NomNom | a global affair

Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I were at Saravana Bhavan for lunch. Me hankering for my favorite combination platter, him scanning for his keto friendly options. And when my plate came with sheera (a cream of wheat dessert), he was not a happy camper. It was like a three-year-old who wanted to have the same dessert, but his disciplined nature would not allow him to!

Back home, I kept hearing the little groans of wanting a similar dessert. So, with the ingredients in our pantry and fridge, I whipped up these almond dessert cups. He loved them and of course, I was happy that they were ready in about 20 minutes (minus the refrigeration time, if you prefer it cold).

Ingredients:

1.5 cups milk (I used 2% since that’s what I had at home)
.5 cup heavy cream
1.5 cups almond flour
1 cup allulose (you could use erythritol)
1 tsp cardamom powder
2 tsp sliced almonds (plus a few more for decorating)
4 tsp ghee

How To:

1. Pour the milk and heavy cream into a heavy bottom pan and warm the mixture ever so slightly over a low flame.

2. Turn off the stove, sprinkle the almond flour, allulose, and cardamom powder into the milk/cream mixture and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or spatula.

3. Turn the stove back on, add the ghee and keep stirring the mixture at medium heat till it thickens and is the consistency of thick glue (about 15 minutes).

4. Turn off the stove and portion the dessert into six little cups and top with the remaining almonds.

Enjoy!

PS. You can have it warm or serve it cold after sticking it in the fridge for an hour.

By Lakshmi:

Can I make a confession? I’m a baby about my birthdays! For many years now, I’ve made a resolution to not work on my birthday and fill the day surrounded by the people, activities and food I love. And every year I look forward to the 24 hours dedicated to me. But this time around, I decided to extend the celebration to 192 hours. That’s right, eight days of eating my way through London with my teenaged daughter and her dear friend for company.

Now, this was going to be no random Eatathon. I had a wish list of five places I definitely wanted to hit up on my trip. Places where tables tend to get booked up months ahead of time. And here I was with my air tickets to London purchased barely two weeks away from D-day! OpenTable and the phone became my best friends as I wrangled my way to reservations at all five. With those anchors set, I scoured my way through bookmarked clippings from food and travel magazines, Time Out London, and other sources to create a list of restaurants by neighborhood that served amazing meals at not too exorbitant prices. This list was vetted by my travel companions, and the end product was a list accented with highlights and bold colors. We were ready to forage our way through London!

The first stop on this journey was a dream come true. NOPI, a restaurant by one of my favorite chefs, Yottam Ottolenghi. He is the MAN who does vegetables like no other. The flavors, the seasoning, the fresh taste, the creativity…I could just go on and on.

My excitement entering in was like a kid who had been promised a trip to a candy store for a long time and now had permission to pick out anything she wanted. Let me walk you through a visual journey of what we ate! If I had to pick one word to describe the meal? Divine. Add another word? Magic! Tell you how I felt? Like Royalty. How was the taste? It was a like a perfectly orchestrated taste festival on my tongue. And my admiration for the creator of this culinary nirvana? Undying!