I hate cooking, but show me a dessert recipe and I can bake, whip, whisk, freeze with the best of cooks. I dont know if I like the controlled measuring and mixing of the baking process, or the sublime aromas generally associated with it (as opposed to crying over teekha onions) or the amazing gratification when you are done. Ok, ok simple fact is I have a heck of a sweet tooth. So, I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to try. For anyone looking for a recipe with just that lil bit of exotica as well as being a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, here's the one I stumbled upon - coconut chocolate pudding (https://101cookbooks.com/archives/coconut-chocolate-pudding-recipe.html)

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the flavour combination, I dont like Bounty all that much. But, chocolate pudding can never be bad in my book, it's been a long time since I had any fun with desserts and the pic alongside had my tastebuds humming with pleasure.

As for being too exotic? The recipe calls for a tsp. of curry powder!! The curry powder available in the US is a spice blend what I would call garam masala, so I tried substituting my own mix - cardamom, cinnamon, cloves & cayenne pepper (the cayenne pepper was because I remotely remembered eating an entree with chocolate and cayenne, but I somewhere in my imagination I overlooked the part about the entree :( ).

Being a bit wary of g.m.p in my desesrts I added half the qty. in the recipe & still found it to be overpowering. In fact the actual feedback I did receive was that it tasted like ... umm.. chyawanprash. So, my recco leave out the gmp, or add just a pinch. As for the pudding itself, the recipe is perfect producing an amazingly melt-in-your-mouth chocolate experience. The canned coconut milk available here didnt bring too much of a coconut flavour, there's a subtle hint in the background. This was quite enough for me, but if you want more I think the recipe mentions adding some coconut extract too.

For myself, the next time I make it again, I'm adding rum. While I dont mind a touch of the exotic from time to time, some flavour combinations just cannot be beat and rum & chocolate's one of them ...