At the Back of My Tongue

There are a few tastes that I remember from my childhood. One would be my Grandmother’s Mutton Curry. It had a typical aroma (I think it was the amount of garam masala she put in it) and a typically stew-like texture, without the heaviness of an Indian curry. My favorite part of the meal was sucking on the bone marrows. She also put in chunky pieces of potatoes and papaya in the curry, which would come out super-soft with a jelly-like translucence!

The other taste I’ve kept at the back of my tongue is that of a caramel cream pudding. She used to steam it in a pressure cooker and had this distinct eggy-ness. I’ve spent endless afternoons as a forever-hungry-toffee-stained kid in floral prints digging in to bowls of caramel pudding, and I couldn’t care less about how many eggs or how much cream had gone in it, really.

Yesterday I woke up missing Grandma and craving caramel pudding. What did I do? I made mutton curry and caramel pudding…without the steaming!

I am surprised at myself though. I have gone almost an entire week without chocolate! But haven’t been able to do without coffee mix.

Coffee-Caramel Cream Pudding:

- 3 tablespoons white sugar

- 1 tablespoon salted butter

- 3 crushed green cardamoms

- 1 small stick of cinnamon

- 3 whole cloves

- Half a cup cream (double cream works best of course, but I used toned)

- 1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder

- 1 egg yolk

For the apple-vanilla layer:

- 2 tablespoon of concentrated apple juice

- Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

- Half a cup of cream

- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

- 1 egg yolk

Melt the sugar with butter over low heat, till toffee-like, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add the cream along with cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves. At this point, the caramel will solidify instantly, but don’t panic, with heat and more stirring it will melt into the cream. Add the coffee powder and bring the mixture to a slight boil before taking it off the heat. Add the egg yolk and stir vigorously. Pour the mixture into cups till half and chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

For the Apple-vanilla Layer:

Bring the cream to a simmer. Add the sugar and stir well. Add the apple juice and vanilla essence and take the mixture off heat. Whisk in the egg yolk. Pour this on top of the set coffee-caramel layer and chill for an hour before serving.