There were two food items that were in high demand during the lockdown, not staples as you would imagine; but vanilla essence and yeast. I wanted to buy a bottle of vanilla essence and it was always out of stock. The shop staff claimed that almost all the women were asking for vanilla essence for baking🧁 and yeast for making appams. If the newspaper articles are to be believed, it’s not just women, but men too are enjoying baking and cooking amidst the lockdown !!

Last week, the shop finally had stock of vanilla essence 🙋‍♀️ and I thought of making an old favourite – milk pudding with pineapple preserve.

Only your imagination is the limit when it comes to the kind of topping you wish to have for the milk pudding; but some taste better than others and the pineapple preserve is one of the better ones🍍 !!

April – May is pineapple season and the preserve is homemade; though you can easily buy a can of preserve. But when it is in season, it only takes a little time to make the preserve at home.

Pineapple preserve

Ingredients:

• Pineapple – 4 cups, cut to small bite size pieces ( 1 medium size pineapple will be adequate for this, avoid overripe pineapples, just ripe ones are apt)
• Water – 1 and /2 cup
• Sugar – 1/2 cup, granulated will do

Method:

Bring the water to boil, stir and dissolve the sugar. Add the pineapple pieces and let the mix simmer for 15 – 20 min. Let the mix cool down in the pan for 10 minutes; pour into clean dry glass bottle and let it cool completely. I keep the bottle in the fridge; I am not sure how long they will last at room temperature. They get over in no time😋, so how long they actually last is still a ❓ for me.

Milk pudding with pineapple preserve (Serves 3)

Ingredients:

• Milk – 1 and 1/2 cup ( I use pasteurised milk and hence no worries about getting it to boil)
• Sugar – 1/2 cup
• Gelatine –  2 tbsp
• Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
• Water – 1/4 cup cold or room temp.

Method:

[1] Heat the the milk and sugar in a pan; stir and let the sugar dissolve completely. No need to bring the milk to a boil.

[2] Stir in the gelatine into the 1/4 cup cold water; you will see the granules form.

[3] Once the sugar is dissolved, add the gelatine mix to the milk and keep stirring. Take off the gas once the gelatine is dissolved.

[4] Let the mix cool a bit and pour into glasses, cover with a cling film, if the containers do not have air tight lids. Let it set in the fridge. It takes about 3 hours to set completely.

[5] Once set, add the pineapple preserve topping and enjoy !!

“The more we do, the more we can do…..” – William Hazlitt, English writer

I was introduced to this combo by my mon-in-law, she passed away, but her legacy lives. Food makes the fondest of memories.

Till next post, take care 🍍!!