Coconut Rice Pudding

  Fresh coconuts and

Pomelos and 

Leis....

 in Little India in Singapore.

Kitchen beaming with vases of daffodils and sunshine - 

mine for the afternoon

 while husband walks in Somerset with brother-in-law.

I stand at the stove 

stirring a pan of strawberry and redcurrant ruby jam.

Then another one  - the hidden depths of last year's black currants.

 In the oven, perfumed cake rises

and cracks open its burnished top

showing almondy fruity lava.

Tender sweet promise

of husband's birthday 

still to come.

And then my once a year 

indulgence - 

stove-top rice pudding.

Except this time

no butter no milk no cream.

Just the contents of a coconut

or several coconuts in a can

and the black sticky scrapings of a vanilla pod

all the way from India.

Simmered to a soft white bumpy sea

ready for its pebbly wave of black currant compote

and pool of Maple syrup.

Waiting for a spoon

 and a husband 

to come home.

Thank you to My New Roots for inspiration...

http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/01/coconut-black-rice-breakfast-pudding/