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.

 

Applesauce

 

The kids made this applesauce recipe, it is adapted from the same book and was made to eat with the Latkes. The applesauce was good, but, I found it too sweet. When I make applesauce I never add sugar, as I like it to be just apples. I would say cut out the sugar if you are like me and just like the sweetness of the apples. I also felt it could use a bit less cinnamon, however the kids and hubby were very happy with the results.

10 apples unpeeled, cored and cut into cubes

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in large pot. Heat over low heat until apples are soft. Mash with potato masher to make into sauce.

Icy Fruit Blizzard

This is the dessert that we made for the class. I happened upon this recipe while looking for a different recipe in a Mexican cookbook Perfect Mexican
Imagine my surprise to find a dessert so healthy in a Mexican cookbook! I tried it on the family and it had potential especially if you process with more juice to get a finer, creamier texture.
I have never had to add sweetener of any kind as the sweetness of the fruit is all you need.
The class loved it! The ladies facing diabetes in their lives, were so happy to have a dessert they loved and their families would love too!

Icy Fruit Blizzard

1 medium pineapple, frozen

1 slice watermelon, frozen

8 oz frozen unsweetened mixed berries  I used strawberries

1 large peach or mango, frozen

1  banana, frozen

1/2  - 1 cup orange juice 

1 tsp Splenda, or other sugar substitute (optional)  I did not use any sweetener

Freeze all of the fruit on a cookie sheet for at least 2 hrs or until firm. I freeze overnight.

Place one type of fruit in food processor and blend until broken up in pieces.

 Add a little orange juice, and then add more fruit, process,and repeat with the rest of the fruit, until it forms a granular mixture.

Add sweetener if needed for sweetness.

Serve immediately.

Rote Grutze (Gruetze) Red Berry Pudding

 

When I tasted this it reminded me of Oregon, and all the wonderful berries we picked for jams, cakes and just to eat. When I was a kid picking berries, more ended up inside of me than in the bucket. When I took my kids to the farm, I was glad to see that they had the same strategy of picking berries that I did when I was a kid. I usually ended up buying some of the already picked berries to take home with us too.

 

Rote Grutze (Gruetze) Red Berry Pudding

1 kg mixed red berries and fruits cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries 

1 liter of mixed berry or fruit juice set aside 200 ml juice to mix with the cornstarch

1 lemon the juice of

60-70 gm sugar depends on the sweetness of the fruit

3 Tbsp. heaped, cornstarch approx 50-60 gm

 

If using a combination of fresh fruits and frozen berries:

Cook the fresh berries i.e.: blueberries and cherries with some of the berry juice. Just cover the berries with the juice.  Add juice of the lemon and some of the sugar. Cook the berries and cherries until tender.  Remove from the juice and set aside. Mix the Cornstarch and the 200ml juice that was set aside together and add to the juice in the pan, cook until it thickens.  Add the cooked berries and the frozen and stir until all is thickened.  Taste for sweetness if more sugar is needed add and cook a minute more to dissolve the sugar.  

The Red Berry Pudding can be served warm or cold with cream or vanilla sauce poured over the top.

 If only using frozen berries and fruits:

Cook the mixed berry juice with the lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch until the liquid thickens. Then add the frozen berries and combine with the thickened juice to form the pudding.

 

 

Apricot Pastries

You can substitute peach slices if you cannot find apricots. No photo.

Apricot Pastries

Puff Pastry - ready rolled sheets

1 can apricot halves

1 jar apricot jam

almonds, chopped or sliced

milk  - for brushing on pastry

Cut the puff pastry, already rolled sheets, into 9 squares.

Onto each square place an apricot half, cut side up.

Into the apricot half, place ½ tsp apricot jam. Not too much, as it melts and burns

Sprinkle with the almonds.

Pinch the diagonal corners together in the centre. Brush with milk and cook in oven 180C for 20min or golden brown.

When cool dust with icing sugar.

Waffles

 

Waffles are something that we have pretty often in our house. Expat Son loves them, his first words, which I did not understand was waffles, (awfuls) until he grabbed my hand and took me to the shelf and pointed at the waffle iron telling me he wanted waffles (awfuls). He was so cute!

When I make waffles I usually freeze any that are leftover so that we can toast them in the morning for breakfast before school. 

One of the super ladies that is in our cooking club shared her recipe for waffles with us during her class the other week. They were a bit more sweet and rich than the recipe I generally use when I make waffles for the family. I really liked them and thought I would try them out on the family tonight when I decided to make waffles for dinner.

Did I mention that next week is Waffle Day in Sweden on March 25th and it's my birthday too.

Waffles  - Waffeln - Våffeldagen

3 eggs

125 g Sugar

125g Butter, melted

1 level tsp. Baking Powder

250g. Flour

250 ml Milk

1/2 tsp. Salt

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs in electric mixer. Then add dry ingredients and milk a bit at a time while mixing with electric mixer until  consistency of cake batter.  Bake in waffle maker until golden brown.

Serve waffles with fruit salad and yogurt or any topping of your choice.

 

Some of Expat Son's favorite toppings are:

Peanut butter and maple syrup

Nutella

Cherry Jam

Cinnamon Sugar

Some of my favorites are above as well, however, I do love a fried egg with salt and pepper on top of the waffle for a savory version.

Or just butter and maple syrup.

 

Gourmet Seven Layer Bars

 

 

This morning I had a cuddle with Expat Son; these are getting fewer and further between as he gets older. I mentioned while we cuddled that I did not have to go anywhere today, I could even stay in my pajamas if I wanted today. His reply was," you could make cookies too."

