One of my favourite comfort food is Bread and Butter Pudding. It has that ability to be classified as both a dessert or a snack depending on how you serve or how much you eat.
A lot of bread puddings I have the experience of buying in shops are too stodgy. They resemble more like slightly sweetened thick chewy bread. But not this one. I do love this recipe because is lighter and the ratio of the egg to milk/cream is just right. Plus the sugar is just right - not too sweet. I got this from an old ripped-off page of the BBC Good Food magazine with the recipe coming from the chef Paul Heathcote. Thanks Paul.
I know I burned some of the pudding top but believe me it's not that badly burnt. It's probably just the lighting angle of the picture. Not a problem for me because I'm partial to slightly charred food!
Bread and Butter Pudding
6-7 slices of white bread - crusts removed 65 g [1/4 cup] butter - softened 100 g sultanas or raisins 250 ml [1 cup] full-cream milk 250 ml [1 cup] double cream (heavy cream) 3 medium eggs (or 2 large eggs) 50 g [1/4 cup] caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 25 g icing sugar 25 g apricot jam - warmed and sieved (optional)
Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/375°F. Grease a 1.5 litre ovenproof dish, about 2.5 inch deep.
Butter the bread slices generously and cut each into 4 triangles.
Arrange a layer of the bread in the prepared dish.
Sprinkle the sultanas on top.
Then arrange the remaining bread slices on top of this.
Make the custard - mix the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and caster sugar in a bowl.
Strain the cream mixture over the bread slices and leave to soak for about 5 minutes.
Put the dish in a larger roasting tin in the oven. While the oven rack (with roasting tin) is about a third out of the oven, carefully pour hot water in the roasting tin to come halfway up the side of the dish.
Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and the custard is lightly set.
Remove the dish from the roasting tin and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
Preheat grill to the highest setting.
Generously dust the top of the pudding with sifted icing sugar and glaze under the grill until golden brown. If it starts to puff up remove and leave to cool a little longer before returning to the grill. Note: It will be more efficient if you use a cooking torch to glaze the icing sugar.
[Optional] Brush the top with the warmed apricot jam. Serve with clotted cream or warm custard.
Here is another of our family's (and a lot other Filipino familys') favourite holiday food. We almost never make it at any other time of the year except during the New Year holidays. Not even on Christmas; only in the New Year. I never knew why but it must be one of those traditions that was kept on just because that's what we always had.
This is a perfect example of the predilection of the Pinoy palate to crave for the salty-sweet-tangy sour flavour combination. That and together with the richness of the mayonnaise and pasta makes it so irresistible to me as a snack. Actually, you'll be hard-pressed to classify this as savoury or sweet. Because they're really both! By the way, the Philippines practically only have spaghetti and elbow macaroni in the pasta aisles of its supermarkets. Whereas here, I cannot find decent sized and shaped elbow macaroni. I have to either go to Italian delis or trek to Waitrose where, fortunately, I found this Chiferri Rigate pasta.
Macaroni Salad
500 g elbow macaroni pasta 2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken meat 1/3 cup pickle relish 1/3 cup finely minced celery 1 1/2 cups canned pineapple chunks in syrup - well drained 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup finely minced cooked carrots 1/3 cup finely minced onion (optional) 1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese (optional) 3 cups mayonnaise Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Combine all in a bowl and mix well. Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Palutang - in Tagalog literally means 'about to float'. In our corner of Cavite, this is our version of what others call palitaw. Not only is there a difference in name but palitaws are flat and oval shaped while palutangs are round with a dent or hole in the middle. Actually, I think the palutangs look like belly buttons, no?
This kakanin or snack/dessert is one of the traditional food of Filipino families during the New Year. It signifies rising fortunes and good luck in the new incoming year. I often cooked these with my late grandmother who follows this tradition every year.
It is very simply made with very few ingredients. For the palutang itself, it only has one ingredient, well two actually, if you use the flour form. Then you just serve it with fresh shredded coconut and sugar. And it is this simplicity that I now crave in contrast to the rich and indulgent complicated dishes and Western desserts we had in the Christmas season just gone.
Below are pictures of the stages in making palutang:
Palutang
1 cup malagkit (glutinous rice) flour 1/2 cup water
*To serve: fresh grated coconut brown or white or muscovado sugar
Mix the rice flour with the water in a bowl to form into a dough. Add more water if needed to make the dough a bit sticky but comes away clean from hands and fingers.
Form into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls. Poke a finger in the middle but not all the way through, just enough to make a dent that will help it float.
Bring a pot full of water to boil. Once it is in rolling boil, carefully drop the shaped palutangs in the pot. Keep the water on high heat.
Once the palutangs float, they are already cooked. Remove with slotted spoon onto a serving dish.
Serve warm or cold with fresh shredded coconut mixed with brown sugar.
