark Chocolate Oat & Walnut Pudding turned out bowl scraping good. Using oats meant that it ended up being gluten free too! {Recipe can be easily halved}.
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 25 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Oat & Walnut Pudding
400gmilk
200mllow fat / single cream
30gcocoa powder
35goatsground to fine meal
125g52% dark couverture chocolatechopped
75gbrown sugar
50ghoney
50groasted walnutschopped
Topping
Roasted walnut halves
Chocolate shavings
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom pan and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken. Once it becomes as thick as a custard, take off heat, allow to cool, then puree with an immersion blender or blitz in a food processor.
Fold the chopped walnuts through {optional}
Pour into serving bowls / glasses.
Cool and then chill for 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.
Top with roasted walnuts, chocolate shavings, or even seasonal berries like blueberries, strawberries etc.
“If you wait for the mango fruits to fall, you’d be wasting your time while others are learning how to climb the tree”
Michael Bassey Johnson
Mango Coconut Pudding …when you can’t get enough of the mango season, and you can’t stop yourself from bringing together favourite flavours! These were everything they look like and more … delicious, delicate, flavourful, smooth, satisfying, elegant, sublime. I think it’s just one of those puddings that were meant to be …The better halves office in Bombay sent him a box of the most delicious Alphonsos. This variety of mangoes is possibly the most famous one across the globe, and most coveted. It is also most pursued by lovers of the fruit for the very short season that it shows up for.How better to explain Alphonsos than in Sejal Sukhadwala’s poetic and charming words as he writes in The Guardian “As anyone who’s tasted an Alphonso mango knows, its short season, from now until the end of June, is a major cause for celebration. Often making an appearance on “1,000 things to eat before you die”-type lists, this Indian variety has become more and more popular in the UK. It’s easy to see why. Alphonso’s voluptuous shape and sunshine-yellow skin reveals succulent saffron-coloured flesh that’s smooth and buttery: imagine a cross between peach, nectarine, apricot and melon with notes of honey and citrus. But better.”And I’m one of those people who find it hard to leave good enough alone. That mango was phenomenal but I wanted to do a dessert with it. Being summer, more of my fruit based desserts are quick and simple, often light puddings or a panna cotta. I did a series of desserts with mango juice not so long ago. Take a look!IMHO, if there are mangoes, it calls for a celebration. The good thing about the king of fruits is that it is so versatile. You can practically enjoy it at every meal. Our mornings and sometimes evenings are spent lazily sipping a Mango Fresh Turmeric Buttermilk Lassi these days. What’s not to love about fruit in season? More importantly, what’s not to love about mangoes? My entire childhood was spent climbing mango trees and eating mangoes!Aam ki chutney or a quick mango pickle also rule the roost. Aam panna or a Mango Cooler is one of the best things ever to keep the heat at bay. There’s no end to how versatile this fruit can be. For today, let me share my current favourite Mango Coconut Pudding. Like all good things in life, there is a small story behind how they came to be.
The Mango Coconut Pudding inspired by a popular dessert in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mango Pudding. The pudding is said to have Indian origins, and it seemed apt since the better halves company is Hong Kong based. This is my take on it, topped also with phalsas {a native Indian summer berry, drewia asiatica} and fresh mint.And before I leave you with the recipe, just sharing the announcement for my 7th Food Styling & Photography Workshop with Darter at Dirty Apron, New Delhi. All details can be found here, or click the image below.
Mango Coconut Pudding ...when you can't get enough of the mango season, and you can't stop yourself from bringing together favourite flavours! These were everything they look like and more ... delicious, delicate, flavourful, smooth, satisfying, elegant, sublime. I think it's just one of those puddings that were meant to be.
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Total Time 4 hourshours15 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Ingredients
Mango Coconut Pudding
400gmangofrom 4-5 Alphonsos
250gsingle cream
400mlcoconut milk
4tspgelatin
1/2cupraw sugar
Topping
1mangodiced
1/4cupphalsa berry
Few sprigs fresh mint
Instructions
Sprinkle the gelatin over 100ml coconut milk, and leave to soften. Stir.
Place mango and 200ml coconut milk in a blender. Blend to a smooth puree.
Place remaining coconut milk plus cream with sugar in a heavy bottom pan. Simmer until small bubbles appear at the edges. Stir in the gelatin, then mango puree.
Stand until it becomes slightly cool, then strain into glasses. Leave to set for a few hours or overnight.
Top with unsweetened cream, diced mango, phalsa berries and fresh mint. {Can be made 2-3 days in advance}
Thandai Indian Rice Kheer, my version of serving up Thandai in an Indian rice pudding, or kheer as locally called. Flavoured delicately, this indulgent rice pudding hits all the right notes. Sweetened gently with jaggery, the flavours of almond, cardamom and saffron just shine. The texture of broken simmered rice is what adds body to this delectable kheer or pudding.The underlying inspiration comes from Dolphia who inspired, coerced and pushed me to shoot saffron. That’s one of the reasons this kheer came to be. The other reason of course was that the better half has bitterly complained over the last few days that I haven’t made a kheer in years! As much as I love stirring a good kheer, for some reason it hadn’t happened yet…
Then yet another trip into Old Delhi, some Kashmir saffron bought to please Dolphia and the hub {in no particular order of course} meant that the kheer was simmering away gently quite soon. The recipe of course inspired by the season, all the Thandai kind of stuff I make at this time of the year. Thandai is a spice and nut blend, with ingredients that include almonds, melon seeds, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, green cardamom, saffron, rose petals, sometimes whole pepper too. It is popularly served up as a milk cooler, often with a local bhaang or intoxicant, on Holi. There are a million versions, every household laying claim to their recipe. Mine changes all the time!
