Sweet Surrender

 

Despite the probability of being labelled a food philistine, when it comes to desserts  I have no hesitation in saying its the simple caramel custard for me all the way. That aroma and taste of burnt sugar, the delicacy of the custard; there is something humble, homely and wholesomeness about it.  Eggs, milk/cream, sugar and some natural flavour- that's all it takes and yet the result is yummy all the way. It could be because like bread and butter pudding, caramel custard is something generally rooted to childhood. In the hills ice cream (at least then) was rare, mostly home made and what was available in the markets was usually coloured ice on sticks which one snuck behind the parent's back!

Apart from the jalebis from Delhi Mistan ( by the time you carted it home and it became cold, what one had was basically deep fried flour batter crusted with sugar - its another story of course that we all thought it was the best jalebi in the world!) and some hard sandesh, there were not much options in the market either. And when it came to pastries - be it those from R B Store or Eee Cee, the less said the better. Yes, of course  then we thought they were awesome treats - age, time, exposure surely changes one's taste whatever the early conditioning. Thus, inevitably, the sweet course at every dinner invitation would swing between bread and butter pudding and caramel custard.

Caramel custard is a sweet baggage  I am sure I would like to lug around forever. With some slight deviations! Like addition of coconut milk and jaggery (gurh).  While channel hopping the other day I caught the fag end of a cookery programme on TV which left me salivating over the jaggery-coconut milk custard. Naturally one turned to god google for assistance and it turned out to be a Sri Lankan delicacy that put together jaggery-water, coconut milk, cream, pinch of mace, nutmeg and eggs (whole, jot just the yolks). I tweaked the combination a tad - left out the cream, the nutmeg and instead added a pinch of crushed allspice. The jaggery of course was everybody's all time favourite one - nolen gurh (date jaggery). As winter is fading away- sob- the nolen gur too will disappear till the next winter. So nolen gurh it had to be.

 

Putting it together is simple - I stirred in a small cup of nolen gurh into warm water (a little more than lukewarm but not boiling hot) and what resulted was a beautiful burnt amber liquid. Leave it to come to room temperature. Meanwhile warm the oven at 160degree C

 

Nolen gurh liquid

 

Next, add in 200 ml of coconut milk. Just cut open a tetra pack one and mix with the jaggery liquid. Preserve a little of the jaggery liquid to ladle over the custard later. What results in a caramel-ly looking mixture.

Jaggery-coconut milk mixture

 The little flecks/specks floating around are crushed bits of mace and allspice. I left out the cream - after all there is such a thing called guilty conscience too! The next step was equally easy - breaking four eggs into a glass bowl, lightly stirring it (lightly means lightly please and no vigorous stirring either) and gently stirring into the jaggery-coconut milk mix. Pour the mix into ramekin bowls, small glass bowls or old fashioned muffin bowls like I did. Place them in a baking tray that can hold water. 

                                                                   

Ready to go into the oven

   

                                                                           

 Pout hot water into the tray, making sure that it comes up halfway and doesn't spill over while steaming. (If in the course of steaming , you fill that the water is drying up, slightly open the oven door and top up the water). It takes about 25- 35 minutes or so. Let it cool a little in the oven, take it out, dribble the preserved jaggery water and chill in the freeze. The taste of jaggery, the hint of coconut, the peek-a-boo spice flavours all come together in a divine union.