Category: Hallmark South Beach Love

My abuelita Nieves was a fabulous cook! She could take any combination of ingredients and make them taste great. Even something as simple as fried eggs and rice (one of my favorite quick meals).

One of her best dishes was an amazing bread pudding. I always loved it and try to make it whenever I can. The basic dish is simple to make and once you get the hang of it, you can try a number of variations, such as substituting brioche for the regular bread or cinnamon-raisin bread for a super cinnamony/raisiny version.

So here’s my Grandma Nieves’s recipe for Bread Pudding! I hope you enjoy it!

Basic Ingredients:

For the baking process: Large loaf baking pan or round quart and a half dish. Corningware is great since you can make the caramel in it and then add the pudding ingredients thereby using only one pan! You’ll also need a large baking dish to use for the bain marie and enough hot water to fill large baking pan halfway up the sides.

For the caramel: 1 cup plain white sugar

For the bread pudding:

3 whole eggs
3 cups whole milk
1 can Condensed Milk (Not evaporated, but Sweetened Condensed Milk. Magnolia or Eagle Brand are favorites!)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Raisins (about a 1/4 cup soaked in water or an alcohol like rum for a kick)
A loaf of stale Italian bread (no seeds)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large baking pan in the oven with hot, but not boiling water about half way up the side of the pan. This will make what is called a Bain Marie. The Bain Marie will help keep the bread pudding from drying out and will allow it to cook evenly.

Step 2:Make a caramel much like you did for the Cuban Flan.
Start with 1/2 cup of sugar and dissolve it in 1/2 cup to 1 cup water. Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved before you begin to heat it (if you have any sugar left, it will form crystals and be gritty). Once the sugar is dissolved, set the pan with the sugar over medium heat in a heavy medium/small saucepan or preferably, an ovenproof dish. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar water is reduced (it should get thicker as it cooks). Grandma liked it light, but you can let it get golden and keep on going until it is a dark brown. (Again, be very careful!! Cooked sugar is very hot and can burn the skin if it spatters.)

Step 3: Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Mix in condensed milk, regular milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Break Italian bread into chunks and place in bowl to soak. Let soak for at least half and hour and then mix with hands to make sure there are no dry spots in the bread pieces. It’s okay if the bread pieces get really really small or even disappear. This bread pudding version doesn’t have large chunks of bread. Once it’s mixed, add the raisins and give one final mix.

Step 4: Place bread pudding mixture into the caramelized pan. Place the pan in the hot boiling water (bain marie) and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes or until the pudding is set and a knife placed in the center comes out clean.

Cool the bread pudding on the counter for about half an hour before placing into the fridge to chill.

I always loved eating the bread pudding with a drizzle of condensed milk over the top (have you guessed that Cubans love condensed milk yet?)

Hope you try this out!

One of the dishes that we serve on Christmas Eve is yuca with mojo. Yuca is a type of tuber that is the Cuban equivalent of the potato. Yuca is known as cassava in English and besides boiling it, you can also make fries or chips with it. However, yuca is toxic when eaten raw so make sure it’s always cooked when you try it! Continue reading “Yuca with Mojo”

This is recipe for my family’s Cuban Black Beans which you can eat as a soup or really thicken to put over your rice. Also, it’s the same basic recipe if you want to make red beans or lentils, although I usually add a ham bone or some other ham/pork product to those for additional substance.

Without further ado — Caridad’s Cuban Black Beans!

Ingredients

To start:

1 lb. dried black beans
1 lg. onion, cut into eighths
1 red pepper, cut into eighths
3 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin powder
1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine (not salty cooking wine — real red wine)
salt and pepper to taste
5 cup water

To finish the beans:

1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 a red pepper, chopped
2 to 3 cloves, minced
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sherry

Cooking the beans:

There are those you believe in soaking the beans overnight. My family never did this, but it will speed up the cooking time. The one thing to remember is — DO NOT THROW OUT THE SOAKING WATER! It has a lot of the flavor from the beans and you will lose all that flavor if you toss it. Also, don’t soak the beans too long or they will begin to ferment.

If you don’t soak, it will mean simmering the beans for a longer amount of time, but on a cold day, the smell and heat are a welcome thing.

So, before you soak (or not), rinse the beans to get rid of any field dirt and also, pick through them for any bad beans or small stones.

Once the beans are clean, place them in a stockpot, dutch oven or heavy cast iron kettle. Add the water, wine, bay leaves, onion, pepper, and cumin, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Make sure to stir it a few times to make sure the beans are not sticking to the bottom.

Once the water is boiling, turn it down so that it is a slow simmer. Simmer with the cover on for at least 3 to 4 hours. The water should start to thicken from the beans. You can test to see if the beans are done by tasting one. It should not be hard.

To finish the beans, fry up the onion, red pepper and garlic and add it to the cooked beans along with the sherry. Adjust the taste with salt to your liking.

