The Easy Date

When it comes to pastries and desserts, I definitely hang up my apron strings. The long standing feud between dessert & savory chefs is most likely true - I have never met one who is an expert in both.

However, it's imperative that every savory chef have a couple of desserts on their repertoire, and vice versa. It makes no sense to say to your dinner guests, "sorry, I don't do dessert" after a nice meal. It's almost as sacrilegious as not serving wine with dinner.

I've worked to perfect a few desserts that I can call on for any occasion, and am striving to extend myself as a dessert chef (apprentice is a more appropriate word) as well.

One of my favorite dessert ingredients to work with is the ancient date. It's no wonder the date has been a staple and favorite in many cuisines of old, what with the sticky, chewy, and sugary flavor. Most of the dates that we get over here are dried, which concentrate the flavor even more; although I did have the opportunity of savoring a fresh date when I was in Israel, and it is quite delicious as well.

It's an extremely versatile fruit to work with, and not only that, but as there are so many different varieties, just using a different type of date can give dessert a new twist.

One of my stock date desserts is the sticky date pudding, first introduced to me in Australia, where the dessert is exceedingly popular, although I first attempted this only a few years back.

I do not make my pudding particularly sticky. I kind of relish the lighter, spongy texture; but this is because the butterscotch/rum/brandy/toffee sauce that it's served with is severely thick and rich that it works for a nice balance.

It's also such an easy dessert that you can make it just hours ahead to serve it warm or at room temperature. If you're in a pinch and want to do this ahead, it's not a big deal. Just make sure the sauce is thoroughly warmed before generously lathering it over a slice of pudding.

Here's the recipe:

Sticky Date Pudding
Serves 8

1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cup Dates, pitted & chopped
1/2 tsp Baking soda
3/4 cup Boiling Water
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Brown sugar
2 ea Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
4 Tbs Butter, melted

Preheat oven to 300F
Combine dates and baking soda
Pour water over baking soda and leave to soak for 15 minutes
Remove half of the dates and set aside
In a blender, combine the remaining dates and liquid, as well as all the other ingredients, except the flour
Blend until mixture is well combined
Pour liquid mixture into flour and stir until batter is uniform
Stir in the reserved dates
Pour batter into well buttered 8" cake tin, and place tin in a water bath
Cover water bath tightly with cling wrap (yes it can go in the oven)
Carefully place pudding in oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until pudding is puffed and springs back when lightly pressed
Serve with Toffee sauce (recipe below)

Toffee Sauce recipe
16 oz Butter, chopped
1 1/2 cup Brown sugar
1 cup Heavy cream

In a heavy saucepan melt the butter until it foams
Add the brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves
Add the cream and cook until sauce thickens slightly or to desired consistency



This post is especially for Laura S my Bar Method instructor!
- It makes no sense because iPad spellcheck is dense

Location:Middlefield Rd,Palo Alto,United States

Baptisms and Breakfasts

I've already learned that there are a multitude of proud moments even as a young parent, starting with, of course, the actual birth itself. However, some occasions rank higher than others, and Jadon's baptism definitely counts are being somewhere quite high up there.

We were anxiously awaiting this day (and a wardrobe) and wanted our closest family & friends to be there to witness this event as well. After a very touching service and outstanding behavior by this little man (who didn't cry at all, and looked in amazement at the congregation from the stage), everyone headed back to our home for a breakfast.







I knew we were going to be gone about 2 hours at church, and seeing as service was at 8am, realistically I knew that there was little chance of doing any prep work the morning of, what with feeding and dressings two people and all.

As with all my entertaining my famous motto prevails - make it easy on yourself. Everything that I served at breakfast was a make ahead, but the piece de resistance was the breakfast casserole.






When I think of stratas, I'm overcome with thoughts of heavy cheese, and bread drenched in fat, so it wasn't the first thing to come to my mind when conjuring up a spring breakfast menu. However, I worked my way into making it more delicate, simply by using a rich recipe for the egg mixture, and using fresh & simple ingredients like ham & corn.

I also used a really low oven (280F) for the time that we were gone, and this slow cooking method really worked well for a soft pudding soaked in luxurious egg custard with the flavor seeping in from the tasty ham.

The best part of the dish was that it was make ahead of course, and so all I had to do the morning of was to stick it in the oven.

The rest of the menu was just as tasty, and easy. We had two large fruit plates, which I had sliced and plated the day before, and an arugula salad with marinated-ahead mini mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes as a dressing. For the entrees, there were meatballs, frozen ahead, recipe here, and the casserole which was also assembled the day before.




























The perfect spring breakfast dessert was an olive oil cake (I think I taught this at one of my classes) served with sweet lemon ricotta.










Needless to say, it was a huge success, but of course Jadon was the star of the moment, so who really cares what the food was like? ;)

Here's the recipe for the casserole (which is really no more than a savory bread pudding)

Tip 1: If you're assembling the casserole ahead, you do need to croutonize the bread. If you're doing it day of, you can just use stale bread

Tip 2: If you're in a hurry, you can cook it at 350F in under an hour, but please use a water bath!

Ham & Corn Breakfast Casserole

serves 6-8

3 cups croutons (recipe below)
4 ea eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 cup ham, diced
1 cup corn kernels, frozen or fresh
1/2 ea onion, diced
1 tbs olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent and lightly browned
Scald the milk and cream, and whisk into the beaten eggs
Season the egg mixture to taste
Combine the croutons, onions, ham and corn into a well oiled 8x8 casserole dish
Pour the egg custard over the bread mixture, being careful to allow the liquid to soak the bread
Let stand for about an hour, or cover and refrigerate over night
Bake at 300F for about 1.5 hrs, or until casserole is lightly puffed, and slightly spongy when pressed
Broil for 1 minute to brown the top if necessary

Croutons
3 cups Bread, diced
1 tbs Olive oil

Toss bread in olive oil. Bake in a single layer at 350F for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Middlefield Rd,Palo Alto,United States