Puto for Breakfast!

I enjoy Saturday mornings now much more than my early years of living in Singapore. I look forward to Saturday walks with Max (the pug), EJ's swimming class, and more recently, the Saturday breakfasts by the pool with great neighbors. After a stressful week, Saturday mornings allows me to let my hair down, I feel like there's no worry about tomorrow and just bask under the sun watching events go by (Sunday is the opposite feeling especially towards the evening when you know it is going to be another work day when you wake up in the morning). This is the same Saturday feeling that the inspiration of Filipino breakfast comes to mind and the perfect recipe is "Puto" (steamed rice cake)!

My cousin in law did a fantastic job in preparing "Puto" in one of our saturday breakfasts by the pool. This was well received especially when paired with hot tsokalate (hot choco made from cocoa tablets).

Enjoy this in one of your Saturday breakfasts as well!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
cheddar cheese (quickmelt would be best)

How?
1. Mix the dry ingredients together; sieve the 2 cups of flour first before adding the baking powder
2. Prepare the wet ingredients. Melt the margarine (low heat) and dissolve the sugar. Add milk and slowly pour the beaten eggs.
3. Add the wet into the dry mixture and form a batter.
4. Prepare the ramekins by greasing it with butter on the sides. I used the plastic mold i bought from the Philippines which is handy for steamed rice cakes.
5. Pour the batter and add cheese slices on top. You can also use salted egg if you want something savory.
5. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes; insert a toothpick to check if well done. If the toothpick comes out clean, the steamed cake is ready.

Anna Olson's Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Thanks for the prompting of a good friend, I had the chance to attend Anna Olson's baking session sponsored by AFC (Asia Food Channel) while she's here in Singapore. Anna Olson is a celebrity chef of a popular cooking show at AFC (Sugar, Kitchen Equipped, and Fresh with Anna Olson). I'm not really an avid fan but i thought, why not give this a try, after all, i do love to bake!

Anna did 3 recipes: #1 Raisin Butter tarts which i find very sweet #2 apple, date & cheddar muffins which is ideal with coffee, and #3 maple walnut ice cream which is the big inspiration to grab an ice cream maker and the revival of my love to work in the kitchen and blog about it.

And so it goes Mr. G heard my rave about this simple concoction of milk plus maple syrup topped with walnuts that he too, is convinced we should get an ice cream maker. The search began but to our disappointment there are only a few items sold in Singapore...after 3 weeks and 6 stores..we finally brought home a Philips ice cream maker (model#HR2304)!

Inspired by Anna's delicious ice cream recipe and motivated to use our new ice cream maker, I'm good to go with my first home made ice cream:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup low fat milk ( I used the Australian brand Pura because it is creamy to taste)
1/4 cup maple syrup (best would be any Canadian brand)
4 large egg yolks ( i added 1 more egg yolk since the eggs in Singapore are relatively small)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 1/4 cups whipping cream (my choice is the Australian brand, Bulla Dairy )
1 cup chopped walnuts, lightly toasted

This recipe calls for cooking the custard before adding the whipping cream and finally blending with the ice cream maker. Here are the steps:

1. Bring the milk and maple syrup to just below a simmer in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. Do not put the saucepan on high heat to avoid immediately reaching boiling point.
2. Gradually add hot milk to egg mixture, whisking constantly until all milk has been added. To avoid curdling due to the temperature change, I placed the bowl containing the egg mixture under cold water with pieces of cubed ice. This will gradually transition the heat transfer.
3. Return mixture to pot and stir with a wooden spoon over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes until the custard thickens and is able to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and strain.
4. Let mixture cool to room temperature and then stir in the whipping cream. Chill custard completely.
5. Pout chilled custard into the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. In the last few minutes of churning (this took me 20-25mins), add walnuts and mix until blended. Scrape the soft ice cream into a container and freeze until firm, for about 4 hours. Try recycling old ice cream plastic containers, they are ideal for storage.

The yield I got for this recipe is 1L although Anna's recipe says 1.5L (where did the 500ml of ice cream go?). Total preparation time is about 1 hour but need to delay the food gratification by another 4 hours while waiting for the ice cream to freeze.

If I had to do this again, I would lower the sugar a little or add more whipping cream. I would probably experiment using pistachios instead of walnuts. Well, maybe time for another ice cream making session next blog :-)