The selection of recipes featured in Komali Nunna’s “Entertaining from an Ethnic Indian Kitchen” brightens up a vegetarian holiday feast and provides innovative and delicious ways to enjoy seasonal fare.
Get inspired to host a community gathering around a decorative table with this Persimmon Date Coconut Pudding. Persimmons are bountiful during the Thanksgiving season. Use only well-ripened fruit for this recipe.
This recipe combines 3 of Nunna’s favorite ingredients: persimmons, dates, and coconuts with a touch of cardamom. The end result is absolutely divine.
Persimmon Date Cocunut Pudding (Serves 8 )
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dry ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon green cardamom seed powder
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 2 cups persimmon puree
- ½ cup sweetened coconut
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup chopped dates
- apricot glaze
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a six cup fluted tube pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl, stir in flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cardamom and set aside.
Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, combine eggs and sugar. Beat until well-blended. Add melted butter and vanilla. Beat until butter is incorporated into the egg mixture. Add persimmon puree and whipping cream and mix until combined. Slowly stir in dry ingredients until moistened. Add coconut, dates and pecans. Stir to mix. Add batter to the prepared pan.
Set the baking pan in a large roasting pan. Transfer roasting pan to the oven. Pour enough hot water to the roasting pan until water is halfway up to the sides of the baking pan.
Bake for an hour to hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool in the baking pan for 15 – 20 minutes. Unmold onto a serving plate. Glaze with apricot glaze. Serve either with ice cream or whipping cream.
Komali Nunna is the author of “Entertaining from an Ethnic Indian Kitchen.” For Nunna and her family, the table is a place to break bread, make friends, share joy and revel in the abundant produce found growing around their Southern California home. Picking the fruit growing in this area, such as the fall season’s orange persimmons that become ripe and found in yards and farmers throughout the fall season, Nunna has adapted traditional family recipes to the cyclical bounty of her new home.