Category: dessert

Categories
dessert Filipino Instant Pot recipes

Mom’s Leche Flan (Instant Pot Version)

leche flan

My mom had a stroke 11 years ago and as a result, she hasn’t been able to do a lot of cooking since then, especially not something as fussy as making a leche flan. Last year (Christmas 2015), my mom said she wanted to make leche flan for Christmas. She tried to talk me through the process, but they didn’t turn out as well as she wanted, which frustrated and saddened her because making leche flan was one of her specialities.

As Christmas 2016 approached, I thought about making leche flan again, especially after seeing a sous vide version on Betty Ann Besa-Qurino’s blog. However, like many people in the last couple of years, I bought an Instant Pot on Amazon and have been fascinated with the cult-like community that has emerged. One of the first things I thought of doing when I got Instant Pot was seeing if you could pressure cook a leche flan. The answer is a definite “Yes,” and it’s so easy that making flan is no longer a chore.

I used my mom’s recipe, which I’ve modified since I originally posted it, and referred to Amy and Jacky’s Creme Caramel post at Pressure Cooker Recipes to figure out the timing. I used small ramekins to make this for Christmas, but you should be able to use any pan or mold that fits in the Instant Pot to make this.

Ingredients

7 egg yolks
1 egg
2 cups evaporated milk
1 tsp. lemon extract or lemon zest
1 cup sugar
Extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar to caramelize before adding the rest of the mixture

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and gently whisk (or use a hand or stand mixer on the lowest speed) to mix the custard together. To ensure the smoothness of the custard, you should strain the mixture while before pouring it into the baking dish or mold.
  2. Place extra sugar in a small pan and heat it over medium heat until the sugar melts and browns.
  3. Pour caramelized sugar into your baking pan or mold so it coats the bottom.
  4. Add custard mixture to your baking pan or mold on top of the caramelized sugar.
  5. Cover the baking pan or mold with foil and place it into Instant Pot on top of the trivet or steaming rack. I was able to fit 4 small ramekins in my 6-quart Instant Pot.
  6. Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot.
  7. Cook on High for 9 minutes and let it naturally release.
  8. Remove from Instant Pot and let cool on the counter. You can also refrigerate the leche flan after it reaches room temperature if you’re making this ahead of time.
  9. When you’re ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the flan. Place a serving plate on top of the pan and invert it quickly. Be careful not to spill! When properly executed, the flan will be golden brown on top and yellowish on the bottom.
Categories
Best of Inuyaki dessert Filipino street food

Puto Bumbong

Puto Bumbong is a Filipino delicacy that’s traditionally served during the Christmas season in the Philippines. It literally translates to steamed glutinous rice (puto) cooked in bamboo (bumbong), and it’s a staple at my best friend’s house, where we gather for Noche Buena at midnight on Christmas Eve. The purple color comes from the mixture of sweet rice and black rice (pirurutong), but I’ve seen recipes that call for purple food coloring, which is obviously cheating! Puto bumbong is served with butter, sugar and freshly grated coconut on top. I asked my friend’s mom if she would show me how to make puto bumbong, and she was happy to oblige.

Puto Bumbong
Dave Chappelle says “I want that purple stuff!”

Cooking puto bumbong is fairly quick but preparing the rice is a three-day process. On the first day, you take a mixture of equal parts of sweet rice and pirurutong and soak it overnight. On the second day, you take the mixture and grind it in a blender. (In the Philippines, you’d traditionally use a grinding stone of some kind.) Then the mixture is placed in a cotton sack (like a flour sack) for another day in order to drain any excess water. Since it’s generally warm at Christmastime in the Philippines, you’d simply hang the bag outside and let gravity do the work. With the colder winters here in the States, better results are obtained by putting a heavy weight on the bag to force the excess water out.

The rice mixture should be ready the next day, and it should be moist, not dry. The next step is to use your hands to mix it up and break up any clumps.

Purple Rice Mixture
Clumps are bad.

To cook the puto bumbong, you need a special steamer. This one has three holes on top so that the steam can escape and cook the puto in the bamboo. The cloth wrapped around the bamboo helps prevent burnt hands.

Puto Bumbong Steamer

Simply fill up the bamboo with the rice mixture and put it on top of the steamer. You can tell when it’s done when the rice turns dark purple and kind of shrinks into the bamboo.

Three Different Stages of Doneness
Clockwise from top: almost done, just started (light purple), and finished (dark purple).

Before you remove the puto bumbong from the bamboo, hold the top of the bamboo over the steam to finish cooking the end that was farthest away from the steam.

Finishing the Ends...
Finish off the tip.

To remove from the bamboo, hold the bamboo in your left hand…then hit the pinky side of your left hand against your right palm by the base of your thumb. The puto bumbong should plop onto plate.

Puto Bumbong with Butter
Lots of butter is very important!

To finish, slather the puto bumbong with butter and then top it with freshly grated coconut and sugar (either white or brown). In the Philippines, puto bumbong is sold by street vendors after Mass during Christmas week and is wrapped in banana leaves so customers can take it with them. Since we normally enjoy these at home, we just eat it fresh from the steamer…no banana leaves required.

Thanks to my Tita Lety for showing me how this delicious Christmas treat is made. It’s always great going to their house on Christmas Eve for Noche Buena just a few hours after finishing our own Christmas Dinner.

Categories
bakeries Best of Inuyaki chocolate dessert recipes Thomas Keller

Christmas Cookies – Thomas Keller Oreos

If you’ve ever been to Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, chances are you’ve seen or eaten one of his famous TKOs, a.k.a. Thomas Keller Oreos (below).


