Cooking The Breakfast Book, Chapter 11: Maple Syrup Custard

The maple syrup version of Marion's basic custard is a winner. That said, I would never make this for breakfast. For dessert, yes. For breakfast, not so much.

I had actually intended to make a different recipe from this chapter {sorry Steamed Persimmon Pudding, another time...}, but after being very tempted by some fresh flan at our favorite taqueria, I resisted, came home and made this instead.

While I appreciate that this recipe's simplicity would make it appealing for breakfast, it was just too sweet for my morning taste buds. In fact, I might lean towards reducing the amount of maple syrup in this just a wee bit, so the eggy, custardy, goodness can really stand out.

Other excellent things about this basic custard recipe include that you can make it out of ingredients you are pretty much always bound to have on hand, and it undeniably begs for experimentation. Nutmeg, cardamom or vanilla all seem like obvious potential flavor additions. How about lavender? Or jasmine, or orange? Something savory like curry? I plan to experiment with custardizing this winter for sure. And oh! I bet an eggnog version would be phenomenal.

Maple Syrup Custard
Four servings
Adapted from from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham  

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream, or 1 cup milk, or 1 cup half-and-half
4 eggs
Salt to taste
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 375°. Fill a shallow baking dish large enough to hold all the ramekins halfway with hot water and place in the oven. Butter the 4 ramekins.

Beat the milk, cream, eggs, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the maple syrup and stir to mix.

Pour custard mixture into the ramekins and place them carefully in the water bath in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the custard is barely set. Remember it will firm up more as it cools, so don't overcook. 

Remove from the oven and serve hot or cold. 

For more goodness from the Custards and Puddings chapter, check out the posts from my Cook the Book pals: Emily, Natasha, Rachel and Claudie.

Cooking The Breakfast Book: Chapter 9: Oven Fries for Happy Times

French fries are my power food. Looking back I think it's because growing up we never really ate out at restaurants very frequently, nor were we allowed to eat anything remotely like junk food...except while traveling. Which luckily for me was pretty much every summer, all summer. So when in Germany visiting my mom's side of the family, oh how I loved to say "Mit pommes frites" when placing my own order! And while summers in Montana visiting my dad's side were more likely to feature Indian fry bread, french fries made regular appearances too: at the Havre Dairy Queen after swimming, or while on the road of course.

They remain one of my favorite foods, and probably my ultimate comfort meal. But making them at home for breakfast? OK, Marion, I'm with ya.

Oven Fries
Serves 3
Adapted from from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham  

These are identical to french fries, but made in the oven instead of by deep frying.

2 russet potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Salt and lots of pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°. 

Cut the peeled potatoes into pieces measuring 1/2 inch wide by approximately 3 1/2 inches long. Pour the vegetable oil into a 10-inch square pan. Toss the potatoes in the oil, coating the completely on all sides. Apply salt and pepper liberally. 

Put the potatoes in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Turn them over and apply more salt and pepper on the second side. Pour off any liquid, and return them to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes or until the fries are golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and eat them while they're hot.

Top your breakfast fries with an egg! It will taste excellent even if you do a crap job of cooking said egg because it's election day and you're trying to both cook and get out the door to vote before work. (I ended up voting after work, but at least I started the day right, right?)

For more potato goodness from my Cook the Book pals visit: Emily, Natasha and Claudie.

Friday Surprise: Unplanned Roasted Rhubarb Jam

I do this a lot. I go to the store for something specific, like say cilantro and a jalapeño for my chicken marinade, and end up purchasing unexpected fruits and veggies that I can't resist.

The culprits

Today it was long stalks of rhubarb.

I have a shedload of other things to do, but they were made to wait as I gave in to my preserving addiction and a little experimentation.

I really want to make the rhubarb jam recently posted by Grow It Can It Cook It (leader of the Cook It 2012 project I've been participating in this year with pasta, bread, and butter so far — cheese post is coming soon!), but that's a multiple day project and I only brought home 1 lb of rhubarb...so instead I'm going with this one.

Plus since the rhubarb is roasted, I can multitask by writing this blog post as it cooks. Ah, the perfection of procrastination in effect.

So here we go — easy, fast and sweet — rhubarb jam you can make in about 30 minutes flat. Yup, you heard me right: 30 minutes flat.

After trimming off the tough ends & leaves off your stalks

roughly chop the rhubarb

and place in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.

Add 1/2 cup sugar (yup, just 1/2 a cup)

stir to coat pieces in sugar, and place in preheated oven at 400 degrees.

Here's the rhubarb after 20 minutes. This didn't look fully cooked to me, but it breaks apart easily when you stir it and looks similar to photo below.

This photo is actually after I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes to really cook down and bring out the flavor.

The first taste made my toes curl it was so good. So I poured it into a warm pint jar,

and stood back to admire the fastest, easiest jam I've ever made.

It tastes magnificent too.

I took it out into the better light for a little photo shoot,

but it's hard to get a good jam head-shot!

If you are a rhubarb-lover, this is the jam for you. It's fresh and not-too-sweet tasting, exploding with pure unadulterated rhubarb flavor.


Also, did I mention it is the easiest jam ever? Yes, OK — then let me just add that it also only requires 1 dish and 2-3 utensils (spoon, knife, funnel and/or measuring cup). I think that is a record for jam.


I guess I just added one more thing to my to-do list: go back to store and get more rhubarb.