New month, new recipe
When October unfolded, it was my signal to prepare my kitchen for another new recipe. It has been part of the development plan of my technical skills to add at least one new recipe to my "I can bake list" and another new recipe to my "I can cook list".
Last September I wasn't able to cook because I moved into a new boarding house. Unlike our company staff house, the boarding house isn't fully equipped for preparing meals. So instead of doing only one new main dish recipe this month, I'll be doing three to compensate for the months I wasn't able to deliver my goals. I'll cook all three on my mother's birthday! Exciting. ✨
Going back on my baking goals which are still on track month on month, it was a cold first weekend of October. I had the entire weekend to myself. I still have a list of goodies I want to bake but I barely had the energy to bake something complex. I've done all kinds of simple recipes for the past year. So I wondered if there's still another simple recipe I can do that weekend.
Youtube to the rescue! 😂 And in less than 10 minutes, I've decided what I'll be preparing for my family's snacks or dessert that Saturday afternoon. And the winner is MAJA BLANCA (Coconut Pudding). I watched the 5-minute tutorial and I was amazed at how easy it is to cook Maja Blanca. All these years, I thought that it's so difficult to make it that's probably why it didn't cross my mind before.
One consideration of what I cook and bake is the availability of the ingredients. Since I only spend at most three (3) weekends in my hometown, I don't usually store a lot of ingredients. So I buy in the grocery whenever I'll be using a particular ingredient.
Just a side story. I asked my father to drive me to the nearest mall where I can buy the needed ingredients for my recipe. It's my simple way of being clingy to my father; you know asking him to drive me here and there during the weekend. I told him not to wait for me, I'll just ride a motorcycle (we call it habal-habal in our dialect) on my way home. When I went home, Ma told me Pa hasn't come home and that he's probably waiting for me outside the mall. I was enraged since it was clear that if I want to be fetched I'll give them a call, if not, I'll ride the habal-habal. My brother went to the mall to tell Pa that I was already at home. How can parents not listen to their kids? Hahaha! But I really appreciate Pa for always driving me around. I even bought his favorite Kulafu.
Enough of the side stories, Pat! 😂 Let's cook!
The Ingredients
As I've mentioned, Maja Blanca is just coconut pudding. Therefore, its main ingredient is yes! You got it right, coconut milk!
Gone are the days when we have to extract coconut milk from the coconut meat using the traditional Filipino grater. We had one at home and every time we need coconut milk, Pa will use the grater or wildly known as kudkuran to extract the milk from the coconuts. But times have changed, one can buy coconut milk in pouches or in cans in almost all supermarkets. There are even powderized versions wherein you'll just have to add water and tada! Coconut milk in an instant. Ma prefers the traditional way of extracting coconut milk but in my case, I used the one in pouches. You'll need four (4) cups only.
This next ingredient caught me by surprise. I love Maja Blanca, especially the ube (purple yam) variant, but I don't have any idea that this dessert has cornstarch. So I was blown away when I realized that it was the cornstarch that gave the Maja Blanca its sticky texture. That's the good thing when you cook, you figure things out when you do the mixing yourself. 😉
For this recipe, you'll need two (2) cups of cornstarch.
And the last ingredient in the trio of main ingredients is corn. If you've eaten Maja Blanca before you probably enjoyed the burst of corn kernels embedded in the soft sticky texture of the coconut pudding when it reached your mouth. You can always choose between whole corn kernels or the cream-style ones. I personally chose the whole corn kernels since I love the difference in the texture of the corn and the pudding which makes eating Maja Blanca more exciting. Corn has this unique salty-ish taste that balances with the sweet and creamy taste of the pudding. Best pair indeed!
Now, aside from the coconut milk. Maja Blanca is made from different kinds of milk. You'll need 1 can or 410ml of Evaporated Milk for this recipe.
You'll also need 1 can or 300ml of Condensed Milk (Condensada) for this recipe
Now you can choose to use water or fresh milk to dissolve the cornstarch. I used fresh milk because I wanted my final product to be extremely creamy, milky. I'm not selling this so there's no reason to cut costs.
And the last ingredient but not the least is sugar. This is actually optional. If you want your Maja Blanca to be sweet, you can add sugar but just a reminder that we're using condensed milk which is loaded with lots of sugar already.
The Procedure
I'm not lying when I captioned this post as easy peasy. In fact, you can do this even with closed eyes. Shall we start?
(1) Turn the fire into the lowest heat. Pour the coconut milk into a pot. Make sure you'll be using a pot that can accommodate all the liquid we'll be mixing for this recipe.
(2) Add the evaporated milk into the pot.
(3) Then, add the condensed milk (condensada). Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure you don't leave some on the sides.
(4) Mix all the milk you just added on the pot then immediately after mixing, add the corn kernel or cream-style corn. Continue mixing. Mixing ensures that the coconut pudding will get equal shares of the corn when we serve it later.
(5) Mix everything thoroughly and wait until the mixture boils.
(6) While waiting for the mixture in the pot to boil, dissolve the cornstarch in the fresh milk. Make sure there are no lumps or undissolved starch before you add the mixture to the pot.
(7) Once the mixture in the pot boils, slowly add the cornstarch. Make sure you constantly stir the mixture to avoid lumping the cornstarch.
(8) Continue stirring/mixing until you achieve a very sticky consistency. One that makes it hard to mix from one end to the other. Continue mixing for 5 more minutes.
(9) Then transfer the Maja Blanca to your desired container while it is hot. Again, while it is hot. You don't want your mixture to sit in the pot for a few minutes because it will be difficult to transfer by then.
(10) Garnish your Maja Blanca with your choice of either cheese, roasted peanut butter, or whatever you can find in your kitchen. Feel free to experiment. I chose grated cheese because it goes perfectly well with the sweetness of the Maja Blanca.
You can refrigerate your Maja Blanca but it should be fine even without refrigeration.
And that's it! I told you it's super easy and simple, right? You can try this recipe next weekend and beep me up how things will go.
See you in my next recipe post! I hope you enjoyed cooking with me! 😊
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