MY COMFORT FOOD

13/12/2015
SUNDAY

Raisin Bread Pudding

Had some raisin bread leftover so decided to bake a bread pudding.  No specific recipe just something put together with eggs, milk, cinnamon powder and I forget to add some sugar. Luckily it was still delicious and sweet. 

Mix the eggs and milk and pour over the buttered raisin bread and leave aside to soften 

Sprinkle more cinnamon powder on top. 

Just before baking, I decided to top with some sliced bananas.  (Note: use ripe bananas (mine was not fully ripe otherwise preferable to caramelize the bananas.)  

Baked at 180C for around 20-25 minutes till the egg mixture has set but still soft to touch. Best serve warm. 

Bought another quarter pumpkin from the market again because today wanted to try out the Pickled Pumpkin. Anything pickled is my favorite snack to nibble while watching TV (another favorite snack is peanuts)

Remove the seeds and membrane bits and slice pumpkin thinly as possible.  Toss them with about 1  tablespoon of salt and leave to marinate for about 30 minutes. Rinse briefly and dry pumpkin. Prepare the about a cup of lime juices (I only have 2 small limes so I used 1 lemon too). 

Bring the lemon juice, sugar and the preserved our plums to a quick boil. Remove and let it cool before adding the pumpkin.

Just a handy tip, do not throw away the lemons/limes after extracting the juices- use it for cleaning the microwave oven.  I would place them in a bowl of water and put it in the microwave oven for 5-10 minutes. Those hard bits and pieces sticking in the oven can be easily remove after the steaming. 

Just to brighten, tossed in a teaspoon of the chili flakes.  Place in a covered container and leave in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours before consuming.    

For dinner, it was a one-pot meal of waxed sausage with some blanched choy sum.

I read somewhere that to get the "QQ" rice for this dish is to use a combination of white rice and glutinous rice, so I mixed 1 cup of white rice with 1/2 cup glutinous rice (pre-soaked) and true enough the rice is chewy and "QQ"  The sausages were added once the water  has been  absorbed and off the heat and let them cooked for another 10 minutes.  Before serving, drizzled minced garlic crisp and soya sauce over the rice.    

Have a warm  Winter Solstice celebration this weekend.