TKO

Like most of Keller’s food, his take on the classic Oreo is a textbook example of refined simplicity — white chocolate ganache sandwiched between two chocolate shortbread cookies. They’re one of our favorite cookies, and I thought it would be fun to make them for Christmas presents.


[pictobrowser type=”flickr” userID=”arndog” albumID=”72157603459650582″]

The Las Vegas NBC affiliate, KVBC, posted the TKO recipe on their Web site, which I thought was odd, but then I remembered that Keller opened a Bouchon Bakery in The Venetian a few years ago. We lengthened the the baking time from 8 minutes to 20 minutes after an unsuccessful first batch and the 20-minute baking time worked out much better. We also made a seasonal, mint-flavored TKO by adding some mint extract, peppermint extract and green food coloring to the ganache.

CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD COOKIES
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 pound (4 sticks) butter
18 oz (by weight) all purpose flour
12 oz (by weight) sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
6 oz Cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream butter with paddle on mixer until smooth, then add sugar and mix until combined, scraping down the mixing bowl.
3. Sift dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to mixing bowl and work dough until just combines. (it should look kind of like brown sand)
4. Roll dough between two sheets of parchment paper until 1/4 inch thick. Cut each cookie with scalloped cutter.
5. Bake at 325 F for approximately 20 minutes
6. Let cookies cool and then sandwich together with the following filling:

GANACHE FILLING
4 oz white chocolate (cut into small pieces or buy white chocolate chips)
1 oz heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon mint extract (optional, for mint filling)
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract (optional, for mint filling)
green food coloring (optional, for mint filling)

DIRECTIONS
Bring cream to a boil and pour over chocolate, then mix until emulsified. Allow ganache to set up for at least an hour before using. Ganache should be spreadable, kind of like peanut butter.

To make the mint ganache, add mint extracts to ganache along with food coloring just before placing between the chocolate shortbread cookies.

The white chocolate ganache is perishable, so if you’re making these, make sure their consumed within three days. This can be difficult, because these cookies are really rich and it’s sometimes hard to eat just one. Enjoy!

Categories
Best of Inuyaki dessert Filipino recipes

Mom’s Famous Leche Flan

Leche FlanI never thought I’d get permission to post this recipe, but here it is! My mom’s leche flan (literally milk custard) is famous in our hometown Filipino community. It’s the one thing people always expected or asked her to bring to parties. It’s thicker and denser than Mexican flan, which I always find bland and disappointing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

INGREDIENTS
8 egg yolks
2 cups evaporated milk
1 tsp. lemon extract or lemon zest
1 cup sugar
Extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar to caramelize before adding the rest of the mixture

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and use a hand or stand mixer to mix the custard together. To ensure the smoothness of the custard, you should strain the mixture while before pouring it into the baking dish or mold.
  3. Place extra sugar in a small pan and heat it over medium heat until the sugar melts and browns.
  4. Pour melted sugar into your baking pan or mold so it coats the bottom.
  5. Add custard mixture to your baking pan or mold on top of the carmelized sugar.
  6. Cover the baking pan or mold with foil and place it into a water bath (i.e. a bigger pan with about 1/2 inch of water in it). This is essential for cooking the leche flan properly.
  7. Bake at 375 for approximately an hour.
  8. Check with a toothpick or nudge the pan to see if the mixture is almost solid.
  9. Remove the foil and cook uncovered for 20 more minutes.
  10. Remove from oven and let cool on the counter. You can also refrigerate the leche flan after it reaches room temperature if you’re making this a day ahead of time.
  11. When you are ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the flan.
  12. Place a serving plate on top of the pan and invert it quickly. Be careful not to spill! When properly executed, the flan will be golden brown on top and yellowish on the bottom.
  13. Enjoy!
Categories
Best of Inuyaki dessert Filipino recipes

Bibingka (Philippine rice cake)

Here’s an easy recipe for bibingka. It’s the one my mom used to make and it’s an interesting mix of flavors.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup Japanese sweet rice flour (Mochiko is the preferred brand)
1 cup sugar (you can reduce this amount if you want)
1 cup evaporated milk or coconut milk
1/2 stick butter (at room temperature)
1 tbsp baking powder
5 eggs
Parmesan cheese or fresh grated coconut (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and use a hand or stand mixer and mix thoroughly.
  3. Add mixture to a baking pan.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick to see if the cake is done.
  5. If you want, sprinkle Parmesan cheese or grated coconut on top of the cake about 10 minutes before it’s finished cooking.
  6. Remove from oven and let it cool to room temperature before serving.
  7. Enjoy.
Categories
Best of Inuyaki dessert recipes

Sweet Potato Pie

When I was in college, I had a sweet potato pie at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles that was so bad it compelled me to learn how to make my own. It was one of my first culinary epiphanies.

I’ve been using this sweet potato pie recipe for years. I found it on the Web a long time ago, so I’m not sure who I’m supposed to credit, but here it is:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust (Dough/crust and I don’t get along. Mrs. Smith’s is my favorite store brand)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and place the rack in the middle of the oven.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix the sweet potatoes, eggs, evaporated milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. For a lighter, fluffier pie, assemble this mixture in a blender and give it whir for a minute or so to incorporate some air into the mixture.
  3. Pour the batter into the pie crust and place the pie directly on the oven rack.
  4. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let the pie cool for a bit before serving.

For variety, you can top with 1 cup of toasted pecans and then drizzle the top of the pie with a little maple syrup before placing in oven.

(Picture courtesy of The Green Cutting Board.)