Coconut-Cinnamon Pudding and The Next Destination

**Post Factum:** 

This is one of a series of posts for Vegan MoFo 2010; my theme was a 'Virtual Random Road Trip', where I used random.org's random geographic location generator to select locations around the globe, I then attempted to cook a few dishes from the traditional cuisine of that place. I didn't have a lot of time between generating the locations and coming up with recipes (~ 1 day). So, lacking time to do proper research, I can't vouch for the authenticity of anything I came up with. However, they are what they are, and it was a fun theme. 

For my last post on Bolivia, I thought a dessert might be appropriate. In choosing a recipe, I was going back and forth between a couple of options billed as traditional Bolivian desserts. One of them was cocadas, which are coconut candies made with condensed milk and eggs. Not versed in vegan candy making, I balked at trying to veganize that...it might be easy, but I wasn't sure. I was also extremely tempted by a cinnamon sorbet ( helado de canela), which was vegan from the get-go.

In the end, I decided on a coconut pudding, lightly flavored with cinnamon. I'm not sure whether this is considered specifically a traditional dessert, but I found it on a Bolivian recipes site, so I assume it's a fairly popular dessert at any rate.

I made the pudding this morning before work, and let me tell you, I'm not particularly fond of sweet things in the morning, nor do I have a big sweet tooth in general, but this is sooo good. I ate some for breakfast!

You can find the full recipe at the bottom of the post.

The next item on the agenda is the next road trip destination. So, courtesy of Random.org:

Florida!

...well, off the coast of Florida. I think I mentioned before that 60-70% of the randomly generated locations end up being in the ocean...this was one of them, but it was pretty close to land, so why not choose the closest shore? I've decided to abandon the road for this stop and travel aboard a MoFo yacht for a while. We'll be sailing in a southerly direction, me thinks. This should be a nice way to spend the weekend.

Coconut-Cinnamon Pudding (4 Small or 2 Generous Servings)

I halved the original recipe (which you can find here) and veganized it by using coconut milk beverage instead of dairy milk. The original recipe calls for cloves in addition to the cinnamon, but I was out, so omitted them. I also reduced the amount of sugar by half.

I recommend using unsweetened coconut milk beverage...the drinkable kind,  not the heavy tinned kind.

2 and 1/4 cups unsweetened coconut milk beverage, like the So Delicious variety or similar

1.5 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 agave syrup

4-inch piece of cinnamon bark

1/4 cup corn starch, mixed until smooth with 2 to 2.5 tablespoons water

Combine 2 cups of the coconut milk with the shredded coconut and the cinnamon in a pot and bring slowly to a boil, stirring frequently. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the sugar (or agave), reduce heat to low/med-low and allow to cook gently for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

After the sweetened mixture has cooked for 10 minutes, remove from heat and strain to remove the shredded coconut and the cinnamon. (Alternately, you could puree the coconut shreds into the milk with a blender.)

Return the strained milk to the pot, add in the remaining 1/4 cup coconut milk and the cornstarch/water mixture. Cook over medium-high, stirring constantly, until the mixture is quite thick and viscous. Remove from heat, and allow to cool completely. 

Once cooled, you can chill it in the fridge until serving, or serve at room temperature. Garnish with toasted coconut and powdered cinnamon. 

Post scriptum:  Depending on how much you allow it to thicken, it will get pretty solid as it cools and sets up. Mine became like a molded piece of pudding or similar, so to "break" the mold and get a creamy texture, I put it in a bowl and whisked it for a good minute or two...the mold-like mass then becomes more soft and creamy.

Back tomorrow with an appropriate comestible.

Roseann LaPonte
Rosanne Tobin