French Toast Bites

french toast bites with maple caramel sauce

There's always leftover bread in my house after the holidays and the perfect way to use them is making them into French toast (pain perdu) for breakfast or brunch. Old baguette, brioche, or challah is my bread of choice because not only are they delicious they also don't become soggy. This time I made them into small bites with maple caramel sauce and different toppings.
BTW, the Japanese duo Cibo Matto has a song Le Pain Perdu, about getting out (of a relationship) before it gets stale, check out the lyrics. I actually got the idea of making pain perdu when this song came on while I was preparing the turkey stuffing.:-)


Le Pain Perdu Lyrics

French Toast Squares
1 egg, well beaten
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon flour
½ cup whole milk
2 cups 1-inch cubed day old baguette or brioche
butter
powdered sugar, optional

• Mix egg, sugar, flour, and milk. Soak bread for 10 minutes. Heat a skillet, add 2 T butter and fry bread until golden brown and crisp. Serve with syrup and fruits of your choice or top with Nutella, fruit preserves, or sweetened heavy cream. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Apple, Sausage, and Chestnuts Stuffing
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 medium onion, chopped
3 apples, chopped
1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
10 cups cubed day old baguette
2 cups coarsely chopped roasted chestnuts
2 cups pre-cooked crumbled Italian sweet sausage
2 teaspoons salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups hot chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter

• Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven, add celery and onion and stir fry for 3 minutes. Add apples, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, bread, chestnuts, sausage, salt and pepper, cook for 3 minutes. Pour broth all over. Spoon into a large baking dish. Dot with butter. Bake, covered with foil at 350°F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until top is brown.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

1 16-ounce bag cranberries
¾ cup sugar
juice and zest of 1 large orange
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1 small piece thinly sliced ginger

• Heat all ingredients in a medium stainless steel saucepan, bring to a boil, mix gently. Lower heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and ginger before serving.

Pumpkin Pie

1 pie crust for 10 -inch pie, homemade or store bought
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream
14 ounces pumpkin puree
¾ C sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
1 can evaporated milk

• In a small bowl, mix sugar, salt, and spices. Line a pie plate with pie crust, crimp edges, refrigerate while preparing filling. In a large bowl, beat eggs well and stir in the heavy cream. Add puree and sugar mixture, mix thoroughly. Slowly add milk and stir well. Pour into the pie crust. Bake in a pre-heated 450° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and continue baking for 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Serve with maple syrup sweetened whipped heavy cream, if desired.

Via Mare's Pavo Embuchado (Stuffed Roast Turkey)

I am posting this recipe adapted from Via Mare's Pavo Embuchado for a few Filipinos who are looking and asking for this particular recipe either for Thanksgiving Day or Christmas. I don't have a photo as I have not cooked our Thanksgiving turkey yet. I'm not using this recipe's stuffing because I plan to prepare it for Christmas, therefore I cannot give a review but with the amount of good stuff (mostly meat) in it, you can just imagine it will be scrumptious. For Thanksgiving I always make a simple bread, apples (or quinces), and chestnuts stuffing that I bake outside the turkey in a separate casserole.

Via Mare Stuffed Roast Turkey
turkey
1 15-lb turkey
3 carrots, washed, scrubbed, and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 onions, cut into chunks,
3 celery sticks with tops, cut into 2-inch pieces

stuffing
1 pound ground pork
1 pound lean ground beef
½ cup grated Edam cheese
½ cup stuffed green olives, chopped
1½ cup Chinese or Virginia ham, chopped
2 pieces chorizo, chopped
1 cup chopped Vienna sausage
4 eggs
1 cup raisins, optional

• Prepare the turkey: Wash and dry the turkey thoroughly. Rub generous amounts of salt and pepper inside and out. Leave in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
• Stuff the turkey: Mix all the ingredients, fill turkey, then rub all over with olive oil. Arrange the vegetables in the middle of the roasting pan and place the turkey on top of the vegetables. Carefully add the broth along the side of the pan. Roast turkey in 325° F oven for 4 to 4½ hours. Transfer turkey to a slicing board. Add more broth to the roast pan, if necessary, to deglaze. Strain and use for gravy.

Note: I prefer to brine (water, salt, pepper, sugar, 1 torn bay leaf, and 2 cloves of smashed garlic) the turkey overnight or at least 4 hours. The result is a moist and well seasoned bird.

Laing

laing stewed in coconut milk, prawns, and pork

Recently, I have been reading about laing as pizza topping in many Filipino blogs. Laing is a Filipino dish made with taro leaves stewed in coconut milk. I have never cooked it before and neither did my mother. She used to buy from an ambulant suki (a favorite purveyor of anything from food to house ware) who cooked her delicious laing wrapped in whole taro leaves. My mother preferred to buy rather than cook laing to help the hawker make money and because she did not want to do all the tedious work.

Occasionally, I would buy the canned laing but on my recent trip to the Filipino grocer I saw a package of dried taro leaves which has a recipe card attached to it, the laing served on a young coconut shell. What a great idea! I don't have a young coconut and put the laing in an empty mature coconut shell. It surely would have been better if you get bits of young coconut with every bite of the laing. I tweaked the recipe a bit by reducing the amount of dried leaves by half and came up with a tasty laing, not as delicious as those of my mother's suki but hey, it's good enough for me.:D

Laing
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
¼ cup minced prawns
¼ cup minced pork
2 tablespoons fish extract (patis)
1 14-oz can coconut milk
2 ounces dry taro leaves
¼ cup water, if needed
2 bird's eye chili, sliced
salt, to taste, if needed

1. In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil and saute garlic, onion, and ginger for 3 minutes. Add the prawns and pork, stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the fish extract and stir fry for 1 minute.
2. Pour the coconut milk, mix very well then mix in the leaves.
3. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, checking if it needs water.
4. Add sliced chili, taste and adjust seasoning, and dish up. Serve with steamed rice or as a side dish.