Ingredients
150 gm grated jaggery or palm sugar
100 gm cane sugar
100 ml water
2 cardamom pods
3 cloves
1-inch cinnamon
5 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
250 ml thick coconut milk
50 g roasted cashews, halved, plus extra roughly chopped, to serve
Preparations
- Prepare the grated jaggery.
- Prepare the thick coconut milk. I used canned coconut milk, you can also use fresh thick coconut milk.
- Preheat oven to 160°C and make the sugar mixture.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the jaggery, sugar, water, and whole spices over medium heat just long enough to dissolve the jaggery and sugar, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool slightly.
- While the sugar mixture is cooling, whisk the eggs.
- Place the eggs and salt in a large bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. Yes, whisk lightly with a fork very important for making the custard with that tiny holes.
- Whisk in the vanilla extract if using but I didn’t use it.
- Whisk in the coconut milk until thoroughly incorporated and then the sugar mixture.
- Strain the mixture through a fine wire mesh strainer.
Oven-Steaming
- You can make custard in a large dish or with individual baking molds. Butter the baking tray/molds. Pour the mixture into the baking tray/molds and place it in another larger tray. Fill half of the large baking tray with warm water (40°C).
- Cover the tray loosely with parchment paper or/and foil paper. Keep it on the middle rack in the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes or until the custard is set. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Remove the custard from the oven before it is fully set (around 35 mins), decorate it with halves of cashews, or sprinkle with chopped cashews, and bake for a further 10 minutes or until just set.
