Amaretto Custard Bread Pudding

OMG!  This past week was brutal.  The kids in school were awful.  I'm certain they were high on Halloween candy all week.  They were hyper and difficult to settle.  I called several parents, and I came very close to submitting a disciplinary referral.  It would have been my first for the school year.  But I decided I could deal with the infraction in a different way.  I made a call home and the kid caught heat when he got home. . .or so he told me.

I also spoke with several students about respecting personal space.  Some students think nothing about going right up to others (both minors and adults) and sitting so close they are practically on the lap of the other person.  Other students persist in trying to grab items from others, perhaps not realizing that at some point, their hands or ON the other person's body.  They needed to be sent the message that "no means no".  I don't think they take "no" seriously when they hear it, erroneously always assuming that an acquaintance won't see their invasion of space as assault/attempted assault.

A few years ago, there was a similar incident with another student.  Several teachers made excuses for the student, saying "___ is just like that.  ___ means no harm."  I considered not saying anything then, but what jarred me was the thought that if my own child had been the victim, would I want a teacher to turn away, rationalizing their inaction at attempting to curtail the inappropriate behavior?  The answer was clear, and that is why I decided to make sure the perpetrator received consequences for his/her actions.  I hope any teacher who has my child in class will apply the same principle.

What I find most bothersome is that some students see nothing wrong with their own behavior and say, "oh, dats my friend.  They don't mind."  That kind of delusion will bite them in the ass one day.

Speaking of biting, my jaw seems much better, but now a different pain has replaced the achy jaw.  I think I have another cracked tooth.  I don't know how it happened.  Oh, never mind.  I know how.  I will need to wait until late November to see my dentist.  Anyway, until I can get a dental appointment to repair my tooth, I'm trying to eat soft things (no Cape Cod potato chips for me)

With the weather getting cooler, I find the luscious custard texture of bread pudding very comforting.  It's also soft enough that I'm not wincing when I chew.  The rich sauce makes this an extra decadent dessert.  Who would've thought stale bread could taste so good.

Now to prepare myself for another week of kids high on OLD Halloween candy. . .

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Amaretto Custard Bread Pudding

     1 lb bread, cubed (about 10-12 cups of cubes)

     1 qt milk

     6 eggs, reserve 1 yolk for sauce

     1/2 c sugar

     1 c cranberries

     1 tbsp vanilla

     7 tbsp amaretto, divided

     1/2 c butter

     1 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13" baking dish.  In a large bowl, pour milk over bread cubes.  Beat eggs (except for 1 yolk) and add to bread cubes.  Add sugar, cranberries, vanilla, and 3 tbsp amaretto.  Stir gently.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes.  Begin preparing sauce 5 minutes before bread pudding is done.  Heat butter and powdered sugar in a small saucepan over low heat.  Stir constantly until butter is completely melted.  Add 4 tbsp amaretto and reserved egg yolk.  Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  When bread pudding is done, poke holes all over bread pudding.  Pour sauce over and let soak in. 

I Heart Tarts: Egg Custard Tarts

Today is the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, which means it is Moon Festival (a.k.a. Mid-Autumn Festival), the second biggest Chinese holiday. 

Unfortunately, Moon Festival in Hilo is not commemorated by a holiday.  When I was growing up, the United Community Church would host a Moon Festival dinner.  The Moon Festival banner would be displayed for weeks leading up to the dinner.  My parents would invariably have tickets, and we'd go to pick up food.  I remember there was tough and chewy kau yuk (steamed pork or pot roast pork) and sweet-sour spareribs on the plate, but neither were as good as homemade or the kind from Leung's.  I don't remember anything else on the plate, but I'm sure there was a round scoop of sticky white rice.  Mr. Dependable, whose family did the same (get tickets and pick up food), tells me the food was indeed less than memorable.

I suppose if we lived in Honolulu, we would've taken part in a more proper celebration...go out to eat, buy mooncakes, etc.  I know which restaurants would be on my list too.  Legend Seafood Restaurant or Hee Hing would be at the top of my list.  And I would go to Chinatown to Sing Cheong Yuan (formerly Shung Chong Yuein) to buy mooncakes and pastries.

street view of Harbor City Restaurant

Actually, I don't like mooncakes so much.  The kind we have in Hilo is either stale or preserved with more chemicals than the specimens in biology class.  I don't have a mooncake mold, so I really can't make my own.  So instead of mooncakes, I will be making another Chinese dessert. . .egg custard tarts.

I think it's a Chinese thing, but both Ds love gai dan tat (egg custard tarts).  Whenever we get to go to a dim sum restaurant, they will always get a plate of these tarts for dessert.  Unfortunately, the Ds weren't with me when I went to Harbor City Restaurant (Seattle).  The egg tarts there were the best I've ever had.  The custard filling was good, but it was the crust which made the Harbor City tarts outstanding.  It was the same pastry dough used for a barbecue pork pastry.  Crisp, flaky, light, and, I'm sure, filled with lard!

