Mango Pudding

Mango Pudding

According to Tsuji, fruit is the "dessert" of the Japanese meal. Traditionally, sweets are served after a formal meal as an accompaniment to matcha tea and designed 'to complement the flavour of the tea itself'.

This didn't bode well for me, given that from a young age I've insisted on the existence of the 'dessert stomach' -- a mutually exclusive domain to the 'main meal stomach' and especially the 'green vegetables stomach'.

Sure enough, Tsuji's Sweets and Confections section is filled with such delights as three types of sweet red-bean paste, a sweet potato puree, and mochi. All flavours that fit in the postdoctoral level of the acquired-taste syllabus, at least for anyone who's grown up with the kind of desserts that are nothing more than cunning ways to ingest large amounts of fat and sugar as quickly as possible.

So instead, with the excuse of the last few days of Chinese New Year, I decided to make that popular dimsum dessert: mango pudding.

This being my mother's signature dessert -- we bring two giant bowls of the stuff to parties and never bring back left-overs -- I'll be a good daughter and not reveal the recipe to the entire blogsphere. However, a google search for mango pudding will turn up a few ideas. Hint: substitute fresh cream (double, single, your choice) for the evaporated milk that's quoted in most online recipes. Come on, people, it's not 1940s wartime, loosen the purse-strings and belt-buckles.

After all, if you want a healthy dessert, there's always fruit.

 

Comments

[Sathya]

Mmm, I love the sound of this!

[tigerfish]

Shall I eat this or drink this?
*attack* !!!

[catty]

I love mango puddings too and yours looks divine! And ofcourse the dessert stomach is a separate stomach! ;)

[Sherry]

When I was young I used to tell my parents I had a second stomach for desserts. It was the only way I could explain to them why I was full from barely any dinner but still had plenty of room for the sweets. So funny to find I am not the only one!

My boyfriend loves all things mango, and I am definitely excited to have stumbled upon this recipe. Thanks!

[mycookinghut]

Love mango pudding..!

[Nasu]

I love the swirls that you made on the surface of the pudding! If you have time, is there any chance that you could give me some tips on how to do it? I tried (using whipping cream) but it just didn't turn out as lovely as yours did.

[JenJen]

Hi Nasu - thanks! I used single cream, and poured cream down a chopstick into the pudding, while swirling - give it a go, it's pretty fun =)

[Nasu]

Thanks for the tip JenJen! I will give it a try the next time I make mango pudding! =]

[jing]

I have been scouring the internet for this recipe. I tried the one on about.com but mine never set. It just seemed like melted ice cream, all gooey. So the ratio was 0.5oz of gelatin (which was 2 packets) to over 5 cups of liquid. What's the ideal gelatin to liquid ratio? Also, I was wondering about using Agar powder.