I tried hard to find an Angolan dessert other than cocada amarela as one of my dinner guests does not like coconut. However, I was unsuccessful. Cocada amarela seems to be the Angolan dessert par excellence which of course meant that I had to make it.

I found several recipes available and chose one of the easiest and most traditional ones. It was not, however, one of the healthiest. This dish contains coconut, sugar and egg yolks - healthy would not be a way to describe it. It was, however, pretty good and certainly worth trying at least once.

I halved the original recipe (which was for 8 portions) and that worked well. The recipe below is for four persons. However, as the pudding is very sweet and quite heavy, you might want to make smaller portions.

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Cocada Amarela

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

3 cups water

2 whole cloves

1/2 a coconut

6 egg yolks

ground cinnamon.

Instructions

Open the coconut, cut it in easy to handle pieces and grate about half of it (about 2 cups worth).

Combine the sugar, water and cloves in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once it boils, stop stirring and allow to continue boiling until it reaches the temperature of 230 degrees on a candy thermometer. This may take quite a while.

Reduce the heat to low. With a slotted spoon remove and discard the cloves. Add the grated coconut, a little bit at a time, and mix well. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. The coconut should become translucent. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg yolks until they thicken slightly, for about 1 minute. Stir in about 1/2 cup of the syrup and mix. Pour this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining syrup and stir together thoroughly.

Cook over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, stiring frequently, until the udding thickens enough to pull away from the bottom and sides of the pan. Spoon the pudding into individual serving plates. Let cool, sprinkle with ground cinnamon and serve.

Adapted from African Cooking