Sometimes, a theme helps me find direction, and this time around the prettiness of the colours got to me. Spring is like that, and so is every visit into the heart of Old Delhi!
First I did a Saffron Almond Chia Thandai for Olive Tree Trading and that really set the mood. So much colourful prettiness and so much inspiration. That’s just how this time of the year is. I’ve dried loads of organic rose petals, so you’ll see me using those a lot.And so to cut a loooong story short, I finally made the Thandai Indian Rice Kheer. And it came out finger licking good. It’s a quick one, one I figured out as I went along. It’s the first time I’ve ground almonds with rice {an earlier version had the Thandai nut mix}. For some reason, I loved this simpler version. Here it is, the Thandai Indian Rice Kheer.
Flavoured gently, this indulgent Thandai Indian Rice Kheer hits all the right notes. Sweetened gently with jaggery, the flavours of almond, cardamom and saffron just shine. The texture of broken simmered rice is what adds body to this delectable kheer or pudding.
Saffron strands, almond slivers, pistachio bits, rose petals etc.
Instructions
Dry grind rice and almonds to a coarse breadcrumb like texture in a coffee grinder. You can add the cardamom seeds here if you like.Stir the above into cold milk with the jaggery, cardamom seeds and cream if using.
Put over low heat and cook for about 25-30 minutes, STIRRING OFTEN, until the rice is cooked and the kheer thick.
Taste and adjust sweetness if required. Take off heat and add a generous pinch of saffron. Stir well.
The kheer will continue to thicken as it cools. You might need to add a little milk as the absorption quality of rice differs. Once it gets to room temperature, ladle into earthenware bowls, individual serving bowls etc to set. Garnish with saffron strands, almond slivers, pistachio bits, rose petals etc.
Serve chilled.
Note: Rinse, drain and dry the rice overnight, else dry in microwave for 1 minute.
“Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity.” Jonathan Safran Foer
Nolen Gur Rice Kheer meant yet another trip down memory lane! Our trip to Kolkata some time ago was delicious. For a non fish lover, I was a little iffy. I needn’t have been. There is so much, and so much more Bong food has to offer, that Kolkata grows on you. There is good food everywhere. Since it’s relatively inexpensive, it’s quite easy to over eat as well! From Ballygunge Place to Bengali sweets galore, to the best streetfood {puchkas forever}, to nostalgic ancient Jewish bakeries {Nahoum & Sons}, and then to good old Flurry’s, the city has it all and more!
Bengalis and food go hand in hand. They are a passionate community. Tight knit, artistic, energetic…and food obsessed. You just need to begin talking about Bengali delicacies in Kolkata on any social media channel, and the response is absolutely amazing! Bongs from across the globe will come and join with gusto, large heartedly share ever little Bong food detail, discuss recipes, the origins, how they make it at home … and if you are lucky, even invite you over for a meal!
Just recently the husband was in Kolkata and I mentioned Nolen Gur to him. The ‘foodie habit of asking for ingredients are specific‘ now runs quite deep, and I can take the credit for some good training. Each time Mr PAB goes anywhere I just have to mutter a few edibles that would be nice to have. Literally a million phone calls later, I know he’s coming back with his bags full of things to cook!
Winter is THE season for Nolen Gur as it is available for a very short window through the cold weather. A number of Bengali Sweets in Kolkata during this season find Nolen Gur featured within – nolengurer shandesh, korapaaker sandesh, kanchagollas, gurer rosogolla, nolen gurer payesh. So I was really excited to receive my stash of Patali Gur {the solidified version of Nolen Gur}. I had my research done before hand, and the simple yet flavourful Nolen Gur Rice Kheer was being stirred the next morning. The flavours were subtle, teasing the palette very gently yet so characteristic of this jaggery! They shined through!
Authentic Bengali cuisine in Kolkata is easy to find, and posts a formidable list! This list is infinite, both sweet and savoury. I asked a very sweet Bong friend to list her favourites. Here we go in no particular order … Chingri malaikari {prawn curry with coconut}, Ilish bhapa {hilsa fish}, Shukto {mixed veg}, Doi maach {fish curry in yogurt}, Mishti doi {sweet curd}, Nolengurer shandesh {sandesh made with jaggery}, Aloo posto {potato with poppy seed}, Paatishapta.
So you know what to order next time you visit Kolkata. Do make sure you drive around the city too. Iconic yellow ambassadors, Victoria Memorial, the flower market which begins at dawn. The colonial architecture is jaw dropping. Roads and roads of ancient classic European style buildings, roads well planned … yet sadly all but forgotten. It’s almost like you are in Europe until you wake up to the traffic and cacophony around you. If only the buildings were well maintained, if only!
[print_this]Recipe: Nolen Gur Rice Kheer
Summary: A simple yet characteristic version of the Indian rice pudding, Nolen Gur Rice Kheer, has lilting, endearing flavour. Characteristic of a special Bengali delicacy, it is sweetened by a jaggery which is available for a short time during winter. In this vegetarian pudding, the patali gur is not cooked. It is simply stirred through the thickened pudding in the end to sweeten the cooked rice.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
1/2 cup rice, washed, dried, ground
1 litre full fat milk
200g cream {optional}
1/2- 3/4 cup nolen gur shavings
Method:
Place rice, milk and cream in a heavy bottom pan, stir well and simmer uncovered for about an hour until the rice is cooked, and the milk reduced to make the kheer nice and creamy. Stir every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t catch the bottom of the pan.
Once quite thick {batter consistency}, take off heat and leave to cool for about 30 minutes.
Stir the gur shavings through until dissolved. Taste and add more gur shavings if desired.
Turn into earthenware pots or pudding bowls to set. Chill for a couple of hours until set
