The Proof in the Pudding

I remember my mumma making these when we were growing up, and she still does. Whenever there were extra pav in the house, mumma would make it, and I would relish it, and again, I still do (cause Roddy can’t eat just one). She made it in a humble pressure cooker, and it was one of the most beautiful and delicious thing I’ve eaten, then most of the things that mum made are mostly delicious (aren’t all mum good cooks because they do it with dollops of love).

So when you have been quarantined baking and cooking, it seemed like a good idea to take a did at it. Of course, you wasn’t going to take mumma’s help, cause this was my project, your spin on a traditional dish (damn now I sound like a contestant from Masterchef Australia, definitely not the Indian one). And hey, I had to do something hatke to take edge off this lockdown, and the agonising frustration of your internet not working. Hence decided to recreate this classic dish myself.

The first attempt didn’t quite go as I would have liked it to. Firstly, didn’t have previous day’s bread, so had to make it with fresh sliced bread. Though I did try to dry it  out first by keeping the slices of bread in the sun. Next, I didn’t quite have a dish to make the pudding in. So as usual decided to use my pie dish. But then the pie bottom meant that the mixture would seep out, and it di. So had to transfer the mixture to three utensil before I finally settled on a chatti to make it in. They say you’ve got to see the silver lining in every dark cloud, so doing this meant that the bread absorbed the liquid mixture.

 Baking went smoothly, but the outcome didn’t really meet the expectations that I had set for myself. Maybe it was the lack of a proper dish, the centre was quite moist but baked. And when I tried to get it out it looked like Mrs Whiskerson. But then it tasted yumm. So not bad for my first shot.

They say “koshish karne walo ki har nahin hoti”, and I now I’ve come to believe this too. You’ve got to try, try, till you succeed. So making it just once wouldn’t wet the baking appetite, had to make it again, to perfect it. This time I actually got myself an actual baking dish, yipeee!

 So went about assembling the ingredients and then putting the dish together and hoping it would would all come together, especially since I had run out of vanilla essence and had to make do with eliachi powder, as recommended by my mum. Got worried when I saw the mixture rise in the OTG, but it looked delicious. Baking went smoothly, and  I didn’t quite create a mess, so yaay to me!The outcome looked good but not as good and shiny as my mumma makes. But hey it did look good, and when I emptied it it came out smoothly without sticking to the side (as it did previously).

In the end it was not a bad attempt. I did come close to recreating my mumma’s pudding. It may not look as great as hers, but hey I am happy with the outcome, and I know in time I will surely perfect it. And yeah having it with vanilla ice cream makes for an awesome heavenly dessert. So in the end, I can say that the proof is indeed in the pudding!