Navarathri Neivedyam VIII - Coconut milk pudding

My pantry had a can of coconut milk waiting patiently for its turn. I had brought it to be used in curries, gravies, etc, but never got around to using it. Recently while I was going through Aparna's lovely blog, I saw this pudding and had bookmarked it. Ever since I began making neivedyam on a daily basis for Navarathri, I wanted to make it and today was the day. With few changes to Aparna's recipe, I was good to go. I used Vegalicious' method of stovetop for cooking since I am not a very great fan of microwave cooking for various reasons.

The pudding resulted from a 10 minute stir on the stovetop over medium heat. It was creamy, coco-nutty and rich. It is a great to see how such few ingredients can lead to such a wonder!

Now over to Navarathri Neivedyam VIII - Coconut milk pudding

Ingredients (serves 4 since it is slightly heavy):


Thick coconut milk: 400 ml (one can, store bought)
Sugar: ¼ cup (plus one or two tbsps extra if you want it a little sweeter)
Cornstarch / cornflour: 3 tsps
Elaichi: 8 pods
Edible camphor: a pinch
Fresh coconut pieces: ¼ cup
Almonds (chopped fine): for garnish

Method:

Take about 50 ml of the coconut milk in a cup. Add the cornstarch to it and mix well. Make sure no lumps are formed.
Take the remaining coconut milk, sugar and camphor and mix in a heavy bottomed vessel.
Mix the cornstarch mixed coconut milk to it. (This step is done just to avoid formation of minor lumps)
Grind the coconut pieces and elaichi to a smooth powder.
Bring the coconut milk to a boil over medium flame stirring all the time. It will start bubbling in about 6 minutes.
Keep stirring patiently as it thickens. When you feel the right consistency has been attained, add the coconut-elaichi powder.
Mix well. Keep stirring for 2 minutes and finish.
Offer to God.
Pour in individual serving cups and refrigerate for about two hours.
Enjoy!
This pudding goes to 'Cooking for Kids - Festive Sweets/Savoury Event' hosted by Suma and created by Sharmi