GZ Tai-Tai

Egg Nog

My family loves Egg Nog come holiday season.  When we moved overseas it was impossible to find. The beauty of this recipe was that you made a cooked custard with the eggs and did not have the worry of getting sick or making anyone else sick. The lack of refrigeration in the local markets made it likely that this could happen, we won't even get into the bird flu factor.

We adapted the original recipe over the years, and it was used for our in home egg nog consumption. It is the recipe we served at our Christmas parties over the years. At the Christmas party we left the booze out, this way our adult guests could choose the booze of their choice to add to their cup of nog.  This worked well because there were usually a few younger party goers watching Christmas videos in the family room. They were always invited to have some snacks and something to drink too. What kid or adult can pass up a punch bowl full of creamy egg nog, especially when it’s topped with clouds of whipped cream.

Egg Nog

Step 1 Make Soft Custard

Soft Custard

3 large Eggs, slightly beaten

1/3 cup of Sugar

dash of Salt

2 ½ cups Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Mix eggs,sugar, and salt in heavy 2-quart saucepan.

Gradually stir in the milk. Cook over medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture just coats a metal spoon; remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla. Place saucepan in cold water until custard is cool. (If custard curdles beat vigorously with hand beater until smooth.) Cover and Refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Egg Nog Assembly

1 cup whipping (heavy ) cream

2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar

½ teaspoon Vanilla

½ Cup Rum

Fresh Ground Nutmeg

Prepared Soft Custard.

Just before serving, beat whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in chilled medium bowl with electric Mixer on high speed until stiff.

Gently stir 1 cup of the Whipped cream and the rum, if using into the custard.

Pour custard mixture into small punch bowl. Drop remaining whipped cream in mounds onto custard mixture. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve immediately. Refrigerate any remaining eggnog.

 

Obatzda Cheese Spread

Monday one of the ladies in the neighborhood demonstrated some recipes from France. The ladies that joined were to bring something to share for the lunch afterward. I brought bread that I had baked and this cheese spread. I had a cheese spread similar a few years ago and looked on the inter-net for one that I would like.... well after looking at about 20 different recipes I jotted down the major components and added my own twists. It ended up being a hit with the ladies and the German ladies in the group said my Obatzda was better than the ones they had in Germany. I was very happy everyone liked it... then the requests for the recipe came. So here is the recipe for you too.

Obatzda Cheese Spread

50g (2oz.) (¼ cup) butter, room temperature

1 – 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese (250g), at room temperature

125g small round of brie or camembert cheese diced into small cubes

125 g shredded, Cheese of your choice (I used Tasty cheddar)

4-6 Tbsp dark beer enough to make the cheese spreading or dipping consistency.

½ cup onion, minced

2-3 cloves roasted garlic, mashed

½ tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Beat the butter and cream cheese together, add beer a tablespoon at a time to get a light and fluffy texture. Add the onion, garlic and spices; beat together adding more beer if needed for desired consistency.

Add the shredded cheese and diced brie, mix together thoroughly.

Adjust spices to your taste if needed.

 

 

Yogurt,Yoghurt

Yesterday and today have been spent making yogurt. When Expat son was a baby this was something I made weekly. Living in China at a time when yogurt consisted of thin runny sweet yogurt and the really sour yogurt that we still can get now. The latter was what I used for the starter and what I am using again almost 10 years later. Yesterday's batch was thrown down the drain, the method I used was the same as the good old days, except my thermos I suspect was not thermal enough. In the old days I had a couple of great stainless steel lined thermal jars that I made the yogurt in,every batch came out perfect. I am not sure where those ended up, perhaps at a church rummage sale when we were cleaning out in the states one of the many times, or perhaps they are gathering dust in storage to be discovered someday when we are reunited with our belongings. Then of course I won't need them, because, I will be able to get good yogurt on the shelf of my local grocer.
So I re-thought my approach, looked at the internet, some books and decided to do the oven method my  friend the Yogurt Guru uses and I am off. Once I placed the yogurt in the oven I made a quick call to my friend the Yogurt Guru and she said I did everything the way she does. So now I wait ....

You might wonder why the sudden interest in homemade yogurt? Well I am trying to make a lower fat variety than what is available to us here.

We get one brand of plain yogurt it is a local brand called Flower Fresh.
One of my friends in the old days saw them delivering the cows by air lift for the dairy. Now that would have been something to see. I used to have the milk and yogurt delivered to my door in the old days by a nice man on a bicycle. Before we found the dairy we were buying our fresh milk in those little cartons at the Mc Donalds.That is another story unto itself let me tell you! Expat hubby and Daughter had an aversion to the after taste that the UHT Milk had in the old days and back then we could only get it in the full cream version. Those were the days. Now we have more available to us In UHT  many different brands and even the old brands that we used to buy taste better.

Back to the yogurt ....

It turned out fabulous!

Hard boiled egg time again

It is time to boil those eggs in preparation for Easter.  I boiled some for breakfasts the other day and will be boiling more for coloring probably tomorrow or Saturday.
Here is a post I did last year on how to hard boiled eggs.

Have fun decorating those eggs!

Christmas dinner with the Hot Chilies

The Menu

The Hot Chilies Cooking Club

Annual Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner Menu

Starters

Pancakes A La

Argentina

Main Course

Uncle Sam's Traditional Roast

Turkey  with Stuffing and Gravy

Ozzie Mashed Potato

Bavarian Bread Dumplings

Black Gold and RED Cabbage

Siamese Grilled Vegetables

Home Baked Frau Oswald Bread

Dessert

Red Wine Poached Koala Pears

Fruit Salad indeed it is.

Down and Under Chocolate Chili Ice-cream

The food was great!  The company just as good if not better!  We had a special visit from Santa Claus and a wonderful gift exchange where we found out who our secret Santa's were.

Here we all are with Santa. He was so nice he gave us all aprons to wear for our cooking classes. He is a very jolly and kind fellow!

I will leave you with the recipe for Chocolate Chili Ice Cream which the contribution of our member "from the land down under" and was definetly a hit with all of the "Hot Chilies".