My Favorite Dessert (Bread Pudding)

Monday was daughter Susan's birthday. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner the first thing she said was Bread Pudding.

I have a lot of "oldie but goodies" but bread pudding is the most requested. It is not hard to make since it is basically custard and french bread but I rarely see it in a restaurant outside of New Orleans and I don't know any other home chefs that make it so.......here it is:

French Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

One cup of sugar

8 tablespoons of butter, softened

5 eggs, room temperature, beaten

1 pint heavy cream

dash (or two) cinnamon

1 tablespoon (or more) vanilla extract

1/4 cup raisins

One loaf of French bread cut into 1 inch thick slices

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees

In a Kitchenaid mixer with the paddle blade, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, cream, cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins mixing well.

HINT: Don't let the cream be too cold when you add it to the eggs and sugar. It will cause the butter to clot and make for an uneven custard. And don't think you need a big ole Kitchenaid stand mixer to make this....it is just easier to use than a hand mixer.

Arrange the bread in an oven proof dish, glass, pottery whatever. You should have about 12 pieces of bread. Don't cram them in, they should fit loosely.

Important: Always use french bread!!! Stale bread is even better (how do you think those cunning Creoles came up with the recipe to begin with).

Pour the custard over the bread lifting the corners slightly for the custard to fill in between the pieces. Let it stand for 5 or 10 minutes then without breaking the bread, turn the pieces over to make sure as much of the custard as possible soaks into the bread.

Set the dish in a larger baking pan:

You can see from the picture that the custard hasn't soaked all the way through which is fine. Place this into the oven and then fill the pan 1/2 inch or so from the top with HOT water. This water bath, will prevent the custard from burning while it is cooking.

Cover with foil and bake for 45-50 minutes uncovering the pan for the last 10 minutes or so to let the bread brown slightly.

Carefully remove from the oven (try not to pour the hot water all down your pants). It will (hopefully, no guarantee) look like this:

The custard should be soft, not runny but not hard.

While the pudding is cooking, you can make the rum sauce or, if you prefer, you could have made it earlier.

Rum Sauce

1 cup of sugar

2 1/4 cups of water

1 cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon of dark rum

In a small glass or dish, mix 1/4 cup of water and cornstarch and put aside. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, 2 cups of water, cinnamon, and butter. Bring to a boil. Stir in the cornstarch and water mixture. Simmer stirring occasionally until the sauce is clear. Remove from the heat and add the rum. The sauce will be very thin.

Serve the pudding on a plate or in a shallow bowl and pass the rum sauce.

As a wise man once said...."It eats pretty good".

If you figure two pieces per serving, the recipe will serve 6. If you have leftovers then congratulations. It will last in the refrigerator for several days. When you serve it again, don't heat the pudding just heat up the rum sauce and pour the hot sauce over the pudding.

What am I pouring with this?

Well, this dessert is tailor made for a sweet dessert wine. The most famous, of course, is Sauterne which is made from the Semillion grape in the Bordeaux region of France. These wines can be quite expensive although delicious. The other grape variety that is used a lot for sweet wine is Muscat. Dessert wine from Muscat is produced in Provence in the village of Beaumes de Venise and in Languedoc around the village of Rivesaltes. 

These muscat wines are a little earthier than their Bordeaux cousins and a little sweeter but much cheaper.

I give the nod to the muscat wines from Rivesaltes. They are not quite as heavy as the wines from Beaumes de Venise.

These wines can also age very nicely too. What I opened was a 1999!

The Domaine Cazes is distributed by Master Wine Guy Jean Pierre Chambas with Aleph Wines.

If you want the wine check with Bryan at the Gourmet Shop: 803.799.3705

Cook's Illustrated

This is a quick post. I've gotten a few questions about cook books.
If you every go into cook's kitchen and want to know what is his favorite cookbook just look for the one that is tattered, no dust cover and liberally coated with food splatters and that is the favorite.

