How to Make Blood Orange Pudding

Mandarin oranges are a sign of good fortune during the Chinese New Year. For this recipe, combine mandarins with blood oranges to put a twist on a traditional orange pudding. The juice from the blood oranges will turn this delectable dessert into a pleasing shade of red. Follow these steps to add that auspicious color to your Chinese New Year.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 ½ tsp. agar agar powder
• 6 cups clean, filtered water--reserve 2 cups for the initial soaking of the agar agar
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• ¼ cup evaporated milk
• 2 medium-sized mandarin oranges (try Satsuma or sweet celmentine)
• 2 medium-sized blood oranges
• Wooden spoon or spatula
• Above ingredients
• Dishes to gel the pudding in
• Medium sauce pan

Chinese New Year Blood Orange Pudding

1. Wash the mandarins and blood oranges well in clean water.

2. Peel them and pull apart the sections. Take the seeds out of any of the sections and discard them. Crush the flesh of the fruit with a fork or your hands into a medium-sized bowl until you have pieces that are uniformly ½-inch.

3. Combine the agar agar with 2 cups of the water in a medium sauce pan. Let the powder soak for approximately ten minutes. This is called “blooming” the powder. It prepares the agar agar for the heat and set time.

4. Once the powder has soaked, turn the heat on to medium. Add the last 4 cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue to boil until the agar agar powder has dissolved.

5. Take the pan off the heat and add the sugar, milk and crushed oranges. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.

6. Pour the mixture into a high-walled baking pan that's 12x8-sized or a similar size. Place the pan into the refrigerator and chill the pudding until it’s completely gelled.

7. Cut the pudding into diamond shapes and arrange them on an octangular or round plate.

8. Serve and enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Blood oranges are a wonderful alternative to regular naval oranges since they are sweeter than a normal orange. Their name comes from their reddish juice and orange-red colored skin.
• Blood oranges are at their peak during January, with their season winding down in February. Ask your grocer if you can’t find them.
• When choosing a blood orange, look for a fruit that's heavy for its size.
• You can also use gelatin powder instead of the agar agar powder in the same quantities and in the same manner.
• Agar agar is a vegetarian alternative to gelatin powder that's used a lot in Asian cooking.
• You can find agar agar in Asian grocery stores in powder, flake and bar form. The easiest form to use is the powder.
• If you can only find flake form agar agar, use 1 tbsp. of flakes to 1 tsp. of powder.
• If the pudding seems too liquidy or too stiff, re-heat it. Then, either add more powder or more water. After you do this, pour the mixture back into the chilling pan. Note that you can only reheat the pudding and re-gel it if you use agar agar. Gelatin cannot be re-heated and re-gelled.
• You can also pour the pudding into small dishes, such as ramekins or pudding cups, and chill them until the mixture gels.
• If you want to, garnish it with marchino cherries.

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