Cacao-Café No Lait Pudding

Yield: 4 Servings

Soundtrack: "Brown Paper People" by Lila Downs from Una Sangre – One Blood

Growing up, I used to love chocolate pudding. Since Bill Cosby convinced my mom that dangling a pudding pop in front of me would be an incentive to eat all my vegetables, I would even hold my nose and wolf down plates of overcooked green peas just to have some rich, creamy Jell-O Chocolate Pudding for dessert.

These days, I eat chocolate pudding before dinner just to spite my mom. But I stay away from milk, which is found in most commercial puddings, since I'm lactose intolerant like the majority of African Americans. Don't get me wrong, I love velvety ice creams, egg filled pastries, and hard, aged cheeses. But I loathe the phlegm and flatulence that quickly follow when I consume dairy products.

So I've created a non-dairy, grown-and-sexy chocolate pudding that I can eat with no side effects. I normally avoid using tofu in desserts, but here I make an exception. Unless I tell people that this pudding doesn't have milk, they never know. If possible, use fair trade coffee, cocoa powder, and cacao nibs.

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Memphis native Bryant Terry is an eco chef, author and food justice activist based in Oakland, Calif. His second book will be published by Da Capo/Perseus in 2009.