STEAMED GINGER PUDDING - A Colonial Dessert Dish
























STEAMED GINGER PUDDING
Steamed Ginger Pudding is a legacy of the British Raj. It always made up the finale of a delicious dinner menu combination with Mulligatawny Soup, Roast Lamb and Roasted Vegetables during Colonial Times. There’s nothing better or heart warming than ending a meal with a slice of Warm Ginger Pudding drizzled with Fresh Cream or Custard.

INGREDIENTS 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened,
2 tablespoons flour 
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon dry ginger powder
½ cup sugar 
1 large egg 
1 tablespoon honey 
½ cup milk 
2 tablespoons Marmalade or any other Jam

Butter an oven proof pudding basin or bowl.
Stir together flour, baking powder, and ground ginger in a mixing bowl.
Add the butter, bread crumbs and sugar and mix well,
Mix in the egg. Honey and milk and mix until just combined. 
Spoon the jam into the bottom of the buttered Pudding bowl. Pour the batter on top, then smooth with a spatula. Cover the bowl with a lid and steam the pudding for 30 to 35 minutes till done.
Leave aside to cool for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around edge of bowl then invert the pudding onto a plate. Serve warm as a dessert either plain or with Fresh Cream or Custard

(Alternately the Ginger Pudding could be baked for 30 minutes at 180 Degrees instead of steaming it) 

MILK PUDDING - COMFORT FOOD



MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL
On Mother’s Day, remembering my mum’s special Brand of ‘COMFORT FOOD’ -  Which was ‘Just a bowl of warm milk and Bread with a sprinkling of Cinnamon Powder!!!
My mum was a fantastic mother – gracious, warm and kind. She had her own special way of comforting us when we were sad or down in the dumps. Besides fussing over us and making us feel better, she had her own brand of comfort food for us on such occasions.
The meaning of “Comfort Food” as defined in the Dictionary is “Food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically having a high sugar or carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking and which provides a nostalgic or sentimental feeling”.
My mum’s Bowl of “Warm Bread and Milk” didn’t have a specific recipe to it. She would just tear up some slices of bread into bits and put them into individual bowls for each of us. She would then sprinkle generous amounts of sugar on the bread and pour warm milk into the bowl till the bread was completely submerged. She would then sprinkle some cinnamon powder over the top and hand each of us a bowl. The only thing for us to do was to grab a spoon and dig in. It was like burying oneself inside a warm and comfortable blanket and our feeling of being ‘down in the dumps’ would quickly vanish.

Keeping the same concept, she used to make us this awesome Milk Pudding as a desert of dinner sometimes. It needs just 6 ingredients. I’m sharing the recipe below

MY MUM’S SIMPLE MILK PUDDING
Serves 6   Time Required : 25 minutes
Ingredients
1 litre full cream milk.
1 can or tin of sweet condensed milk (Milkmaid)
2 teaspoons corn flour or vanilla custard powder
4 slices white bread
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond essence
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder


Remove the crusts from the Bread and then cut each slice into one inch cubes.
Mix the corn flour in ½ cup of cold milk till smooth. Keep aside.
Boil the milk and condensed milk together. Mix in the corn flour and milk mixture and the vanilla or almond  essence and mix well.
Simmer on low heat, stirring all the time till the mixture thickens to a Custard like consistency.
Mix in the bread cubes and remove from heat. Pour into a suitable glass Pudding Bowl and sprinkle cinnamon powder on top

Leave in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours before serving.