Mastic Pudding

With almonds

This has been one of our favorite dessert. It is easy to make and it has a distinct flavor which comes from mastic gum. It has been said that it is a traditional Ottoman dessert, but I am afraid to said this because there has been so many Turkish dishes and desserts (at least we know those as Turkish) which claimed by so many other countries. 
For some people in my home country, defending the dishes/desserts as our own has had a same meaning as defending our country. Of course, culture defines a country and its people, but I do not make those things as a big deal. I prefer to eat them, love them, and learn how to make them deliciously!

Dilemma  about what food belongs to whom mostly is caused by cosmopolitan state of my lovely country. For centuries, it had been affected by Middle East, Balkans, Africa and sometimes Europe. So when we put these all together we have: Greeks, Bulgarians, Jewish,Macedonians, Armenians, Arabs, Turkics, Persians, Kurdish, Albanians, Bosnian etc.

Ottoman cuisine  was also affected from those countries and of course from its cook :) 

And our main flavor: Mastic gum... Tree is in Pistacio family and has aromatic resin. It is native to Mediterranean region. the resin is in liquid form in the beginning and it becomes hard after it dries. 

I remember my grandfather and grandmother from my mother side used to chew this hard, small, translucent, and sticky resin and used to give us some, too. I still prefer Mastic Gum flavored chewing gum to any other flavor since it doesn't contain any sugar, but only mastic's distinct smell and flavor.


I have never look for an other recipe for this dessert. My mom and I have been making this for about at least 25 years and there's been no complaints so far. I usually double the amount of ingredients, so we can enjoy this dessert 2-3 days. You can probably keep this in the refrigerator about a week.  

With chocolate sauce

Ingredients:

•  1 stick butter
• 4 cups milk
• 12 Tbs sugar
• 2 Tbs all purpose flour
• 3-4 pieces crushed mastic gum (can be found in Middle Eastern grocery stores) 

• Melt the butter in a medium pot and add sifted flour. Stir -preferably whisk- about 2 minutes on medium heat.
• Add milk slowly (whisk, whisk, whisk) and continue to stir/whisk to dissolve the flour + butter mixture / lumps. Stir continuously until it gets thicker. 
• When it starts boiling add sugar and stir for about two more minutes.
•   Take of the heat and pour pudding into a plastic bowl (if you'll use hand mixer) or stand mixer.
• Add mustic gum pieces and beat / whisk pudding about 15 minutes. This part is very important. If you are lazy to beat the pudding for 15 minutes, at least beat for 8. I use hand mixer and I beat for 5 minutes then take few minutes break and continue to beat.
•  Pour into individual serving cups (this recipe usually makes 5 cups)
• Pour some chocolate sauce (recipe below) Never use Hershey's or any similar chocolate sauce.
• Put aside until cool down, wrap with stretch film so they don't get any other flavor in the refrigerator and it will be ready in 2-3 hours!

Chocolate sauce:
  
Original recipe for this sauce contains raw egg although hot-melted butter will cook the egg; however, for health concerns I will not provide that recipe, instead I'll give you an easy and delicious recipe.


All you need is:

• 1 cup Nutella
• 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
• Mix together in a microwaveable pot and microwave for about 1-2 minutes or till Nutella melts. Stir again and put aside until cool.