4 posts tagged “english”

Last Friday, for the second time in my life, I had the pleasure of trying bread pudding. We were having the usual free Friday lunch at my workplace, and the dessert options are usually fruit or cookies. Well last week the cafeteria decided to give us bread pudding as a special treat, how nice! I was a bit skeptical at first, because it looked a lot like stuffing... but after my first bite I was completely hooked and my first thought was that I must learn to make my own bread pudding! Like no other dessert I've tried before, bread pudding has a mild creamy flavor that simply melts on your tongue, and a unique soft, chewy texture that isn't at all like eating bread. The bread pudding I had that day also had some blueberries baked in, which gave the pudding a wonderful fruity sweetness, since the pudding itself is not too sweet. Just heavenly - my kind of comfort food!

So this weekend I finally went grocery shopping and restocked my fridge (which is why there haven't been any updates this past week... I didn't feel like making more eggless and butterless baked goods). Being a frugal student, I always check the clearance racks at the supermarket, just in case there's anything useful to me. This time I saw a huge loaf of sliced Italian bread on sale for just $1, because its sold-by date was that same day. Well no problem, I could just freeze the loaf and keep it for however long I want - what a steal! I wasn't actually thinking of the bread pudding when I bought the bread, but today the thought came to me and I was simply giddy with the idea that I had the perfect bread for bread pudding. The one thing I didn't have was berries or raisins, which are usually added to bread puddings, so I just used an apple instead. And it being St. Patty's Day weekend, I knew it was the perfect occasion to pull out that Bailey's Irish cream and add a little zing to my bread pudding. The stage was set!

While I was looking up bread pudding recipes, a realization dawned on me - these things aren't so good for you haha. Most recipes called for 4-6 eggs, several cups of milk and heavy cream, and lots of butter. I'm sure it makes for a fabulous bread pudding, but Mah's comment a little while back did remind me that maybe I could make a few modifications for a healthier bread pudding. And I'm proud to report that I did succeed in making a healthier version of bread pudding without sacrificing much at all :) My boyfriend, like the typical guy, was a bit wary of the notion that I'd be making healthy substitutions to a rich and creamy flavored dessert. But after taking a bite of the finished thing, he happily told me that it tasted creamy and custard-y. Success! The secret is in replacing eggs with applesauce, and using low fat milk instead of whole milk and heavy cream. Usually applesauce can be substituted for oil in muffins and breads, but it works great in this recipe in place of eggs because it is not necessary for providing leavening or structure. Of course, I didn't replace all of the eggs... that would probably result in a pretty awful pudding. So remember, no matter what you substitute, try not to get rid of all of it. I used that rule of thumb for my low-fat creme brulee, and it worked really well. Compromise means everyone is a winner right? Haha. Now I share with you how I tweaked the basic bread pudding recipe to get a tasty but not-as-bad-for-you bread pudding :)

Bread pudding with apples and Bailey's

Bread Pudding with Apples and Bailey's Irish Cream  (serves 4-6)        adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
10 slices of Italian bread, or any bread of choice (I prefer a crusty bread)
1 large apple, peeled, cored, and diced
4 tbsp salted butter, melted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 cups milk (1%), scalded
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp Bailey's Irish cream
pinch of salt
brown sugar to top

Directions;
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9" diameter round pan, or equivalent square baking pan.

2. Cut bread slices into cubes (don't remove crust). Toss in melted butter, then mix in diced apples. Lay into baking pan.

3. Scald the milk by heating over medium heat until just starting to bubble at the edges (do not let boil!). Remove from heat immediately.

4. Beat together eggs, applesauce, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, and salt. Slowly stir in milk. Add Bailey's Irish cream and mix well.

5. Slowly ladle the milk mixture over the bread cubes in the baking pan, making sure to coat all the bread. The liquid should come up to just short of the rim of the pan. Let bread soak in milk mixture for 10 minutes.

