Custard Cravings

Recipe: Vla (Dutch Custard)

The food cravings in pregnancy can be really specific and sometimes weird. Some days I'm craving for the authentic Arabic shawarma and another day its my puttu (steamed rice cake) and kadala curry (curry made with bengal gram).... (that's really weird considering that I never really liked my kadala curry before this pregnancy...)

And then there are those days when I just need to get a chocolate fix - and not just any chocolate, but specifically deep, dark chocolate... and preferably Lindt with 60% or more cocoa :) You may be getting the feeling that I'm using this pregnancy as an excuse to over-indulge.. but trust me these cravings just don't go away with substitutes....

So this was another one of my cravings... I wanted to eat custard and definitely not the one made with custard powder. I was also not in the mood to break half a dozen eggs, separate them and use the egg-yolks to make custard while I store the egg-whites in the fridge and figure out what to do with them...
This time, I wanted the easier yet tastier way out of this craving....
I remembered seeing a really easy custard recipe in one of the books that I had been reading recently..Interestingly, it just uses 1 whole egg and then it uses corn flour for thickening.
It turned out to be a nice and light custard which was also just perfect in sweetness... Considering that I prefer semi-sweet these days.

VLA - DUTCH CUSTARD from the book Dutch Delight
Milk - 1 litre Vanilla essence - 2 tsp (the original recipe in the book uses a vanilla bean) Corn flour - 50g Sugar - 50g Egg - 1 Salt - 1 pinch
Pour the milk and vanilla essence in a sauce pan that can hold at least 2 litres of liquid and bring it to a boil.
In the mean time, whisk the egg, salt, sugar and corn flour till smooth.
Once the milk and vanilla has come to a boil, switch off the flame. Take a Tbsp of hot milk and pour it into the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Repeat this for another 5 Tbsp of milk or until the  temperature of the egg mixture is raised to that of the milk.
Then pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the milk and vanilla while whisking continuously.
Heat over a low flame while continuously whisking until bubbles appear.
Switch off flame and pour into serving dishes while it is still pourable. Let it cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate. 
Serve with fresh cut fruits or as it is. This is an easy way to make custard and vla will go well in desserts like falooda, fruit salad, etc.