Strawberry Paneer bread pudding

Since I toke up an entire post on my love for strawberries, I’ll get on with the lovely recipes.

Ingredients

4 strawberries - quartered

3 strawberries - diced

1/2 pat of Paneer( fresh cheese)

1 bread slice

1tbsp butter

1tbsp sugar

1tbsp honey

Ingredients for Tea custard

1 cup milk

2 tbsp sugar

1tbsp honey

1 tea bag

1 egg yolk

1/2 star anise (ungrated)  - you can use clove as an alternative

2 black pepper corns- Kept whole

METHOD:

It’s only long because I’ve decided to take baby steps. Else, it’s easy and ingredients are readily available. Stop being lazy… it’s a matter of strawberries!

Method for Tea custard (Crèmes moulèe)

Heat the milk until hot, add Star anise and two pepper corn to add flavor.

As the milk starts to heat up before adding the below ingredients take the Star anise and Pepper corns out.

Add sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir until dissolved.

Whisk the egg yolk separately until smooth. Slowly pour it into the pan while moving your spatula making an “8” at a relatively fast pace, mixing it well. Continue until the yolk has mixed in.

Add Honey and continue stirring.

(You’ve made custard, wohoo!)

Pop in the tea bag and let it cook for a 45 sec- 1 min. Use your spoon and gently squeeze a little while sliding the tea bag out. This will leave natural color and taste to the custard (do not squeeze to hard).

READY…set aside.

Preparing the caramelized Strawberry on a pan:

Strawberries have high water content; they caramelize about as well as ice cubes. Quarter about 2-3 strawberries (make sure you pick the slightly firm ones). Add granulated sugar to your sauce pan and as it melts add your strawberries to the pan and mix and stir till the sugar starts to brown and strawberries change texture.

Turn off heat and set aside.

Later you’ll also notice the juices released by strawberry and the sugar liquid start to crystallize. This method is also known as the crystallization process.

Preparing the Strawberry Paneer Bread:

If you're using fresh strawberries, especially the huge one with the tartly flavor to it...eat a piece or two just to have yourself warm up to the fact that this seasonal fruit is…I’m pretty sure you got the idea from my last post.

In a separate bowl cut your bread out in bits and pieces like the hair on a sheep. Looks exactly like a bad hair day and scattered.

Add the half pat of Paneer and dump your diced/minced strawberries into the bowl

Add one tbsp. of honey

Next; work your hands into the mixing bowl. You may use a spoon but your hands allow it to combine better.

Take enough mixture, make it into a ball. Place ball through flat skewers, and shape into square like shape (always make sure when flattened or shaped the mixture shouldn't be bigger than your palm)

Repeat with remaining mixture.

Set them aside

Sautéing:

Melt the butter on medium heat.

Place your finished mixture into the pan and move it around to avoid it from sticking to the pan or break while flipping.

After a minute check for the change in color, drizzle Tea custard on the pieces and flip over. Repeat for the other side.

Serving:

So much I can use to plate this dish up! Caramelized strawberries, custard, fresh strawberries, cream, the water realized through caramelizing or the crystallized content left after. Even though I think the above is a lot to choose from, if something else excites your senses in your kitchen, add up! Keeping in mind the flavors and how they’d combine.

I used just a few of those.

Bonn Appetite J!

Custard dripping-ly yours

-A-