eat make read

Yesterday I was sitting at work thinking about what to make for dinner and my mind wandered a bit to dessert instead. I started thinking about pudding of all things, pistachio pudding to be exact. I know to most people pistachio pudding seems like a pretty tame food, but when I was young it was one of the only things outside of the very comfortable chocolate or vanilla realm that I would eat. So I decided instead of picking up a box of Jello, I’d whip up a homemade version of my childhood favorite.

I found a basic pudding recipe I could use to loosely follow, picked up some pistachios and got to work. I started by shelling the pistachios, they are really lovely little nuts. Then I chopped those puppies up, mixed up my ingredients and tossed the pistachios in the pan so they could steep in the milk while it formed into a thick pudding. I was hoping this would help deepen the flavor. The result is a creamy, sweet pudding contrasted by the little crunchy bits of pistachio. The recipe was really quite simple to make and definitely satisfied my craving for a childhood comfort food.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean (optional)
1 cup pistachios, chopped

1
Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Very gradually (a few tablespoons at a time) whisk in milk, taking care to dissolve cornstarch. Whisk in egg yolks.
2
Add pistachios and vanilla bean.
3
Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until the first large bubble forms and sputters, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low; still whisking, cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; immediately pour through sieve into bowl.
4
Scoop pistachios back into pudding and thoroughly incorporate. Split vanilla bean and scrape insides into pudding. Stir butter and vanilla into hot pudding.
5
Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Before serving, whisk pudding until smooth; divide among four serving dishes