Coconut Pudding

This is easy, but you have to pay attention to the milk mixture as it heats and you need to keep whisking.

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

2 cups milk

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

good pinch salt

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut

whipped cream 

toasted coconut for garnish

 

In a pan, heat milk, sugar, cornstarch, salt, egg and egg yolk over medium heat, whisk constantly until thickened, then remove from the heat. (Note: Put the ingredients in at the very start, this will let the egg/egg yolks gradually heat up and that, along with constant whisking, will keep the eggs from scrambling. You CANNOT heat the milk and other ingredients and then just add the eggs, they will curdle.) Whisk in vanilla and butter (the butter will melt in the hot pudding), then stir in the shredded coconut. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Serve with whipped cream and toasted coconut (toast in dry skillet over low heat until it starts to brown, stirring and shaking the skillet to prevent having the coconut burn).

WORD HISTORY:

Citadel-This word is related to "city" and to "civil," words of Latin derivation and borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and it is distantly related to "cemetery," a word of Greek derivation borrowed by Latin and taken by Latin-based French and then borrowed by English. "Citadel" goes back to Indo European "k(h)ei," with the meaning "settle, lie down;" thus, "homestead," and also the figurative noun sense, "family." This gave Latin "civis," meaning "resident of a town;" thus, "citizen," and this produced Latin "civitas," which meant "the rights of being a citizen (originally of Rome);" thus, "citizenship." This produced Old Italian "cittade," meaning "city," the diminutive form of which in Italian became "cittadella." Cities were often walled many years ago, but people began settling outside of city walls in increasing numbers. These expanded cities often had the old walled city in the interior of the city; thus, the meaning developed for "citadel" as a fortress within a city, a strongly fortified part of a city." French borrowed the word from Italian as "citadelle" and English borrowed the word from French in the mid 1500s.