6. Sprinkle brown sugar over top and bake for 30 minutes, or until bread bounces back and liquid does not ooze out when pushed with a spoon. Serve warm or cooled, with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Bread pudding with apples and Bailey's

Having tried the bread pudding both hot out of the oven and later when it had cooled off, I would say that I think I like the texture of the cooled pudding better. That's obviously a personal thing, since I like my bread pudding a bit chewier, whereas others might like it more soupy or soggy. The hot bread pudding certainly has more liquid in it, so it has more of a melt in your mouth, custard-like texture, which my boyfriend really liked. I thought the apples in the pudding were great - they complemented the cinnamon in the pudding, and added a nice little bit of soft crunch and sweetness.

Bread pudding with apples and Bailey's

Next time I would add more brown sugar to the top, since it made for a really great crunchy topping. I'd probably also double the Bailey's, since the flavor was subtle here. But I have to say, I couldn't tell at all that there had been applesauce substituting for most of the eggs in this recipe, and I think that the fact that it uses apple as a component hides the applesauce flavor very well. The bread was soft, the flavor was mild and creamy from the milk, and there was just the right amount of sweetness so as to not overwhelm the dessert. It was certainly great with some vanilla ice cream on the side... although I suppose that would negate the strides towards making this dessert somewhat healthy right? Happy eating! ;)

It was so exciting to discover my bananas foster post on the Vox explore page yesterday, thanks for all the comments everyone! :) Since we're gearing up towards Valentine's Day, I think I'm just itching for sweets these days. So I went ahead and made a recipe that I've been meaning to try for months: millionaire's shortbread. It's a three layer bar with a buttery and crunchy shortbread on the bottom, a smooth and creamy dulce de leche center, and a semi-sweet chocolate layer to top it all off. The combination of the three is wonderful! The crunch from the shortbread contrasts with the other two soft layers, and its buttery flavor complements the sweet caramel center. The chocolate on top of course has its slight bitterness that helps cut through the sweetness of the caramel, and finally the visual image of the three colors layered on top of one another is just mouth-watering! For extra visual appeal, I added cream cheese swirls to the top chocolate layer, which is not traditionally part of the recipe. Now, why it's called millionaire's shortbread, nobody is sure. Maybe it's so rich you feel like a millionaire... or, as my boyfriend teased, it's got a million calories haha. But I am sure that just a small sliver is enough to satisfy your sweet tooth :)

Millionaire's shortbread

Millionaire's Shortbread (serves 15-25)

Ingredients:

For the shortbread:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
pinch of salt

For the caramel filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
2/3 of a can of sweetened condensed milk (~13 tbsp)

For the chocolate topping:
1 cup of high quality chocolate chips  (I used 1/2 cup milk chocolate + 1/2 dark chocolate both Ghiradelli)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

(Optional): For the cream cheese swirls, you'll need 2 oz. of cream cheese, 1.5 tbsp of sweetened condensed milk, and a few drops of vanilla extract.


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar for the shortbread in a bowl. Then add the flour and salt, mixing until a sticky dough forms.

2. Press shortbread dough into an 8x8" pan or a similar round pan, making an even layer. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes or until the shortbread turns a light golden color. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan.

the shortbread base

3. Melt the butter for the caramel layer in a saucepot on medium-low heat. Add the sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk, and stir constantly until the mixture turns from a light cream color to a light brown caramel color (this can take a while, maybe 15-20 minutes for me, see pictures below for color comparison). The oil started to separate from the condensed milk towards the end, and I had to give it a good beating to get it nice and smooth again.

condensed milk at the start of cooking

caramelized condensed milk at end of cooking

4. When the caramel filling is ready, pour it over the shortbread layer in the pan and allow to cool and firm up. For me, a little bit of the oil was sitting on top afterwards, which I just wiped off with a paper towel when it had firmed.

5. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave (about 1-1.5 minutes on high, stirring after each 30 seconds). Stir in the vegetable oil to keep the chocolate from getting too brittle when it firms up. Spread the chocolate over the firmed caramel layer, and allow to cool (in the fridge or freezer if you are in a hurry like me).

chocolate topping added

Optional: If you want to do the cream cheese swirls on top like I did, you will want to add the cream cheese before the chocolate firms up. Simply melt the cream cheese in the microwave for 15 -20 seconds on high. Then stir in the condensed milk and vanilla. Spoon the cream cheese mixture randomly over the top of the chocolate layer, evenly dotting the surface. Finally, draw the blade of a knife gently over the cream cheese and chocolate to make swirls. Then allow the whole thing to firm up in the fridge or freezer.

cream cheese swirls

I made my millionaire's shortbread in a round pan, so I served it as thin slivers with a dallop of whipped cream on the side. I'm sure it would be a rich addition to ice cream too. The texture seems best when it has had about 10 minutes or so to sit outside of the fridge. Enjoy!

millionaire's shortbread closeup

So here's another entry with a hodge-podge of the latest food. Just bring your appetite and pull up a chair...

Fried rice with yu choy

I made a quick and easy fried rice for dinner to use up our Chinese sausage, egg, and onions. We were short on veggies that day, with only a bag of yu choy (ha ha, if you get the joke), so we made that as a side vegetable dish.
Yu choy is very similar to Chinese broccoli, and according to Wikipedia... it's proper name is rapeseed. Hmm not such an appealing name. But apparently this is the stuff they make canola oil from. I guess you learn something new every day.

ham steak and eggs in a basket

Eggs in a basket is an English breakfast dish (cooking the egg inside a piece of bread), and apparently interest in this dish revived when it was featured in V for Vendetta. So I made this for the first time in my life, and it was surprisingly easy. Briefly, you butter one side of a piece of bread, and cut out a round hole in the middle. In a skillet, you put the bread pieces butter side down, cooking the hole piece on the side as well. Drop a little bit of butter in the hole, and when it melts, crack an egg into the hole to let it cook. Finally, when it is nearly done, flip the bread over with a spatula and cook for just a few seconds before taking it out of the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as desired. Yum. For the ham steak, it was already pre-cooked (bought from Costo), and I heated it up in a pan with a honey glaze to get some sweetness with the salty ham flavor. Quite good I must say.

Shanghainese red braised pork

Here's some homecooking by my mom, because she just loves to break out the big guns whenever I go home. It was funny, because my dad was like "how come we never get this good food on regular days?" But really, nothing beats homecooked food that I grew up with. This is Shanghai style red braised pork, which is stewed in a red braise sauce (which is a sauce consisting of dark and light soy, sugar, and five spice that is popular in Chinese cooking) until tender and flavorful. The texture and flavor is amazing this way, and few can resist :)

Sliced pork with mock chicken and woodear fungus

Two items in this dish that are not commonly seen: mock chicken and woodear (black) fungus. Mock chicken is usually made from bean curd, which has a soft meat-like texture and is perfect for vegans because it absorbs sauces and flavors very well, unlike tofu. Black woodear fungus is a soft fungus that grows on the bark of trees, therefore the name "wood ear". When cooked it is very thin, with a slightly crunchy and chewy texture, mild in flavor. It works best as a decoration for the dish (how often do you see black ingredients?) and for the unique texture. White fungus is often seen in Chinese desserts, and has a very similar texture to black fungus, although the taste is more fruity, therefore its use in dessert soups.

tomato and eggs

Sweet and sour pork chops with onions

Okay, I don't care how much you love your local Chinese restaurant's sweet and sour fare, because it's fake. If it's orange or red, it's just plain not authentic Chinese sweet and sour. Real sweet and sour, which is actually very popular in China, is made with black vinegar and soy sauce and sugar, which is why its color is a dark brown, similar to red braise. Its flavor is much less sweet than Americanized Chinese sweet and sour, in fact it is dominated by the sour of the vinegar. The sauce is not very thick, and complements meats and fish without the need for battering and frying. My mom made some delicious pork chops with onions in this sweet and sour sauce, topped with fresh scallions. It was mouth-watering, and the meat was succulent... mmmm.

Alright back to my own cooking...

