Penguins and Fish Custard

I've been awake since 4am with Wawa. With one thing and another, I got to sleep after 12.30am. That's...um...minus the three; carry the one...Ah! Got it!...Not enough sleep! That's the price I pay for her early night.

She's 'reading' The Cat in the Hat at the moment. I was reading it to her, but she was dissatisfied with my rendering. She may have disliked my additions to the story where the cat was arrested for trespass; the fish took out an Apprehended Violence Order against the cat and the Department of Human Services had a thing or two to say to the children's mother about the children being left alone 'All that cold, cold, wet day.'

In addition, while breastfeeding Wawa for what felt like several days, I left rambling, semi-lucid comments all over the Internet. Apparently exhaustion induced delirium tiredness makes me insane chatty. Lucky Internet!

I gave Wawa some brown rice puffs and a banana and then made chocolate custard for myself, while she watched Playschool on iView. Frequent blogging is helping me recognise a pattern of poor nutrition this week. Sigh. Yay frequent blogging! Since, in my mind, the word, 'breakfast' implies having woken after several hours sleep, let's just call what I had 'a nap', so we can call the custard, 'dessert', which I had after dinner. There, now i feel much better.

Here's the recipe in case you, too, feel the need for dessert today. I can't pretend that this custard is in any way healthy or nutritious, but it is gluten, dairy and refined sugar free (if you want it to be). Note that measurements are metric.

You need:-

• 3 cups (750ml) of rice milk - Any milk will work. I've also used cow, almond and coconut.

• 120g of honey - 120g of cane sugar works equally well, it just tends to disagree with me. (It says that custard is not an appropriate breakfast food. I say, "Shut up! I'm making dessert.")

• 40g of cocoa - Raw cocoa or cocao is full of lovely anti-oxidants and whatnot, but our budget won't stretch that far at present.

• 40g of cornflour - If you're gluten free, watch that your cornflour is actually made from corn. A lot of cornflour is actually made from wheat. In Australia, it will be labeled, 'wheaten cornflour' or similar. To my mind, this seems a little like buying potato chips, only to find they've been made from carrots, but what do I know?

Gently heat 2 cups (500ml) of the milk in a medium saucepan. Add the honey and stir. Don't let it boil.

Meanwhile, sift the cocoa and cornflour into a smallish bowl. Stop yourself from accidentally pouring the remaining 1 cup (250ml) of milk into the sifter as the result of exhaustion and instead add it to the cocoa and cornflour, whisking until smooth.

When the milk and honey is hot, add the cocoa mixture quickly and continue to whisk until the custard thickens.

If you want to serve the custard in smaller bowls or containers, it's usually best to do it now as it will form a skin on standing. My serving suggestion is to slop it into a bowl, garnish with extra love and eat with a runcible spoon (or a tea spoon if you don't happen to have the runcible sort handy). Conversely, if you're a Doctor Who fan like my daughter, feel free to serve with fish.

I usually like to make a double (or possibly an octuple batch) so there'll be more for later.

Here's a few beautifully styled, artfully grainy iPod photos to give you a feel for the dish. I call the first one, 'The Custard Was Delicious'.

Here's a close up.

And here's an arty one where I moved the spoon and positioned the iPod so there'd be some classy looking books in the background.

I'll leave you now. Wawa and I are going to watch a documentary on yurt construction and sustainable living on iView. In the end, Wendy helps Bob the Builder erect the yurt and Travis the tractor saves the day.

Hopefully I'll write something of substance when my brain begins to function (more) normally again. Penguin.