Indian Custard: An eggless recipe

One of the great discoveries while I was on holidays was Chickpea Porridge. I made it just because it intrigued me. Take some flour, ghee and milk. Cook. You have a very yummy custard like consistency. It sounds too good to be true.

The difference is that the flour is chickpea flour, or besan. It makes all of the difference. Add some saffron, sugar, cardamom, cashews and maybe some dried or fresh fruit and you have something sent directly from the inner worlds, I am sure. AND it is made in under 10 minutes. True instant food.

So far I have made this for dessert. It would also be great for breakfast. But I anticipate that I will find lots of uses for it, as it can form a replacement for egg custard in lots of recipes. Imagine it layered trifle like with fresh fruit.

The inspiration from this came from 2 blogs. The first one I found, suleka, calls it an instant dish from his mother. The other one has some better instructions and is from Indian Healthy Recipes. Of course, I tweaked it myself a little.

Notes on the Recipe:

I am currently in love with dried cranberries. And recently I came across some wonderful frozen berries. Really good quality – at last. So when I made the custard I replaced the raisins with cranberries and blueberries (and did not roast them as described in the recipe). I layered the nuts, custard and fruit for a yummy change.

In my mind, the cashews, saffron and cardamom are essential.

A note on sugar. I say 1 – 2 Tblspns of sugar. If you have a sweet tooth, are from India or are eating this after a hot curry, err towards the 2 Tblspns of sugar. If you prefer things not so sweet, stay around the 1 Tblspn. Both are nice. It is a personal choice.

Chickpea Porridge – Indian Custard

Source : inspired by two blogs mentioned above
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 5 mins
Serves: 1 person

ingredients for each serve
just under 1 Tblspn ghee
200 ml milk
1 Tblspn chickpea flour
1 – 2 Tblspn sugar or jaggery
5 cashew nuts
a few raisins
3 or 4 strands of saffron
0.5 tspn cardamom powder, or seeds from 2 or 3 cardamom pods

method
Add the saffron strands to the milk and allow to stand for a few moments.

Roast the cashew nuts in ghee in a heavy pan on the stove. When they turn golden remove them from the ghee and keep aside. Roast the raisins in the same ghee till the colour changes slightly. Remove the raisins and keep aside.

Roast the chickpea floor in the same ghee until it is toasted – it becomes slightly darker and emits a lovely roasted aroma. Add themilk with the saffron and mix well, ensuring that there are no lumps. Add the sugar and cardamom, and boil gently for 5 minutes or until it thickens to a custard consistency. Add the cashews and raisins. Allow to for 5 mins. The consistency will thicken slightly.

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