Diwali Dessert: Chef Sarab's Baked Boondi Pudding

As Diwali approaches, it's time to plan an elaborate dessert menu because for this festival -- the biggest in the year for some -- one can suspend diets and stuff for a day, or maybe two, and go crazy over the mithai -- as long as you get back on the treadmill afterwards!

Chef Sarab Kapoor's Baked Boondi Pudding, especially when served chilled, is the best way to end an exhilarating, frenetic Diwali evening of revelry.

Kapoor, a television chef, declares that her recipes are 'easy-going and accessible that accommodate individual taste preferences and encourage a more relaxed approach to measurements'.

Baked Boondi Pudding

Serves: 4 to 5

Ingredients

• 500 gm boondi
• 2 cups rabri (please see the recipe below)
• 4 tbsp condensed milk
• Finely chopped pistachios

For the rabri

• 4 slices white bread, crusts removed
• 2½ cups milk
• ½ cup condensed milk
• ¼ tsp green elaichi or cardamom powder 

Method

For the rabri:

• Grind the bread in a blender/mixer to make bread crumbs.
  Keep aside.
• Heat the milk in a saucepan over low heat and then add the bread crumbs, condensed milk and cook till thick.
  Lastly add the cardamom powder.
  Take off heat and keep aside.

Assembly:

• Preheat an oven to 160 °C.
• In a shallow baking dish, spread a layer of boondi, using ¾ of it.
  Top with ¾ of the rabri, condensed milk and some of the chopped pistachios; reserve the rest of the pistas for garnish.
  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes till the pudding begins to simmer.
  Cool a little.
• Serve warm or chill in the fridge for an hour and then serve.
  Before serving, top with some unbaked, remaining boondi, drizzle the remaining rabri and garnish with pistachios.

Sarab's Note: You can also bake in 5-6 little ramekins or small glass dessert bowls (see the pic above).

In each bowl/ramekin, place a few tsp boondi, top with 2 to 3 tbsp rabri, pistachios and bake about 10 minutes, till the pudding in each bowl begins to simmer. Garnish with a handul of unbaked boondi, a pinch pistachios and drizzle a little more rabri.

Chef Sarab Kapoor lives in Singapore and is a television personality, cookbook author and culinary consultant.

• REDIFF FOOD