I should have put this recipe up forever ago but I completely forgot about it until just now. Last summer I helped throw a Japanese food party with my friends Jaime and Sara. Well, they did the majority of the cooking which you can read about on their blog entry, but I did manage to supply the Giga Pudding (with some help from Jaime!)
The recipe for the pudding is from an amazing cookbook from one of my favorite restaurants in Tokyo named Chaya. If you know a little Japanese you can pick up one for yourself here. Everything in the book is vegan as well as macrobiotic. The deserts I ate at Chaya were some of the best I’ve ever had so I guarantee this book won’t disappoint!
So, as not to delay any longer, here is the recipe! The recipe below is for a normal amount of pudding, so if you want to make a Giga Pudding I recommend doubling or tripling this recipe (depending on how big your bucket is, haha).
Ingredients
Kabocha Pudding
- 1 1/2 tsp kudzu
- 1 1/2 tsp agar
- 100g maple syrup
- 300g kabocha pumpkin
- 480g soymilk
Caramel Sauce
- 120g maple syrup
Directions
Caramel Sauce
Put the maple syrup in a pot over a low heat until it simmers down and gets thicker. Take it off the heat when it reaches about 3/4 of the original amount.
Pour 10g of the caramel sauce into each pudding mold (or if you are making Giga Pudding, put all of it in the giant mold). Place in the refrigerator to harden.
Kabocha Pudding
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the pumpkin for about 40 minutes or until soft. Let it cool for a little while and then slice it in half and remove the seeds from the middle.
Peel the skin off the pumpkin and then blend the pumpkin meat with the soymilk (either with a mixer or in the blender).
Put kudzu, agar, and maple syrup in a bowl and mix well with a whisk. Continue to mix and add the pumpkin/soy milk mixture.
Put the mixture in a pan on the stove and continue to whisk it until it boils.
While it’s hot, pour into the pudding mold over the caramel sauce. Do not mix the caramel sauce and pudding. The chilled caramel sauce will hold if you gently pour in the pudding. Place in refrigerator and let cool.
And that’s it! Here is a photo of the Giga Pudding I made with all of the other delicious foods at the party we had:
