Lemony Puddings

My husband’s brother unexpectedly stayed one night last week, so I made a quick pudding to add to the dinner of pork fillet, cannellini bean salad and wild rice that I have prepared. I made these little lemon and coconut syrup puddings from a Donna Hay magazine.

They were the perfect thing to make for a quick pudding. I think that individual puddings often look nicer – as if you have put more effort in when reality the only extra effort is in the washing up!! The puddings were so easy to make – basically mix all the ingredients together and then make a syrup to pour over when the puddings were cooked.

I did find the puddings a bit sweet – I think if I made them again I would add lemon juice as well as zest to the syrup. I served them with lightly whipped cream, but then got my favourite Cyclops natural yoghurt out as well to cut through the sweetness. A good recipe to have though if you want to whip something up quickly.

In the weekend we went to Napier for the Mission concert. For those who don’t know this is a big open air concert at one of NZ’s first vineyards, established I think about 120 years ago – maybe longer? This year Tom Jones was playing, but you go for the atmosphere more than the singer. It was the second time we had been and we enjoyed it even more this time. We also got to go to the Hastings farmers market on Sunday morning. This is one of the best farmers markets in the country. There was some fantastic produce, as usual there on Sunday. We couldn’t get things that wouldn’t travel well, as we didn’t come back to Auckland until yesterday but we got Heather potatoes (I haven’t tried these before, but apparently they are great!), blue Maori potatoes, quince, a new variety of apple called Cherry gala which are gorgeous, pear shaped cherry tomatoes, beetroot and cucumber. The farmers markets in NZ are just getting better and better!



Coconut Puddings with Lemon Syrup (from Donna Hay magazine)

½ c water
½ c castor sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
½ c coconut
¼ c flour
2/3 c castor sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
¾ c milk
20g butter, melted
½ tsp vanilla

· place water and first measure of sugar in a small pot and stir until sugar dissolves; add lemon zest and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside
· combine coconut, flour and sugar. Add lightly beaten eggs, lemon juice, milk and butter and stir to combine
· spoon into 4 ½ ramekins
· bake at 180c for about 25 minutes
pour over syrup while hot and serve