Last week after trying, trying being the operative word, to download a batch of pics from my camera’s chip into my computer, my computer wasn’t havin’ it. I’ll spare you the gory details lest I share that it took over a week, 3 calls w/techs before I got onto a ‘Senior apple adviser’ who I had 3 sessions with before my -puter was back & running. His analogy for my computer’s ailment was to that of a computer getting a flat tire. Additionally the don has me completely crazy with the go ahead for the DAPL & now the exclusion of his designated enemies of the people, media organizations from press briefings.
I was so paralyzed by all this I was rendered useless, unable to do a simple edit here to have my clam chowder piece be at the top of my blog page & share that info w/friends, something I do every National Clam Chowder Day, February, 25th
The scant pint of milk that needed to be used in my fridge compelled the cooking antics I got into, with nothing I made relating to each other. eI knew cooking would do me good and tho I did not have it in me to make clam chowder but my cooking what spurred all this cooking on was .
Instead, Saturday afternoon I, meticulously salad sliced a red onion & prepped up a wrinkly piece of ginger into beautiful fine slices and got them into a sweet pickle brine I’ve nursed and coddled for quite some time. I also whipped up a rich tomato sauce because I had the opened can of tomato paste from the papa al pomodoro, half a large onion and a jar of fresh garlic confit & infused oil but
First I thought I was going to make a vodka, creme tomato sauce but that seemed dumb once I remembered it was Nat’l clam chowder day and even tho I wasn’t going to delve into my ailing computer to bring my chowder entry to the top of the blog & make mention of it on facebk – again because I’m so torn about my benign work & the horrific actions of the POS spinster mouth and his henchmen
Right, wow so because I was in an Ocean State of mind, thinking about Nat’l chowder day I got the ingenious idea to make Indian pudding! I love reading the history of it even though I’d made & read about Indian Pudding before but for some reason I never posted about that.
All the ingredients are basic staples so with out further ado, my version on the fly for a cold weather treat:
Making it my own, I halved the recipe I worked from
1.5 Cups milk
1/4 C corn meal
1/4 C Turbinado sugar, light brown sugar is called for
1/4 C molasses
a pinch of salt
1t ground cinnamon
1/2 a grated nutmeg
1t – ginger – pealed & finely minced. Ground can certainly be used but I’d use less then the fresh
2 large eggs
2 T unsalted butter, cut into 2 pads
Bring the oven to 275 degrees F. Lightly grease a 6- or 8-cup soufflé or baking dish with butter.
In a medium-sized sauce pot scald the milk over a medium-low heat. The trick I recently learned is to look for steam vs looking for bubbles along the edge of the pot. I find once I see bubbles, the milk is too hot.
The recipe I worked from calls for cream to be poured into a into a lg mixing bowl to which the cornmeal, sugar, molasses, salt, and the spices, cloves is commonly called for in an Indian pudding. What I did was warm/scald about a cup of milk and the rest is what I mixed the dry ingredients into. Then add this cream/corn meal/spice mixture to the scalded milk. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium-low heat until the pudding has thickened to the consistency of syrup (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat.
In a bowl, beat eggs with a whisk. Temper the eggs by adding 1/2 to 1/4 C of the hot cornmeal mixture to the eggs while whisking rapidly. Vigorously whisk the egg mixture into the remaining cornmeal mixture. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring until melted.
Pour the ‘batter’ mixture into the prepared baking dish or ramekins and place dish into a vain-de-marie = water bath. Pour enough water into the shallow baking dish to come at least half way up the side of the of the baking dish.
This is a pretty low temperature and the full ingredient recipe says to bake over 2 hours. Because I halved the recipe I baked it for about and hour checked it, turned the heat off then let it go another 10 – 15 mins A tester inserted close to (but not in) the center should come out clean.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or heavy cream.
The yield is about 6 healthy servings.