That long overdue bread pudding!

This is turning out to be a relatively quiet morning ... well, except for the fact that Vodka has played nonstop for an hour and is now demanding food - whining, grovelling, even rubbing his nose against his food bin! But this is the time to be that unyielding dog-momma. He has an appointment in a few hours with the oncologist - and yes, it means he needs to show up on an empty stomach. And yes, that means sheer hell for me trying to keep him distracted.

How on earth do you distract a labrador retriever from food, anyway???

So, what could be a better idea than a blog post for distracting myself from distracting him from food, huh? :)


This is a seriously long overdue post - a few weeks ago, I blogged about this awesome mango yogurt ice that we ended up serving with a quick'n'easy bread pudding - and it totally kicked ass. Well, it is finally time to talk about that bread pudding! The mango yogurt ice was truly refreshing and incredibly flavourful, but it definitely needed some substance to go with it, something a bit dense, chewy, moist. And it seemed like a bread pudding was the most obvious answer.

I've always served my bread pudding with a decadent whiskey sauce, but this time was going to be a little different. I wanted to skip using any cream this time around, opting for indian flavours instead. That's how the cardamom ended up being the primary flavour in the bread along with a honey-based sauce. There really was little need to add a super creamy, rich flavour since we were gunning for a light summery dessert anyway.

Cardamom-Honey Bread Pudding
Replete with flavours and aromas of India!

Servings: 4-6 (or maybe just 1?!!)

6 thick slices of crusty, stale french bread
1 t freshly ground cardamom powder
3 T honey (this was from the Ballard Farmers' Market - among the best I've ever tasted!)
1 t vanilla
2 cups nonfat milk
1 egg or 1/4 cup of egg substitute
1/4 t grated nutmeg
a pinch of salt

Shred the bread into 1" cubes and arrange these pieces, tightly packed into a baking dish (preferably glass). The dish I used was a 6"x6" glass pan, about 2" tall.
[Most recipes call for just packing the slices tightly into the dish, but I prefer to shred the bread into cubes before packing them in - this seems to let the bread take in a lot more of the flavours. Plus you end up with many more crispy ends - Yum!]

In a large bowl, whisk the egg, milk, cardamom, vanilla and nutmeg till well-blended. Now, add the honey and whisk some more till the liquid is frothy.
Pour the liquid over the bread and let it stand for about 1 hour, pressing the top every 10-15 minutes with a spatula (this ensures that the top doesn't dry out).

Bake the pudding for 50 minutes or till the top is puffy and browned. Let it cool on a rack for 20-30 minutes before cutting up.

We skipped the traditional whiskey sauce and served it with somewhat-melty mango yogurt ice.



Opinion?
Deeeeee-liiisshhh! This was so damn good! And so easy to throw together. Mango seriously kicks ass. And it totally danced with the cardamom/nutmeg flavours.

*happy*

Mango-ing away!

Still hot outside, I was still craving a giant creamy milkshake, but I'm really really trying to stick to my regular workout and eating habits ... which pretty much ruled out that GIANT milkshake looming in the back of my mind ... *sigh*.

But the plan was to come up with a suitable alternative ... something that would squash all memories of that GIANT milkshake! It took some poking around my Ultimate Desserts book ... Yes, I will get through all the recipes in that book someday soon! :) I stumbled upon this banana honey yogurt ice recipe ... hmm ... Ain't got no bananas. But we have a mountain of mangoes to wade our way through - never a problem given that I've eaten as many as 8 mangoes in one go :)

So, the idea was to rework this recipe to use mangoes instead. I also had some fabulous labneh - the to-die-for middle eastern yogurt as well as some greek yogurt sitting around. I haven't made icecream in a while, let alone fancy "yogurt ice", so this was approached with some dubiousness. But it turned out to be so damn easy to work with, a ton of fun and super delicious to boot!

Mango Yogurt Ice with Agave Nectar
Mango! Mango! Mango! Need I say more?

Servings: Hmm ... 12+ generous scoops

3 medium sized mangoes (I used the Ecuadorian ones that Costco is currently carrying)
3 T agave nectar
1/2 cup labneh
1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
1 t cinnamon
1 T orange blossom water

Peel the mangoes and chop into chunks.
Puree the mango chunks along with the rest of the ingredients till smooth.
Pour into a freezer pan, cover with plastic wrap and seal it with a rubber band.
Set this in the freezer till it starts to harden - takes atleast an hour.
Break up the yogurt ice with a beater till crumbled and there are no chunks remaining.
Smoothen the top, seal with the plastic wrap once more and set in the freezer for another hour.
Repeat this beating and freezing process one more time - this just makes the yogurt ice a lot more creamy and removes any crunchy ice bits that may have formed while freezing.

We served this atop this insanely tasty bread pudding - perfect blending of flavours ... I've got ot run out to go meet the gals, but I'll be posting that recipe in the next day or two (Really!).



Opinion?

I forgot all about that GIANT milkshake once I put this in my mouth! We loved the fact that it was so much lighter than regular icecream, yet much more decadent than sorbet. The orange blossom water lent this really neat mild fragrance to the yogurt, loved it! And we all loved the mango-yogurt creamy combination - reminded us of a frozen mango lassi (guess it is pretty close to that! :))

Off this goes to Meeta for her Mango Mania - a day late, but what else could you expect of me? *sigh*! And I have to agree with her, mango is *so* the queen of fruit! Think I'll go eat one right now ...

**************

Hmm ... guess this post is total paisa-vasool when it comes to event posts! Am shipping this off to Rachna for her JFI-Flowers event (I do use Orange Blossom water here :)) and to Mansi for her Healthy Cooking event - this is a super healthy dessert after all!

Sweeeeetttt!!!