Well I showered and dressed as usual before 7:00 A.M. After Expat Son left for school I organized my closet. When that was finished I decided to see what type of cookie I could make. I scanned the Pantry and came up with Seven Layer Bars, but not your average Seven Layer Bar, a gourmet version.

 

Gourmet Seven Layer Bars

1 ½ cups Anna's Pepperkakor ginger thin crumbs

½ cup butter, melted

1 cup Marabou milk chocolate cut into chunks

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups baking coconut

1 cup pecans, chopped condense

1 can (370g) sweetened condensed milk Eagle brand

 

Mix cookie crumbs and melted butter then press into 9 x 13 pan. Layer the rest of the ingredients on top of cookie mixture. Pour sweetened condensed milk over top of everything. Bake at 180 - 190 C or 325 – 350 F for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden. Cool. Cut into bars.

Banoffee Pie Challenge

My friend and her husband invited a group of us over for a very impromptu lunch today. She called last night and her husband shouted a challenge out for me to make a banoffee pie. I am always up for a challenge and actually this was simpler than I thought it would be. I quickly went on line to see what was in a banoffee pie and found it was just a few simple ingredients that I had in the pantry or that I could make from what I had in the pantry.  Last night I made the caramel, I was low on it because,  Expat Son enjoys spreading caramel on his toast in the morning for breakfast. Step by step instructions for making the caramel/dulce de leche here.

Sorry no photo of the pie as I did not think about it until I decided to write the post a few minutes ago.  The raves from all our friends are enough for me make this dessert for up coming gatherings.The pie plate was licked clean quite quickly!

Banoffee Pie

1 pie shell graham cracker or pastry  I used a pre-made graham cracker shell today.

11/2 - 2 cans caramel/dulce de leche  made from sweetened condensed milk see the link above

4 medium size bananas, sliced

500 ml whipping cream, chilled

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar 

chocolate sprinkles, garnish

 

Pre-bake the pie shell and cool.

Whip the chilled cream, vanilla, and sugar until stiff.

Spread a layer of caramel on the bottom of the crust.

Layer sliced bananas on the caramel.

Spread more caramel over the bananas.

Cover with sweetened whipped cream.

Garnish with chocolate sprinkles or nuts.

Caramel or Dulce De Leche

Expat Son eats caramel or dulce de leche depending on what country you are from... on his toast most mornings. He loved it as a baby and still does. I learned many years ago from one of my Argentine friends how to make dulce de leche by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours. When you live in China you will do almost anything for the food that you want, need or miss. So after many assurances from my friend that the can would not explode in my face I have made my caramel this way for nearly 10 years.....except when we lived in the states and it was easy to get at the little Mexican grocery store in our town.

So in this post if you cannot get caramel or dulce de leche readily available, like we still cannot here in Guangzhou, I hope to alleviate your fears of explosions in the kitchen and help you to enjoy the taste of Caramel or Dulce de Leche.

So here goes and I have photos too!

You will need a large pot, water and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

Peel label off of the can of milk and take plastic lid off.  Leave can sealed. DO NOT OPEN!

Lay can on its side.  I do this when just cooking one can; it helps me to keep the water level above the can. You never want the water to be below the can. 

When I cook three cans in a pot I usually stand the cans up and I use a much larger pot.

Fill pot with water so the level is above the can by a few inches. 

It will look like this. Can is fully submerged.

Now turn the burner on high to start boiling process.

You will also want to put a kettle of water on to boil. You will need to add this hot water to the pot as the water evaporates. By doing this you will keep the water level above the can and it will not explode.

When the water boils turn burner down so that the water will simmer. Simmer for 3 hours.

Remember!

You will need to fill the water as it evaporates to keep the water level above the can of milk.

You will end up with a lovely caramel that you can use to fill cakes, cookies, put in flan or just spread on toast, pancakes or Expat Son's favorite waffles.

 

Enjoy!

Bread Pudding

I have been in the mood for a comfort food, rather dessert. A good friend of mine Kathy who actually had adopted me as one of her "kids" long before I married GZ Expat makes the best bread pudding. When Kathy made bread pudding we were the lucky recipients of 3 dessert plates of the gorgeous dessert this was when Expat daughter was small. I usually got to eat two of them because at that time GZ Expat was a "picky eater" . I was happy because the next evening I knew I had some bread pudding for dessert. I have tried many recipes for bread pudding over the years and none have compared so I decided I would use a basic recipe and make it a bit richer in hopes of coming closer to the best bread pudding I ever ate.  Today I tried to make it with the help of my  Betty Crocker's cook book as a guide....I adapted the very basic recipe for the taste and texture I was looking for ...... I added extra egg and used half heavy cream and milk instead of just milk. I also added chopped walnuts to give a nice crispy nutty dimension to this classic and added more raisins too. Topped it off with Whiskey sauce and when Expat son came home he said; "Mom what smells so good" !
I told him bread pudding do you want some? YES! So we had a snack at 4:00 this afternoon of bread pudding with whiskey sauce and a glass of milk for son, and I had a glass of water.  Very yummy after school snack I would say. Expat son liked it too! Well I guess bread pudding isn't just for dessert anymore.

Bread pudding is a great way to use up old bread. I am finding that we don't use as much bread as we used to now that  Expat  daughter is in University.  So instead of tossing it out or making bread crumbs this is a nice way to use it up.

P.S. GZ Expat ate the bread pudding this time and liked it... This from the man that 24 years ago would only eat something if it had ketchup or BBQ sauce disguising it.  Thank goodness I made him see the light early in our relationship, however that is another story!