Dessert days

Milk and bread pudding can be an accompaniment and play second fiddle to a glitzy dessert or be pressed into service as a filling, healthy snack to children addicted to junk food

THE humble double roti attains sublime heights in its dessert avatar. In Lucknow, it is the sterling silver-draped shahi tukra oozing thick mildly sweet rabri, drizzled with pistachios, raisins and a few strands of saffron, and in Hyderabad, there are die-hard patrons, who swear by double ka meetha. Many mothers keep their children happy with sweet French toast.

Few remember that in the days of the British Raj ‘East and West’ had met on the dinner table to create a unique culinary fusion. This Anglo-Indian repertoire has many recipes that were stock in trade of the Khansamah in the dak bungalows and gymkhanas. The milk and bread pudding was a beloved item on this menu for all seasons. (Incidentally, the Brown Sahibs were more phirang than the White overlords and continued calling kheer the milk and rice pudding long after the Brits had left these shores). Its companion, in days gone by, the caramel custard pudding has survived the vagaries of changing times much better.`A0What we have reclaimed for our beloved readers this time is a pudding with a difference. It’s not even a distant relation of the fabulous Xmas but we digress.

Plum pudding dressed with scrumptious garnishes and myriad rum-soaked seductions or delicate jelly-like trembling concoctions that aspire to be souffl`E9s. Its greatest virtue is that it can be rustled up with no nonsense with little that is always at hand. It has the attraction of novelty and is packed with the goodness of nutritious ingredients. If you wish to lend the dish an exotic touch, you can garnish it with slices of fresh seasonal fruit that will add colour and flavour and reinforce its claim to lightness. On our part, we love the version without frills to tickle our sweet tooth. Highly recommended. It can be an accompaniment and play second fiddle to a glitzy dessert or be pressed into service as a filling, healthy snack to children addicted to junk food.

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