Jaggery Pudding - A Recipe from the Cookbook of Ada de la Harpe

The Kittul tree (kittul-gaha) is in size between the cocoa and the areka…A little underneath the lowest leaf rises a large bud, from a stalk of the thickness of a man’s wrist, and a yard or more in length. This contains the flower. Before the flower bursts forth, the end of the stalk is cut off, and a small chatty is fastened to it, to catch the liquor that oozes from it, and from which jaggory, a course sugar is made...
Selkirk, Rev. J. Recollections of Ceylon. First published 1844. This edition Colombo: Lake House Bookshop, 1993, pp39-40.








Jaggery is used extensively in Sri Lankan cuisine - in sweets, mixed with coconut and rolled in crepes, in some curries, in wattalappam - the magnificent Sri Lankan steamed pudding - and in the following which is another recipe from the cookbook of Ada de la Harpe, my grandmother. Jaggery traditionally comes in a half ball that's formed from setting the jaggery in a scraped and dried coconut shell, and then wrapped in pandanus leaf with a handy loop to string it off you finger as you shop. You can still get it as the half ball in Sri Lankan groceries in Australia, usually packed in a plastic bag with or without its pandanus wrapping, and you call also get it set in a plastic tub, like a butter tub, but I have had the devil of a time extracting it from this and besides I don't trust the plastic impact on the jaggery over time. You can also get it in a foil package in which I have found it sweats a tad, so you can like the inside of the packet if you are in to that oral kinda thing (and I am). The pudding itself is a sort of bread pudding.


Ada's version (in all these blog posts I will give you Ada's recipe as she wrote it, and then my updated version)
1/2 ball of jaggery - scraped, thick milk of 1/2 large coconut. 2 eggs - 18 cajunuts - 4 slices bread from lb loaf

Method Beat the  jaggery with the yolks of eggs. Then add the bread soaked in coconut milk. Then slices cajunuts and vanilla essence. Last of all the well-beaten whites of the eggs. Put the mixture into a buttered dish, sprinkle a little cajunuts on top, and back to colour.

Updated version
300g jaggery, grated
1 cup of coconut milk made from 1 cup hot water and three tablespoons coconut milk powder or 1 cup of thick canned coconut milk
2 eggs, separated yolk from the white with the latter reserved
1 small handful of unsalted cashew nuts, sliced thin
4 slices of thick white bread

Pre-heat your oven to 220C
Soak the slices of bread in the coconut milk enough to make them soggy, but don't let the mixture get mushy, you want a little body in the bread for the pudding.
Beat the grated jaggery and the yolks of the eggs together till the mixture is a thick cream.
Add the soaked bread and mix in well.
Add the slices of cashewnut and mix in well.
Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold them into the jaggery batter.
Butter a ceramic or glass baking dish. You want one in which the pudding batter will come about 2/3 from the top to allow the pudding to rise.
Pour the batter into the buttered dish and place in the oven.
Bake for 30 - 40 minutes till the pudding has risen, the top has a soft firmness when you press it gently, and a skewer comes out clean when pricked into the batter.
If you like, sprinkle a few more slivers of  cashew nut on top. k

Now, you can serve it hot like this and the pud will stay nice and high. Or you can leave it to cool, in which case it will sink, but then you can top it with a mix of fresh berries, or some ice cream, or both, or neither before you serve it.

This quantity should satisfy 4 - 6 guests depending on how you choose to serve it.