5-minute Banana Rice Pudding

Banana is one of the most indispensable fruits in a child’s growing up diet. I remembered when I first started giving solid foods to my boys when they were 4-month old infants. Both boys were bowled over by the cool, soft and sweet taste of mashed bananas.  They loved it!

 

Well, not only infants or toddlers love the lusciously delicious and quite addictive fruit, you know 😀

 

The Large Dwarf

 

One bunch of bananas.  This collective noun is almost always included in my weekly shopping list, however, in Belgium we have only ONE choice. Quite sad, really. The Grand Nain bananas, aka the Chiquita bananas!  ‘Grand Nain(e)‘ is French for Large Dwarf. I reckon the bananas are so-called due to the short stature of the trees while the bananas are quite large!

 

The banana when just ripe, has a lovely smooth yellow skin.   BUT it’s always not the case in my household! LOL!

 

Just before the end of the week, we start to see the peel browning. My boys will just close one eye and walk past the bananas on the hanger until the little brown pigments became bigger and bigger.  I knew someone in our household would thrash that in the bin at a certain point in time and before the poor blotched banana is dumped, I came to its rescue. I saved this one very, very ripe banana recently by sticking a self-explanatory message 😜

 



 

Gladly, the message was understood LOUD AND CLEAR  by my 3 guys 😄

 

Last weekend I transformed the once-upon-a-time ebony-skinned banana to a quick and yummy dessert.

 



 

First Dessert in Belgium

 

My late MIL was a very good cook and a great baker. She baked her own breads, cakes and made delicious desserts.  When I was first introduced to my MIL back in 1993, she was happy to know that her ‘future’ daughter-in-law was not a European 😊.   I remembered vividly the first 4-course lunch she prepared for us on a Sunday family reunion. The starter was a healthy grapefruit. The soup was pumpkin soup. The main course was pork chop with home-made gravy. The centrepiece was a whole cauliflower (cooked but retained the entirety) drizzled with white sauce and surrounded prettily by green peas and baby carrots.  And the dessert was her yummilicious rice pudding, which I cannot forget.

 

I’m not a dessert person, but my late MIL’s rice pudding was to die for.  I know I will not be able to replicate that beautiful consistency, texture and sweetness …. *sigh*

 

So I experimented and made my own version of rice pudding as a tribute to my late MIL but still a pudding that can be made by anyone, anywhere. It’s easy peasy. Takes only 5 minutes to assemble. No cooking necessary.

 

By the way, you need to have pre-cooked cold rice in this recipe. That’s the only “cooked” item, but must be made in advance.

 

Ingredients –

(makes 3 dessert glasses)

• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 1 1/4 cups cooked rice (cold)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 Tbsps brown sugar (for me, 1 Tbsp is just right, but I had to think of my sweet-tooth boys)
• Cinnamon powder

 Garnish –

• Some dried cranberries
• Lemon zest
• Cinnamon powder 



Direction –

Mash the banana and pour in the coconut milk. Stir to combine and then add in rice and brown sugar. Mix well. Add some cinnamon powder. Scoop in dessert bowls or glasses. Drizzle with some cinnamon powder, and garnish with some lemon zest and dried cranberries.

 

And there you go, my 5-minute Banana Rice Pudding ala Nasifriet 😄



For best result, refrigerate the banana rice pudding for at least 1 hour or more.





 

Verdict: It’s not a cooked rice pudding, hence the texture of the rice may not be what you would expect with cooked or baked rice pudding. There’s no cream, milk, eggs or butter in my 5-minute assembled banana rice pudding. The bottom line is, we loved it!  I loved the chewy texture of each bite of the rice. The level of sweetness was just right. The coconut milk was the best substitute for either milk or cream, which made the dessert vegan- friendly. We are not vegans, but we loved it.  I will definitely make it again. I’m just keeping an eye on the browning process of the bananas in my kitchen 😉

I’m linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up (March 2015 – BANANA) event organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids)and Mui Mui (my little favourite DIY) and hosted by Faeez of BitterSweetSpicy.

 



 

Tasty Tuesdays by HonestMum



Homemade Mondays week 123 hosted by Sarah of Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity, Aubrey of Homegrown & Healthy and Kelly from The Sustainable Couple 

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Coconutty Sago Pearl Pudding with Palm Sugar caramel: The dessert that made all the difference

Whew!  How time flies. One year has gone by in the wink of an eye.

If you have read my post: My ambitious eleven homemade dishes gone in 30 minutes, you will know why this annual get-together has become part and parcel of my nightmare.

I ended with a BIG question mark in that post, as you may have read.  Would I replicate the same stunt?

Yeah, would I?

