Cranberry Jam

It's Christmas season, and I recently have been seeing cranberries all over the supermarkets here in Singapore. I have never tasted fresh cranberries before, so when I saw them in Mustafa (of all places)…I immediately grabbed a bag and headed home. I was expecting it to taste sweet. But they tasted so tart, and I couldn't really eat it on its own.

So the bag was lying in my fridge waiting to be baked into breakfast muffins. But I never got around to bake anything this week.  And a can of jam sounded like the yummiest way to use up these fresh berries.

This ruby red spread is so refreshing and delicious...slathered on a piece of toast, it makes a perfect breakfast! Moreover, Cranberries are powerhouse of Vitamin C and antioxidants. Now you don’t need any more excuse to try out this super quick, sugar-free preserve this Christmas season!

Cranberry Jam

Yields: About 1 ½ cups of jam

Ingredients:

• 3 ½ cups – Cranberries
• ¾ cup – Honey
• 2 tablespoons – Raw Sugar (optional)
• 1 tablespoon – Vanilla essence

 Directions:

• Heat all the ingredients in a pan and keep stirring.
• Keep cooking for about 10 minutes until all the berries break down and the mixture thickens. Do not overcook.
• Transfer the contents to a glass jar, and store it in the refrigerator for up to a month.

 NOTE:

• If you prefer a smooth texture for your jam, just blend the mixture in a blender, while the jam is still warm. And then store it in a glass jar.
• I skipped this step, because we like coarse texture for our spreads.

Coconut Pudding

Hey there! How is everyone? Sorry for being away so long. Have been held up at work. But I have been trying out new recipes, just dint have time to post them. So I will try my best to post them all ASAP.

I came across this recipe for tender coconut pudding in a beautiful Indian blog collaborativecurry.com. The recipe called for tender coconut and its water, this sounded interesting. So that weekend I went to Little India and bought this huge coconut! At home hubby helped to cut open the hard coconut, we did it with a butcher knife. 

This pudding is rich in taste, the natural coconut pulp and the coconut water is such a refreshing flavor.

This is a quick and easy dessert, so make this for you next dinner party and wow your guests!

Pudding in silicon cupcake cases.

Coconut Pudding:

Yeilds:  8 Cupcake size puddings.

Ingredients:

Milk – 2 cups

Condensed Milk – 1 can (12 oz)

Tender Cocnut water – ½ cup

Tender cocnut pulp – from 1

Unflavoured Gelatin – 2 Tablespoons

Directions:

1. Using a knife cut open the top of the tender cocnut, and preserve the water. 
2. Then break open the coconut and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. Cut the pulp into small pieces.
3. In a bowl, take 5 tablespoons water and sprinkle gelatin over and let it bloom.
4. In a pan, heat the milk and condensed milk together until scalded.
5. Mix in the bloomed gelatin with the hot mixture until completely dissolved. 
6. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. 
7. Add the coconunt water and pulp and mix well. 
8. Pour the mixture into moulds or bowls, and cover with plastic wrap.
9. Keep refrigerated until set for 3-4 hours.
10. Serve cold, with chopped almonds, cashews or pistachios.

Note:

• I have used Gelatine to make the jelly; you can also use Agar Agar powder, both available in supermarkets. 
• If using Agar agar powder, use (same amount as gelatine) – 2 tablespoons
• If using agar agar flakes use – 4 tablespoons. 

Custard & Jelly Cups

 Here is easy-peasy Valentine’s Day special treat! I wanted to post something sweet and red and quick for the heading lover’s day. This is a dessert that you can out put together in about 10 minutes. But it takes a bit of thinking ahead.

There are two layers involved here; the bottom is a jelly layer. The top layer is custard. You can choose any flavour of jelly you want. I used cherry flavoured Tropical Jelly mix for my jelly layer, although it took like 2 minutes to make this jelly, I did not like the flavour much. So you might want to experiment with some other brands. I choose the cherry flavour because I thought the red colour looked great with the cream coloured custard. Just sprinkled some pomegranate seeds on top to make the contrast pop!

The custard layer is my favourite, I have made this a million times. I use store bought custard powder to make my custards. They are quick and taste great. You can definitely make custard from scratch but it is a tricky process.

I used these cute little shot glasses. They are so convenient when dealing with guests who whine about being too full for desserts. I filled a ¼ of each cup with the hot jelly mix and let it set for a while in the refrigerator. 

In the meantime you make the custard. After the custard had cooled, store it in the refrigerator.

Alternatively: You can make diagonal layers of jelly and custard. Use a box filled with rice, and arrange your cups in a diagonal position, as seen in the pic below. Then you can pour in the hot jelly mix and set it in the fridge .

When you are ready to serve, take out the set jelly cups and spoon the custard carefully on top of the jelly. Top of with the pomegranate seeds, or your any topping of your choice like chocolate chips, cherries, chocolate sauce or whipped cream.

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!  

Custard & Jelly Cups:

http://chitra-frommykitchen.blogspot.sg/

Jelly Layer:

Follow the instructions on your Jelly mix package.

Custard Layer:

• Take 500ml of milk.
• From this take ¼ cup of milk and mix in 2 table spoons of custard powder and make a smooth paste.
• Boil the remaining milk in a milk pan.
• Then add 4 table spoons of sugar
• Keep the flame low and add the custard paste slowly into the milk.
• Stir continuously to avoid burning.
• Cook for 4-5 minutes. Stir it a bit longer if you want a thick consistency.
• Let it cool and store refrigerated. Serve cold.