Because there is no handy-dandy dim sum restaurant where I live, I had to learn to make these tarts at home.  Of course, I don't have lard at home, and I think the idea of even buying lard grosses me out.  If I'm gonna clog my arteries, I will do it with butter.  I will be the first to admit that my tarts are nowhere close to the Harbor City tarts (the crust).  But its rather inconvenient, not to mention costly, to fly to Seattle just to enjoy a Moon Festival meal at Harbor City...or is it???

click on recipe title for printable reipe

Egg Custard Tarts

(adapted from Judy Lew's Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals)

Crust (makes 18 2 1/2" tarts)

     1 1/2 c flour

     1 tbsp sugar
     1/4 tsp salt

     1/2 c butter

     2 tbsp Crisco shortening

     1 egg

Combine flour, sugar and salt.  Cut butter and shortening into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse sand.  Add egg.  Mix well.  Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth.  Divide into 18 pieces.  Press each piece into a 2 1/2" tart pan.

Egg Custard Filling

     3/4 c milk

     6 tbsp sugar

     3 tbsp warm water 

     3 eggs, beaten

     1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine sugar and warm water.  Stir until dissolved.  Add milk, eggs, and vanilla and stir well.  Pour through a sieve to remove any solids.  Divide among lined tart pans, filling almost to the top.  Place filled tart pans in flat pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Cool for 15-20 minutes before carefully removing tarts from pans.

I had my first run-in with a teacher last week.  D2's teacher called, telling me she'd be receiving an F on her mid-quarter progress report for not doing an assignment.  I was puzzled because I had seen her working on it.  Furthermore, this teacher was named by D2 as "my favorite teacher", so the sting was even greater.  I was absolutely livid.  The teacher continued on, saying that she would be docking 5 points off for every day it was late.  By the time she called over 2 days had passed since the due date.  When I confronted D2, she produced the paper from her bag, complete with markings by the teacher.  WTF?!?  The teacher had forgotten that D2 had attempted to turn it in early!  I paid a visit to the teacher who, needless to say, was less than thrilled to see me.  She greeted me by saying that she was prepping for her class and had no time to speak to me.  But I apologized for my outburst on the phone and noticed that she had D2's paper on her desk.  By the time I left, 5 minutes later, we shook hands and hugged (Hawaiian style).  The teacher changed her mid-quarter grade to an A and added a smiley-face.  D2 said now her teacher knows her mom is crazy. 

Ending the week on the plus side, both HHS squads scored victories over the Kamehameha-Hawaii Warriors.

JV QB Tiogangco makes a run for it

In spite of never leading until the very end, the varsity won a thriller which went into overtime.  The game was filled with penalties, not all legit, called against HHS.  The most blatant happened in front of my very eyes.  The ball touched the ground before it was in possession, yet the visually-impaired ref called it complete.  #dumbass #goseeanoptometrist It was my first experience with 20-20 scoring. 

taking down the QB

#4, my favorite varsity running back

Experimenting With My New Tart Pans

My new tart pans from the Confectionary House came just in time for Fall Intersession. I'm still experimenting with crust and filling options. Stay tuned!

Steamed Pork Hash

This dish is something that reminds me of when I was young.  I'd like to thank Nate and his blog, Hawaiian Pake in Okinawa, for taking me back on a nostalgic journey.  Since Mom worked full-time, dinners were generally quick, thrown-together things.  I remember going to the market with her after she picked me up from Aunty Elsie's house.  Together, we'd comb the aisles, hoping we'd find the answer to the question, "whats for dinner?".

One dish that she'd often when pressed for time was steamed pork hash.  She would get the steamer going, toss ground pork with a bunch of ingredients, usually whatever she had on hand (egg, chung choi, shiitake, water chestnuts, shoyu, etc.), pat the mixture into a bowl, and stick the bowl in the steamer.  In under an hour, a hot entree would be on the table.  The same ground pork mixture was sometimes stuffed in a hollowed out end of togan (winter melon) or mushroom caps.

Nate uses salted duck egg in his pork hash patty.  Mom never used that, but its probably because we never had any uncooked salted duck eggs around.  The first time I had pork hash with salted duck egg was at Helen's Chinese Restaurant in Kapahulu (dinner courtesy of an ex-boyfriend and his family).  I loved the yolk smeared on top.  Upon reading Nate's blog, I remembered seeing a recipe for pork hash patty using salted duck egg in one of my many cookbooks.  Gathering up a few recipes, I put together something to call my own, especially since I now know how to make salted eggs out of chicken eggs.

While this dish won't win any beauty contest, it will certainly warm hearts and tummies.  Mom, your steamed pork hash is still the best, but I think mine is pretty good too.  Thanks for the inspiration, Nate.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Steamed Pork Hash

     1 lb ground pork

     1/2 - 1 can water chestnuts, chopped

     2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

     4 tsp shoyu

     1 tbsp rice wine

     2 tsp sesame oil

     1 tsp sugar

     2 salted eggs (raw)

     1 tbsp slivered green onions

Separate eggs, setting yolks aside.  To egg whites, add pork, water chestnuts, cornstarch, shoyu, rice wine, sesame oil, and sugar.  Pat into heatproof bowl.  Cut each egg yolk into several pieces.  Place atop pork mixture.  Steam 40 minutes.  Remove carefully and sprinkle green onions on top.  Serve hot.