Yam Pudding

It's back to my roots with yam pudding

I started off my food ministry in church with this dessert.  Encouraged by its popularity, I made it often and was  called the 'or nee' or yam pudding lady.

The easy version was to cook the peeled yam with minimum water under pressure, drain and mesh, before adding the condiments and sugar. I liked its 'rustic' style, with the occasional lumps which reminded my guests that was indeed homemade.

Recently, I have the opportunity to meet with some acquaintances, all cooking experts in their own right. I decided to present a smoother and 'upgraded ' version because I wanted to put my best feet forward, which explained the sieve and ricer procedure.

Fresh gingko is far superior than the canned or prepared version.  For that, my long suffering hubby processed the gingko nuts an entire afternoon so that I could showcase the dessert.  Hope my new friends liked it as much as I did.

For 10.

Ingredients :

1 medium yam

200ml coconut milk

1 cup fresh gingko nuts, peeled

Syrup:

2 bunches of pandan leaves

2  l water

2-3 cups sugar, depending on preference

Method :

Peel and cut yam, 1 cm thick

Steam the yam until soft, about 30 minutes.

Rice the yam with a ricer.

Pass the riced yam through a sieve.

To prepare the syrup :

Boil pandan leaves in the water, about 20 minutes.

Discard the leaves. Retain the water and discard portion with broken leaves or sediments.

Now boil the sugar with pandan infused water until volume of water is halved.

Add the gingko nuts and boil for 10 minutes, or until the nuts is cooked and has turned translucent.

Remove the nuts and continue to  boil syrup until liquid is reduced by another half.

Assembly;

Mix yam, coconut.

Add syrup until it reaches the consistency desired. It is about right when the paste coats the back of a spoon without lumping.

Stir in gingko nuts.

Serve hot or cold.

Or Nee , or Yam mud (pudding) in Teochew dialect