As I've mentioned here before, the Plantation Cookbook is my all time favorite. You can get it at Garden District Books in New Orleans http://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com/

Next is the Commander's Palace Cookbook the one published in 1984. There is least one published since then.

I like Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks: In Paris and Family Style.

But the highest recommendation I can give you is Cooks Illustrated. I started with their magazine but the better way is their web site http://www.cooksillustrated.com/ . It is not free but it is not expensive and I have not had a bad recipe yet.

Any other food and wine questions let me know.



Chicken kabobs

Raise your hand if you have ever cooked chicken kabobs on the grill that were so dry and tough you could throw them through a wall? They were so dry and tough that the only way you could eat them was to bury them in BBQ sauce?

Put your hand down. I feel your pain. We have all been there.

But, dear reader, stay the course, relief is on the way.

First. Always use good quality chicken. Get the "all natural" chicken such as Publix's Greeewise or the chicken sold at Earthfare.

Second, and very important, brine the chicken. All lean meat such as duck, venison, pork and chicken, all benefit from brining before cooking.

Third, to give the chicken a smoky grilled taste and also to help the meat stay moist, is to rub the chicken with a bacon paste.

So here is the whole recipe:

2 lbs of boneless chicken breasts (you may want to substitute boneless chicken thighs) cut into 1 inch cubes.
Brine the chicken in 2 quarts of cold water with a quarter cup of salt and a quarter cup of light brown sugar dissolved in the water. Place in the refrigerator for one hour.

While the meat is brining, combine:

Two tablespoons: Sweet Paprika
Four teaspoons: sugar
Two teaspoons: smoked paprika

After the chicken has brined, discard the brine and pat the chicken dry.

Cut two slices of bacon into 1/4 inch pieces and process the bacon in a food processor until it forms a paste. Mix the spices with the bacon.

Rub the spiced paste on the chicken and place the chicken on skewers.

Grill the chicken over a medium heat turning every couple of minutes and cook until the breasts register 160 degrees.

Now, right before they are cooked, I baste the chicken with a homemade bbq sauce I make with ketchup, brown sugar, chopped onion, worcester sauce, and other ingredients. I'm keeping this one for now but I suggest you can use any sauce you make or buy that is dark brown and slightly sweet.

Don't use much sauce. The chicken won't need it.

That's it! What you will have will be a tender and wonderfully seasoned piece of chicken. I usually cut squash, bell peppers and onions, skewer them and grill them along side the chicken. Once cooked you can eat them as they are or try this:

Cook a cup of Basmati rice according to instructions and set aside. When the squash, peppers and onions are cooked, coarsely chop them. Stir them into the rice along with two tablespoons of melted butter. Stir over low heat to re-warm. Once warm serve the rice along side the chicken. Pass some crusty french bread with a good quality olive oil for dipping and you got something! I think you will be amazed at how tender the chicken will be.

What am I pouring with this?

There is an inexpensive vin de pays from France called QES. It is made by Jerome Quiot from Chateauneuf du Pape. It is a light and fruity red that will go well with the chicken.

A more expensive choice would be the cru wines from Beaujolais. Look for the 2009 vintage which was outstanding. These red wines are a great food wine especially for grilled foods like chicken or pork.

What about a white wine? After all, it is chicken. Trust me these reds stand up to it better but if you have to go white, stick with a white burgundy, dry and un-oaked. Or, since it is summer, a dry crisp Rose' from Cote du Provence.

Need a source? Brian de la Volpe at the Gourmet Shop located in Five Points in Columbia. 803.799.3705

"Would you like me to open it so it can breathe?"

How many times have you been at a restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine. The waiter brings it over, presents the wine and she asks you the "open and let it breathe" question. What do you say?

We've all been there. What do you say? Does the wine need to breathe? Does ANY wine need to breathe? What does it mean for a wine to breathe anyway?

The simple answer is that some red wines (and some high quality white wines) need aeration because of the high degree of tannins that can be found in the wine.

