Sweet Nothings

Imagine a life where you have never tasted chocolate before. I know it is ludicrous but stay with me. Now, imagine an instance when you finally see your life’s first chocolate. Everyone says your chocolate is the finest chocolate in the world. You smell it, it is inviting. So you plop it into your salivating mouth and……..yesssss!

Now, you go tell everyone about your raunchy little experience with the world’s finest chocolate. Turns out that your chocolate was also the last piece of chocolate left in this world! Now what do you do?

You get some flour and butter and make pastry; rolling out the dough and slathering spoonfuls of butter layer after layer, remembering the deep layers of that chocolate flavor in your mouth. You then patiently wait for those layers to puff-up into thousands of crisp, buttery, flaky sheets which gets you so excited; so you take a bite of that sweet pastry filled with a saffrony cardamomy custard which you have made with a little ghee, some sweet corn and so much love, and……..yesssss!

If you are not already thinking about making it, let me tell you that this puff pastry is SO EASY that it comes together within an hour (even for a dough wrecker like me!), the custard is sans eggs and you can easily turn it into a vegan delight by replacing the ghee with any nut butter and regular milk with any dairy-free milk (think cashew butter and cashew milk and reach cashew heaven). What’s interesting is that I bake them in my tandoori oven and not my regular oven which halves the baking time so these babies are ready in just 10 minutes! Let me tell you an extra something too. Out of all the yummy treats that I have ever made, this recipe is the BIG WINNER! So, do tell me how it turns out for you! You can check out the puff pastry recipe on Vah Reh Vah and the corny custard or kheer recipe is right below!

Have fun 🙂

PORTUGUESE CORN KHEER TARTS

Serving: 20 Tarts

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet corn cobs
• 2 cups full fat milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• Seeds of 10 green cardamom pods, crushed
• 10-15 strands of saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp milk
• Puff pastry dough (easy recipe from Vah Reh Vah)

Method:

1. Grate the sweet corn cobs to get the pulp.
2. In a pan, heat 1 tbsp ghee and add the corn pulp to it.
3. Roast the pulp on low-medium heat while stirring continuously, till its color changes and the ghee starts to separate.
4. Transfer the roasted corn pulp to a plate.
5. In the same pan, pour the milk and heat on a high flame till it comes to a boil.
6. Now, reduce the heat to low and add the roasted corn pulp to the milk.
7. Add the saffron milk to the pan and stir well.
8. Keep stirring after every 2-3 minutes till the kheer thickens.
9. Add the sugar and crushed cardamom to the kheer.
10. Cook till the sugar dissolves completely, around 2-3 minutes.
11. Let it cool for a few minutes or refrigerate overnight for a more intense color.
12. To make the tarts, roll out the pastry dough and then roll it into a log.
13. Divide the log into small sections and transfer each section into greased muffin or tart moulds.
14. Press the dough against the base and walls of the moulds with your fingers to form cups and spoon a little kheer into each cup.
15. Bake the tarts for 8-10 minutes at 200C in an electric tandoor, and take them out once the tandoor completely cools down. Or, bake for 20-25 minutes in a regular oven which has been preheated to 200C.
16. Let them cool slightly and serve!