Ed Santiago Recipes Tembleque

Tembleque

A puertorican coconut pudding.

Ingredients

Directions

1. About 15 minutes before cooking, place unopened cans in a bowl of warm water; this saves you the hassle of scooping out solid coconut milk or, worse, the splooshy mess you get when you pour out a half-liquid half-solid mass.
2. Place the cornstarch in a small (eg 2-cup) bowl.
3. Open cans of coconut milk . Pour just enough into the cornstarch, whisking constantly, to make a uniform paste. Pour the rest into a 3-qt saucepan. Add cinnamon sticks , sugar , and salt . Heat on medium-high , stirring constantly with a wide-bottom rubber spatula so the coconut milk doesn't burn on the bottom of the saucepan, until it starts sounding bubbly.
4. Briefly remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks . Pour a little bit more into the cornstarch mixture , whisk to combine well, and add back to saucepan. Scrape bowl using spatula.
5. Cook, lowering heat to medium if it's too vigorous, stirring actively with spatula. Mixture will thicken and steam and plop. Cook about 2-4 minutes until it thickens a little more.
6. Pour into bread loaf pan, scraping saucepan with spatula. Dust very lightly with powdered cinnamon . (Use a fine sieve; the holes on a spice can are too big, making an uneven mess). Let cool an hour, then refrigerate until cold, 2-3 hours longer.