Without getting too technical (read: boring) these tannins can give a wine (especially a young wine) a harsh astringent taste. When the wine comes in contact with air, the oxygen will break down the tannins giving the wine a softer more pleasing taste. So, based on this, when the waiter asks the "open and let it breathe" question you have been dumb lucky and correct to say yes.

Maybe maybe not.

First of all, if the wine needs to breathe how much breathin you gonna get out of a hole the size of a quarter? You guessed it.....not much. So if the wine does need to breathe you need to have the wine decanted. No big mystery, decanting is simply pouring the wine out of the bottle into a fancy jug called a decanter. This will allow more of the wine to come in contact with the air which will allow the wine to "open up" more quickly then gasping for breath out of the opening of a bottle.

But do all red wines need to breathe? The simple answer is no. So here is a cheat sheet for what to say when the waiter pops the question.

No white wines unless you are springing for a young grand cru white burgundy in which case I hope I'm with you .

For reds? Honestly, the average bottle of red wine ordered at a restaurant won't improve dramatically by allowing it to breathe. But here is a compromise. When hit with the "open and let it breathe" question simply tell the waiter to go ahead and pour it even if your not ready to drink it. Your glass will act like a mini decanter and the wine will benefit from just sitting in the glass.

A bigger problem then letting it breathe is the temperature most restaurants (or you at home for that matter) serve wine. But that will be a topic for another time.

Sunday Dinner

OK we have talked about recipes and we have talked about wine, let's look at a menu.

Last night we had old friends over for dinner, just the four of us so it was not a major production especially since all of it was done ahead of time.

Menu:
          Curried Corn Chowder
          Shrimp Ceviche
          Penne Pasta with Zucchini Tomato Sauce
          Blackberry Cobbler & Vanilla Ice Cream

Now I've talked about the chowder and tomato sauce before. In fact, I made the chowder on Wednesday and made the tomato sauce on Friday. The only thing we did on Sunday was I made the ceviche and Karen made the cobbler.

We served the chowder as an hors d'oeuvre in pastis glasses. Now, most folks won't have that on their bar so any small glass (a rocks glass or even a juice glass).

Then to the dining room where we had the ceviche as a first course followed by the pasta and cobbler.

The ceviche recipe was from Cooking Light and was the first time I made it. It was just ok (the recipe called for cilantro which I usually don't like and this recipe was no exception). Everything else was delicious especially Karen's cobbler.

What did I pour?

We started pretty fancy with a 1997 Laurent Perrier Brut champagne. After that, we had an inexpensive white Burgundy from Domaine Talmard and an inexpensive red vin de pay from Jerome Quiot called QED. Both wines are great values and both are distributed by my friend Jean Pierre Chambas at Aleph Wines in Columbia.

The best thing about the meal was doing it ahead of time and Karen did her cobbler which is always outstanding.

Homemade Tomato Sauce...easy and healthy

I love tomato sauce any time of year but especially in the summer when I can load it up with fresh vegetables.

The problem is the tomato.

This time of year is just a bit early for great fresh tomatoes. The stuff at the grocery store just won't work. Also, the best tomato for sauce is a roma or plum tomato because they have more meat and less juice and seeds. So......shock of shocks......I use canned tomatoes.

These guys are a good alternative to fresh and they are canned without a lot of juice. What I suggest you do is pour the contents through a mesh strainer over a bowl allowing the watery juice to drip into the bowl. Take the tomatoes and cut then into thirds or fourths and keep them with the thicker juice that did not drip through into the bowl. Set this aside.

Coarsely chop three pieces of bacon and fry in a deep sauce pan. When cooked remove the bacon and set aside. To the bacon grease, add a small onion and half a bell pepper diced. Cook until barely tender then add two medium sized zucchini that have been peeled and diced. You may need to add one or two tablespoons (or more) of olive oil because you may not have enough grease and you don't want this stuff to brown. Now add fresh rosemary, about two tablespoons minced; and add two cups of chopped fresh basil. Stir that around for a minute or so then add two cloves of minced garlic. Stir until the garlic is aromatic but not brown.

