Coconut-Chai Fudge Pops: Dairy-Free Frozen Treat for Food 'N Flix July: Monsoon Wedding

Weddings are always a fun and crazy setting for a movie. Make that a Punjabi wedding in New Delhi where family and old traditions and current practices clash and you have Monsoon Wedding, a colorful, feel-good romance film and our Food 'N Flix selection for July.

Directed by Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, The Namesake and Vanity Fair are just a few of her other films), Monsoon Wedding is the story of the Verma family. Father Lalit, is trying to pull off a large wedding for his eldest daughter Aditi. Aditi, is set to marry Hemant, currently living in Texas, in an arranged marriage while she still pines for her married lover. The wedding preparations are complicated by the lackadaisical event planner Dubey, who finds himself falling for Alice, the family's house maid. Family is arriving from all over and their various stories and sub plots, combined with the threat of having an outdoor wedding smack in the midst of a monsoon season add drama to the proceedings.

 
I love this movie--the color, the music and dancing and the themes of love and family. I first saw it when it came out with some good girlfriends after going out for an Indian feast and I bought the DVD when it came out. It's sweet and fun and although Aditi (the bride) spends most of the movie pouting and I want to smack her because her groom is great (and hot!) and her ex-lover is just creepy--things of course seem to work out for everyone by the end. ;-) Even owning it, it had been a while since I had watched the movie all the way through so I was happy when Heather of girlichef, our Food 'N Flix founder, picked it. Monsoon Wedding isn't necessarily a foodie movie, but it's a wedding, it's India, and food finds its way into the film with glimpses or mentions of tea and pakoras, coconut curry, mangoes, wedding sweets, salt lassi,and samosas.

I took my inspiration from the chai tea mentioned or shown a few times and "chuskis"--ice pops that popped up in the film. The ice pops in the film were red and yellow but I was craving the Coconut Black Chai Tea that I enjoy hot and made with chocolate non-dairy coconut milk during the cooler months and thought it would be tasty as a frozen fudge pop. Seems perfect for a warm summer monsoon to me. 

Coconut-Chai Fudge Pops
by Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Makes about 6 pops--depending on mold size. Drink any extra over ice!)

2 cups non-dairy chocolate coconut milk (or sub chocolate almond milk, reg milk, etc.)
3 bags coconut-flavored black chai-flavored tea (or regular chai tea)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
honey or agave to taste, optional

In a small saucepan, heat chocolate coconut milk until just boiling. Add tea bags, ground cinnamon and cardamom and stir. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags. Add vanilla extract, stir and taste for sweetness, stirring in a bit of honey or agave if needed.

Place into pyrex measuring cup and place in the fridge for a few hours to cool. When mixture is chilled, fill popsicle molds and place in freezer for at least 4 hours or until completely frozen.

Unmold and enjoy!

Notes/Results: Cool, sweet and yummy. For dairy-free fudge pops, these are nice and creamy and the flavor of the spices and coconut come through nicely. They are more chai spice-flavored than chocolate, so if you want a more chocolate-flavored pop, add in some cocoa powder or chocolate syrup when heating up the milk. Because the chocolate-coconut milk that I used was sweetened, I didn't add any more sweetener and they were perfect for me. I will make these again. 

Heather will be rounding up the entries for this edition of Food 'N Flix shortly at girlichef. If you like food and movies and foodie movies, join us for August when we will be watching When Harry Met Sally, hosted by Caroline Makes.

I am also linking these up to girlichef's Summer of the Popsicle!