Egg less caramel pudding it is!

No more buying readymade packets to make caramel pudding! Here’s the recipe to your rescue. No more restricted to non-vegetarians, here it is, eggless and even better than the egg version; a child’s love and luscious French desert.

Delicious custard coated with crunchy caramel, a desert found all around the world. Usually cooked in a bain-marie on a stove top or in the oven in a water bath, it is turned and served with the caramel sauce on top, hence the alternate French name crème caramel renversée.

Also known as crème caramel and flan in French, purin in Japan, quesillo (small cheese) in venezuela and pudim de leite condensado (condensed milk pudding) in brazil.

Regional variations can be clearly found in this dessert as spanish-speaking countries call it “Flan de Cuba” which is made with the addition of the whites of two eggs and the flavoring of a cinnamon stick.

It will change its form, colour, consistency but the heart of the pudding will still remain the same- the world wide accepted caramelized dessert.

An all time favorite in the larger coastal cities, and in former portuguese colonies such as Goa, Daman and Diu. Widely found in restaurants and resorts along India’s coasts and also prepared regularly in the home kitchens of Goa and by the Goan community in Mumbai.

Here is the recipe to it:

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

• 450 ml milk

• 5 gm agar- agar(plain china grass)
• 3 tea spoon vanilla custard powder
• 1/2-3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tea spoon vanilla essence
• 4 tea spoons brown sugar/ white sugar(for caramelizing)

METHOD:

Soak agar-agar in 1 cup of water for an hour.

Take a metal container and take the caramelizing sugar in it. Add one tea spoon of water to it and heat it till it caramelizes to brown colour.

Now spread it on your mould evenly.

Keep the milk for boiling. When milk gets little warm remove 3 tablespoons of milk from it and mix custard powder in it, keep aside. Add sugar in the remaining milk and let it boil.

When the milk boils add the custard mixture and stir it well.

Keep the flame low when adding the custard mixture; continue stirring the milk so that no lumps are formed.

Meanwhile boil the soaked agar-agar till it melts fully in water and forms a transparent gel. When the custard mixture becomes a smooth and slightly thick paste, add the hot agar-agar Solution and boil for more 2-3 minutes.

Remove it from flame and strain the hot mixture. Add vanilla essence in it and stir well.

Cool it a little and pour into caramelized mould. Refrigerate it for 3-4 hours to set fully.

So your titillating desert is ready, serve chilled by tilting the mould on a plate. An amazing appetizer awaiting you.