Chicken vegetable casserole

In an effort to eat healthy and use up lots of random vegetable stragglers, I decided to make this chicken vegetable casserole one night. It was layered on the bottom with cubes of whole grain bread tossed in a little bit of canola oil, and then a stir fried medley of vegetables was layered on top of the bread. To maximize usage of leftover vegetables that would have been difficult to make into single dishes, I threw in 1 red pepper, 1 crown of broccoli, 1 cucumber, 1 carrot, and 1 onion. It was actually pretty exciting stirring everything together, I have never combined so many random vegetables before haha. Then I topped the veggies with a layer of chicken breast cooked in a white sauce made from a roux base (equal parts butter and flour to make a few tablespoons, mixed with 2 cups of milk) and flavored with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Dijon mustard. I have to say, the sauce was very flavorful and went very well with the veggies and chicken. Without the mustard it probably would have been a bit bland. Finally, the chicken was topped with a layer of sliced tomatoes, and more bread cubes were thrown on top. I omitted the cheese topping from the recipe. The casserole was baked for about half an hour, and it was served with some more white sauce on top to keep things moist. The combination of vegetables actually was very pleasant, and the proportions of vegetables to chicken was just right. A great way to use up vegetables in a one pot dish!

Roasted duck with cabbage and bacon side dish

Today my boyfriend's parents dropped by and gave us half a roasted duck from Chinatown. What a treat! We made a cabbage side dish with bacon, which was delicious because the bacon really lends a lot of flavor to the cabbage. It's funny, because we opened the fridge today to discover our broccoli and spinach and yu choy had all gotten pretty old, so the only real option was this cabbage that apparently seems to last forever haha. It went really well with the duck because it cut through the grease and was refreshing to eat on the side.

Toll house chocolate chip cookies... with a mistake

Frangipane, in case you are unfamiliar with it, is a cakey almond paste that is used as a filling for many types of cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, and bars. It's made with ground almonds, and has a lovely aroma without being too rich. The texture is similar to a soft shortbread, but the flavor is that of vanilla almond. Really quite delicious paired with fruit.I think it originated in English desserts before becoming popular in French and other European cuisines.

I am back home for the long weekend, so I had to come up with something to bake of course. I had frozen pie crusts and some frozen strawberries, so I chose this recipe to make. Plus it's super easy. Unfortunately, you'll see that the frozen strawberries were not a great idea, but I assure you the rest of the tart was fantastic. It's the frangipane that really takes center stage in this one! It was moist and soft, great enjoyed warm but also nice when it's cooled off.

strawberry frangipane tart slice

Strawberry Frangipane Tart (actually a pie) - Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
1 9" frozen pie crust dough
2/3 cup of slivered almonds
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
3 tbsp of strawberry jam
(optional: strawberries for topping)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Thaw pie crust for 15 minutes. Prick bottom and sides with a fork, and bake for 8 minutes until edges turn a light golden color. Remove from oven and allow to cool while making filling.

2. In a food processor, combine almonds, flour, and sugar. Process until very fine. Cut in butter and pulse to incorporate. Add in eggs one at a time while processing. Also add in vanilla and almond extracts. The final product should be like a batter.

3. Spread a generous layer of jam on the bottom of the pie crust. Spread almond paste on top and smooth over.

4. Top with fresh fruit for best results (I used a few frozen strawberries). Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until filling is firm and golden. (If crust edges start to brown, cover edges with foil to help prevent them from browning. Remove and cool slightly before serving.

strawberry frangipane tart

So about the frozen strawberries... they exuded a lot of juice as they thawed during the baking process. That's why you see the rings of red liquid around the strawberries. They also lost all semblance of chew, and were very sour. It was like biting into a little pouch of sour juice. Really not a good fit for the pie. I think the jam went great with the frangipane though, and if I just had used some slivered almonds on top for garnish, or baked with some fresh ripe strawberries, this result would have been much better. But yeah, the pie was really yummy otherwise! I suggest serving it with whipped cream or ice cream. Cheers!