The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was brought to us by Andrea from 4pure. She introduced us to one of her family favorites which is soon to become one of yours, too. Welcome to the world of Dutch Bitterballen!
Actually before I made these Dutch treats I haven't tried nor heard about bitterballen. But it's not foreign to most people - it is a variant of a deep-fried croquette. I did the cheese bitterballen and was gearing up to make the prawn version but I ran out of time for the deadline. You can head to the Daring Kitchen's website for the recipes of the beef and prawn renditions of this delicious snack.
I froze my bitterballen for deep-frying a week later. They froze rather nicely.
As instructed by Andrea, you have to add 1 minute to the deep-frying time for frozen bitterballen. It was delicious! Although next time I would do the egg dip and breadcrumbs at least twice to make the breaded crust thicker and crunchier. Plus also making the balls smaller - perhaps 3/4-inch in diameter only. I would prefer more starch/crust in the crust-cheese ratio to make it less rich. All these personal changes are reflected in the recipe below.
Everyone in the family loved it including my youngest who was busy speed reading the very recently released book of her favourite novel series.
Cheese Bitterballen
1/2 cup [125 g] butter 3/4 cup [110 g] plain flour 2 cups [500 ml] full-fat milk 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 2 egg yolks 1/3 cup [80 ml] single cream (light cream) 2 tsp gelatine 80 g hard cheese (parmesan, grana padano, pecorino, etc.) - grated 80 g soft cheese (brie, camembert, cream cheese, etc.) - sliced into small pieces 80 g matured cheddar - grated salt and pepper
Add flour all at once and stir to cook for 3 minutes on medium heat.
Add milk and bring to boil while stirring continously.
Bring heat to lowest and simmer for about 10 minutes stirring from time to time.
While it is simmering, dissolve gelatin with about 2 Tbsp water. Set aside.
Add nutmeg. Taste sauce and add appropriate amount of salt (about 1/2 tsp) and pepper.
Stir in the cheese until well mixed in the sauce.
Add in the dissolved gelatine and stir until well combined.
Remove from heat and spread out the sauce in a baking dish or plate.
Cool for about 30-60 minutes then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
*Breading:
After refrigeration, the mixture would have hardened. With a spoon, scoop out enough cheese mixture to form into a 3/4 - 1-inch ball.
Roll the ball in the plain flour; then dip in the beaten egg; then roll in the breadcrumbs. (The breading may be repeated if you want a thicker crust.) Do the same for the rest of the mixture.
Rest the breaded balls on a plate in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
At this point you may freeze the bitterballen if you wish.
*Deep frying:
Heat at least 3/4-inch of oil in a heavy saucepan to 180°C/350°F.
Deep fry the bitterballen for 3-4 minutes until golden. (For frozen bitterballen, add 1 more minute in cooking time.)
This is best paired with a tall glass of Coke with lots of ice. Yum! One of the favourite snacks of Pinoys is this deep-fried peanut aka adobong mani. Why it's called adobo, with nary a sight of vinegar nor soy sauce, I do not know. I just go with the flow or rather the flavour and do not attempt to explain things away.
I used to watch my more enterprising younger sister make this when she was still in elementary school. She then proceeds to package it into small plastic bags and sell it via a corner store. Me and the rest of our siblings? We gamely volunteered to pack it for her with the eye of course of sneaking every other spoonful in our mouths. You can probably guess that my sister's business didn't exactly flourish. Hahaha.
The thing with deep frying the peanuts is once it reaches the cooked stage it can very quickly burn in a matter of seconds. So it is imperative to immediately remove all of the peanuts from the deep fryer once you think it's cooked otherwise you will have a mix of crunchy well cooked ones and some burned ones. Not nice at all.
My sister did not have any deep fryer thermometer nor use a timer when she was cooking this. All she had for indicator was the garlic - if it turned to golden crispy and the peanuts are of the right colour then it is done. You can use that as a guide although timing it and pre-heating the cooking oil to the right temperature would help a lot from guesswork.
Adobong Mani Deep Fried Red-Skinned Peanuts
dried red-skinned peanuts garlic cloves - smashed skin-on cooking oil fine salt
Pour some cooking oil into a saucepan to reach at least 1/2-inch up the side. Heat until it reaches 180C/350F in temperature.
Deep fry the garlic and peanuts in batches making sure that the peanuts are submerged in oil. Cook for 3 - 4 minutes for peanuts with small kernels and 4 - 5 minutes for big kernels.
Set a metal sieve or strainer on a deep bowl. Once the peanuts are cooked, pour the whole lot in the strainer making sure that the bowl will catch the hot oil. Drain and transfer to a serving bowl. Add fine salt to taste.
Pour back the oil in the saucepan, re-heat to 180C, and repeat for the next batch.