You can serve the beans over white rice. Cubans call this moros y cristianos. You can also eat this alone as a soup. If you do this, garnish it with raw onions, cheddar cheese, avocados or chopped ham.

Hope you like today’s Cook’s Treat.

So why is the first entry in this Cook’s Treat blog a Cuban flan?

Well, first, because I’m Cuban-American. Second, I have the world’s worst sweet tooth. I think meals should begin with dessert and only then proceed to anything else. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to convince others of that.

I learned to make flan from my grandmother and my sister learned from my mom. We both use different methods for making the caramel that is essential to a sweet flan. My mom and sis start with just sugar and melt the sugar sans water which has a tendency to produce a darker and slightly bitter tasting caramel. My grandma would dissolve the sugar in water first and then boil it down, kind of like making candy. The caramel this way is sweeter and lighter in color — actually clearless if you don’t want to push the cooking.

So here goes and for a little bit of family history — pictures of my abuelita (that’s Spanish for grandma) and mami (my mom!):

Basic Ingredients:

For the baking process: Large baking pan. 1 1/2 to 2 quart ovenproof baking dish (I use the same pan to make the caramel and then put the custard. Why wash two dishes? Corningware is da bomb for this. Hot water to fill large baking pan halfway up the sides.

For the caramel: 1 cup plain white sugar

For the custard:

• 6 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 can Condensed Milk (Not evaporated, but Sweetened Condensed Milk. Magnolia or Eagle Brand are favorites!)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large baking pan in the oven with hot, but not boiling water about half way up the side of the pan. This will make what is called a Bain Marie. The Bain Marie will help keep the flan from drying out and will allow it to cook evenly.

Step 2: Make the Caramel:

Mami’s Caramel!

Start with 1 cup of sugar. Set it over medium heat in a heavy medium/small saucepan or preferably, an ovenproof 1 1/2 to 2 quart dish. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar is is melted and begins to turn golden. Keep on going until it is a dark dark brown. (Be very careful!! Cooked sugar is very hot and can burn the skin if it spatters.)

Abuelita’s Caramel (and guess who that is with grandma in the picture!)

Start with 1/2 cup of sugar and dissolve it in 1/2 cup to 1 cup water. Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved before you begin to heat it (if you have any sugar left, it will form crystals and be gritty). Once the sugar is dissolved, set the pan with the sugar over medium heat in a heavy medium/small saucepan or preferably, an ovenproof dish. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar water is reduced (it should get thicker as it cooks). Grandma liked it light, but you can let it get golden and keep on going until it is a dark brown. (Again, be very careful!! Cooked sugar is very hot and can burn the skin if it spatters.)

NEXT STEP regardless of how you made the caramel:

If you did not use an ovenproof pan/dish, quickly pour the hot caramel syrup into a baking dish (DO NOT GREASE THE PAN).

If you did use the ovenproof pan/dish — MAKE SURE TO PUT ON OVEN MITTS before proceeding!

Swirl the pan until the sugar coats the bottom and sides of the pan/dish. The caramel will start to harden at this point. When you cook the flan in the oven, the caramel will melt and make a delicious syrup that the flan will swim in. AGAIN be very careful. A sugar burn is quite painful!

Gently mix together the eggs and egg yolks. Do not create too much froth or bubbles as these will linger and ruin the texture of the flan. Add the condensed milk and gently mix a little more. Then finally add the rest of the regular whole milk (for ease and to get all the condensed milk, put the whole milk into the can and use it to wash out all of what lingers in the can from the thick condensed milk). Again, gently mix until the mixture is smooth.

Add the vanilla.

Pour this egg/milk custard mixture into the baking dish (make sure the caramel has set against the sides and bottom of the pan).

Set this baking dish into the larger baking pan with the hot water. Bake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes or so. If it’s a little soft (but not runny), that’s okay as it will continue to cook for a bit. Be careful with the hot water in the bain marie (baking pan with water), but then let the flan cool in the water. After half an hour or so, remove the flan from the bain marie and refrigerate for at least an hour or more.

It’s actually preferable to make the flan and let it sit overnight so the caramel soaks into the outermost layer. Yum!

Before serving, run a sharp knife around the edge of the flan to release it from the baking dish. Place a larger serving plate (preferably with a small lip to keep the caramel liquid from spilling) over the baking dish and, invert the flan onto the serving platter.

Keep refrigerated until it’s time to serve.

For simple variations, you can add a little amaretto or grand marnier to both the caramel and the custard mix. For more complex variations, try a chocolate flan (which I’ve never made in my life!)

One thing that is delicious is to increase the number of egg yolks and eliminate the egg whites entirely. This will make a very thick rich egg custard called Toscinillo del Cielo.

Cuban Flan, made by my sister Carmen, is a staple at our Christmas Eve celebration. Why don’t you try it out as well!

Feliz Navidades,

Caridad