Caramel Bread Pudding

my favorite recipe book ever! 

I was a bit down today and decided to meet up a friend of mine. She's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl and I haven't even paid both the baby and the proud mummy a visit. As the decision was last minute. I decided to make a quick dish. Something that a mummy in confinement and a grandmother can eat. Something simple and delicious. I took out my Nigella Express book .. there it is.. caramel croissant pudding.

I didn't have croissant.. not even stale croissants.. but I did have white bread. The recipe also called for full milk and heavy cream for the custard.. I didn't have either. But I did have lots of low fat milk. :D Nigella also added bourbon.. she said if you don't have bourbon.. use sherry.. ermm.. I don't drink. So vanilla essence it is :p 

I'm going to give my version of Nigella Lawson's recipe. But here is the link to her recipe. 

Ingredients:

5-6 slices of white bread

100g caster sugar (less than 1/2 cup) 

2 tablespoon water

250ml low fat milk (1 cup)

a splash of vanilla essence (1 tbsp)

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup raisins/sultanas/cherries for toppings

so divine! 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Tear the bread into pieces and put in a small dish. I used a small 6" aluminum foil. 
3. Put the caster sugar and the water into a pan. Swirl around to dissolve the sugar before putting the pan on medium/high heat. Don't stir!
4. Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away, DON'T STIR!, until it all turns a deep amber color. It takes about 3-5 minutes. Don't be too timid.. but keep looking to avoid the caramel to burn :D
5. Once you have that amber color, turn the heat down low and add the milk. Ignore the spluttering, and whisk away the milk. The solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve if u keep whisking over low heat.
6. After the toffee has dissolved, take the pan off the heat, still whisking, add the beaten eggs. 
7. Congratulations you've just made caramel custard. :) 
8. Pour the caramel custard over the bread and leave to steep for a few minutes if the breads are very stale.
9. Sprinkle with raisins/cherries/sultanas.. whatever you like. I had lots of raisins so I used those. :) 
10. Bake for 20 minutes in the heated oven.  
11. Like Nigella said in her book.. Prepare to swoon! :D  

Shrimp & Dried Anchovies Fritters a la Marina (Cucur Udang a la Marina ;P)

excellent snack.. 

I remember my first attempt to make fritters... i was doing my English preparation course at a University in California. I met my first boyfriend there.. and wanted to impress him with my ermm cooking skills.. I lived in the dorms. So all 50 something girls shared both the kitchen and the TV.. :D My roommate then was a Malaysian girl too.. she always made these fritters and we'd have them while watching tv at the lounge with the other residents. I've seen and sometimes helped her out making 'em fritters so I thought.. I could make it too. hahaha boy I was wrong. they turned out uncooked, and with every bite you can see the flour.. OMG it was a disaster! hahaha it was embarrassing then. but now it's just hilarious.. It's been 17 years? boy time flies.. I'm older now... much older... am not in any relationships right now.. but I sure can cook :D But despite my failed attempt at cooking these fritters back then.. It's not that hard to make. My mistake then was that I didn't stir the batter well enough, and the pan was too hot. otherwise it would have turned out great ;p

I made shrimp fritters as I had shrimp. You may substitute it with dried anchovies if you had too. For this recipe I used both shrimp and dried anchovies. You can even make it a vegetarian dish and simply omit all seafood in it. I've never tried it with calamari, crabmeat or any other meat for that matter. Perhaps because mum has always used either shrimp, dried shrimps or dried anchovies for this recipe that I never even thought of using any other protein for this dish.

Usually I make these fritters with just shrimp or dried anchovies and onions/spring onions/chinese celery .. I sometimes add corn kernels and potatoes.. but I usually boiled the potatoes first because the batter cooks so quickly that sometimes the potatoes turn out raw. Then recently I watched Masterchef Malaysia's masterclass, where Chef Jo showed his take on this recipe. He cut it into strips.. so that it cooks much faster.. so I tried that.. and I found that I don't have to cook the potatoes before adding it into the batter.. :) cool!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tbsp rice flour (optional - this makes it slightly crispy on the edges)
shrimp (cleaned, deveined)
dried anchovies (fried)
1 potato (cut into strips)
carrot (cut into strips) - same amount with potato
chinese celery - sliced (optional)
onions sliced
fresh chili  (seeded and cut into strips)
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup water


3 cups oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Add all ingredients together. Pour the water little by little until you get the consistency of a pancake batter. 
2. Heat oil in a wok.
3. Drop spoonful of batter into hot oil and fry until golden. Drain with paper towels. 
4. Serve with chili sauce :) yumssss

yummy...