Put the tomatoes and the thick juice into the pan with the vegetables and add the bacon. Stir to incorporate. I then add about 3/4 cup of dry red wine. Instead you could add the thinner juice from the can but why would you want to skip the wine? (You may want to add some heat to it by adding a teaspoon or less of red pepper flakes).

Bring all this to a low boil then reduce to a simmer. Taste it to see if it needs salt and pepper (it will need pepper, maybe not salt). Cover and simmer on very low heat for an hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with penne pasta and fresh Parmesan cheese.

I like to make this a day or so ahead of time as the flavors will meld together better in the fridge over night.

Tip:

Later in the summer when fresh tomatoes are easier to find I'll make a version of this with fresh tomatoes but I will blend it into a creamy sauce which freezes great. Remember with fresh tomatoes you want to discard the seeds and most of the juice.

Whether you use canned or fresh tomatoes I think you will enjoy this, chunky or smooth!

What do I pour with this? Nero d'Avola is a red wine variety from Sicily that is not too tannic so it won't fight the acid in the tomato. From France I would drink the young reds from the Cote du Ventoux appelation or one of the "cru" wines from Beaujolais such as Morgon or Moulin-a-Vent. From America? I suggest sweet tea.

Let's talk bubbles

"I only drink Champagne when I'm happy, and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty"

Lily Bollinger

"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right"

Mark Twain

Drinking bubbles around our house is a common occurrence. I blame this on our neighbors the Blanchard’s. Joe and Melissa are close friends who love good food and good wine. As I have the good food and they have the good wine, it is a match made in heaven. ( It’s not that I don’t have good wine he just has better wine and it’s not that he can’t cook but…if you have had the Spécialité’ de la Maison of hamburger and rice, well……)

Most of us think of champagne as a festive wine to be drunk at weddings and parties. But champagne is just wine and more and more folks are enjoying it before a meal as an aperitif or with a meal just like any other wine.

What is this wine with the bubbles? Where is from? How is it made?

Champagne is produced in, well, Champagne which is Northeast of Paris. Only sparkling wine produced in Champagne can be called champagne.

Although most champagne is white, two of the three grapes used to produce it are red: pinot noir and pinot meunier. The other major grape used is chardonnay.

Fermenting champagne twice is part of the process know as Méthode Champenoise.

This method includes adding sugar during the second fermentation which, among other things, how the wine is classified. The most common being Brut which is considered dry champagne

Most of the champagne produced is non-vintage or “NV”. These NV wines are blends of juice from several years. It is quite an art to blend wine from different years so as to taste the same year after year.

If there is a particularly good vintage then a producer may bottle a vintage champagne witch will have the vintage year on the bottle. Vintage champagnes will be harder to find and more expensive.

That brings me to the problem of drinking champagne on a regular basis……it is expensive!

So what can we do to enjoy our bubbles without breaking the bank?

One thing we can do is buy sparkling wine from France or Spain that is made the same way as champagne but less expensive. In France you would look for Cremant and in Spain, Cava. Also, Italy makes a number of sparkling wines, one we like is Prosecco. It is made differently and tends to be a little lighter but it is refreshing and much cheaper then the real thing.

I could go on and on about this but my editorial staff (daughter Susan) says some of my posts are too long so I’ll end here. If you want some specific names or have a question send me an email.

After all, what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.

P. J. O'Rourke

Simple marinade

My youngest Catherine is in town tonight and I'm cooking flank steak on the grill. Any lean cut of meat like that is always better marinated before you cook it.

There are dozens of store-bought marinades available and hundreds of recipes but here is a simple one that works great on any beef:

1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of bourbon

That's it. Marinate it for a couple of hours in the fridge and let it sit out on the counter for about 1/2 hour or so before you grill it.

This works great for beef tenderloin  and pork tenderloin too.

What am I pouring? With the beef it will be red and with Catherine home it will be something good.