When the going gets tough…

…the “tough” got weaker… Sorry, folks!  I could not sacrifice another two or three days for this year’s family reunion.  Let’s say, it has been at the back of my mind 😉

This time round, my other half picked the date. Sunday, 8^th September, 2013. It was not the most appropriate timing for me as far as my office workload was concerned. Anyway, I went along with the idea for three reasons, firstly, it was just after the summer vacation and the boys have just started their new academic school year, hence, less school work, secondly, we would be sure to have a full quorum and finally, the weather would (still) be reasonably summer-ish.

Good weather we had for sure at 21 degrees Celsius, a full quorum and an early school year stage 😉

Taking it easy

While my workload soared after our summer break, we took it easy by ordering a 3-course set meal from a Traiteur – starter, soup and the main.  A typical Belgian fare of grey shrimps on a bed of salad with cocktail sauce, creamy cauliflower soup, and roasted veal served with assorted vegetables of braised Belgian endives, carrots and peas and green bean bacon bundle and croquettes. No chillies, spices or pungent smelling ingredients for once…

Wham bam! Then came the dessert:  A huge contrast to the savoury fare!!

By the way, I have never made desserts for my in-laws. In fact I seldom make desserts. I find our classic Malaysian desserts too “heavy”. Hint: glutinous rice, sweet potatoes, deep fried, beans, condensed milk, egg yolks… erm…  I could almost read my Belgian in-laws’ minds “Yuck!”

I have made bubur cha cha, tofu fah, lek tau suan many moons ago for my hubs and two boys and the end result was always identical. I ended up eating everything.  Yikes!

In order not to end up a “junkyard”, I made sure I picked the right dessert that would comply with the Belgian palates. LOL!

Jackpot!

I wish I owned that special ice machine that churns out the shaved ice. The Ais kacang or ice kacang would have stood out that day.  Mmmm…yums…

Well, wishful thinking aside, I was quite certain that there was one Malaysian dessert that would stand the test of time. I have made it twice or thrice before and my three guys loved it!

It was none other than the simple sago pearl pudding with drizzles of creamy coconut milk and caramelized palm sugar – the jackpot dessert that made all the difference in the world, my world, at least.  Really!

Easy as ABC

Only 5 or 6 ingredients, and that’s it!

All you need are sago pearls, palm sugar, coconut milk, pandan leaves (or screw pine), water and salt (optional).

I was really glad that I could get almost fresh stock of pandan leaves from our Asian (Thai) store. I used the needed amount and froze the rest.  They freeze very well, by the way.

Pandan leaves are used to aromatize desserts, like vanilla beans or pods. They are also used as natural food colouring.  I love the smell of pandan in cakes, in steamed jasmine rice, nasi lemak and even curries.

Two times Fifteen!

I am really hopeless in estimating the quantity of food for the required number of guests.  I expected 15 eating guests but it turned out that I made twice as much! Well, never mind, we ate the rest for the next four days 😀

Here’s how I made my sago pudding…

Ingredients –

• 2 x 454g sago pearls
• 2 x 200g palm sugar plus 2 cups cassonade brown sugar
• Plenty of water
• Pandan leaves (I love pandan leaves; hence I used quite a lot)
• 1 x 400ml creamy coconut milk
• A pinch of salt (optional)
• Some vegetable oil

Method –

1)      Boil quite a lot of the water in a big soup pot, and then add the sago pearls, knotted pandan leaves and stirring quite frequently with a wooden spoon, avoiding the sago pearls sticking massively to the base of the pot. The sago pearls are ready when they turned translucent.  Wash away excess starch from the cooked sago and scoop 2 tablespoons into a lightly greased mould.  I used my all-purpose muffin/ cupcake tray!  Grease lightly with vegetable oil. You will be surprise how easy they come out from the mould.

2)      In a smaller pot, pour in a small amount of water, palm sugar, brown sugar, and knotted pandan leaves.  Stir until the palm sugar melts and caramelizes while at the same time exuding the most exquisite aroma of the pandan. My three guys kept popping in the kitchen to check that magical scent floating through their nostrils. Ha ha ha!

3)      In a third pan, simmer the coconut milk with a pinch of salt. For the record, this step is optional.  I used the creamy coconut milk straight from the can, without simmering or adding salt in it. It tastes gorgeous with a more intense coconut flavour.  And oh yes, there’s one pan less to wash and 15 minutes less of waiting time!

4)      Refrigerate the sago, palm sugar caramel and coconut milk, preferably overnight.

5)      Serve the sago pearl pudding on a dessert plate or bowl and drizzle with the sticky caramel and creamy coconut milk.

Oh by the way, I had 15 thumbs up (including myself) that day 😉  I was gobsmacked!

Dreamy 😛

As a Belgian would say, “voor herhaling vatbaar”.  I couldn’t agree more. It’s (definitely) worth repeating…

I am submitting this post to the Little Thumbs up event with the September theme “PANDAN”, hosted by Joceline from Butter, Flour and Me, organized by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids.

Cheers!