After the Scallops with Spicy Curry Sauce and Couscous I just made, I needed something cooling. Mango immediately came to mind, and this Mango Pudding recipe sounded like exactly what I wanted. A cold dessert made with mango and coconut milk. Ah! It promises to be a sweet dessert that will be a nice foil to that spicy curry. Plus I’ve never made pudding before, and I always like to try new things.
This rich and silky dessert is bursting with luscious mango flavor. The simplicity of this pudding recipe makes it great for company.
The Ingredients
One really nice thing about living in South Florida is there are mango trees everywhere. If you’ve only ever had mangoes from the grocery store, you are missing out. Fresh mangoes right off the tree taste so much better.
Unfortunately, mango season isn’t quite here, and I had to go to the grocery store route for this recipe. I decided to shop at Whole Foods this week, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good their mangoes were. Literally just like freshly picked!
The mangoes were only a few dollars (I bought 3 since they were small), and so were the rest of the ingredients. Actually, the only other items I had to buy were the unflavored gelatin and coconut milk. I had the sugar and salt on hand.
The Process
I’ve never made pudding before, and I have to say it was pretty easy to do. It did take much longer than the time listed–22 minutes as opposed to the 10 minutes on the recipe.
The first step was to cut up the mangos. My mango corer came in very handy for this part. I cut up 2 mangoes and pureed them in my blender. It took a while because I kept having to stop and stir the mango. I had to stir it several times before it started to liquefy. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite give me enough mango puree. I had to add another half mango to the mixture.
After that, the recipe went pretty smoothly. I did shake the can of coconut milk, but I had clumps of fat even after thoroughly. I decided to strain the pudding mixture using a colander with large holes to ensure a smooth pudding (a finer mesh sieve would have clogged). It worked a treat!
I ended up with about 2 cups of pudding and split that between 4 small ramekins. I didn’t quite get the mixture split evenly, and the last ramekin was noticeably less full than the others. Turkey baster to the rescue! It made it neat and easy to remove the liquid from the fuller dishes and evenly distribute the pudding.
After that, I covered the dishes with plastic wrap and let them chill overnight. The next day, I used the leftover mango and some unsweetened shredded coconut flakes to garnish the mango pudding.
