Testing Holiday Recipes - Maple Brûlée Pie

Well, it's officially a month to Christmas and boy, is it ever starting to feel like winter! No snow yet, but the days are getting cooler. Hats, mittens and scarves are becoming a must and so is testing holiday recipes! What better excuse to bake a pie than having to test it out?

Let me tell you, this was one successful test. The original recipe didn't call for caramelizing the top but after seeing the baked pie, it just screamed "brûlée"! And what a great dessert to serve for a special occasion. Something like, oh, I don't know, Christmas maybe? Or New Years? Or maybe, just because you wanted to bake something sweet for your sweetie!

Maple Brûlée Pie

adapted from the top of a can of maple syrup, really!
1 cup pure maple syrup
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Sugar to caramelize the top

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the syrup, eggs, milk and brown sugar. Mix well and pour into pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven about 40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the custard is set.

This can be eaten at room temperature, as is. Another option is to put it in the refrigerator to cool completely, cut out portions, sprinkle some sugar onto the slices (the sugar you choose is up to you, works just as well with granulated sugar or coarse sugar) and fire up your brûlée torch! Caramelize the sugar until you get a nice crunchy layer on top of the creamy custard. Serve with fruit, ice cream or slightly sweetened whipped cream. Make sure you have some company, this is a sweet, sweet pie to be shared among friends. :)

Note: For the pie crust, I used a recipe from Karen Barker I found on Serious Eats. The dough came together beautifully and the crust turned out flaky and golden. I think this'll be my go to pie crust, for a little while anyways. Click here for the recipe!

Another Note: I'm thinking this could be spiced up with a grating of nutmeg or tonka bean. Mmmm, I'll let you know when I try.

Chao Wang Food And Thai Food Of Each Festival

Chao Wang Food: (Food Prepared for Royal or High-Class Families)

The food which is prepared for Royal family members or of the high-class people is different from that of the ordinary people. The Chao Wang food has its own delicate cooking; for example, Khieo Wan Kai must have only chicken meat without any bones, whereas the ordinary people’s Khieo Wan Kai contains with chicken both of meat and bones. The Chao Wang Namprig has beautifully carved vegeytables, side by side, to take with.

Some Bits about Thai Food:

Thai food is a Thai national symbol. It reveals the characteristics of the Thai people: their delicate taste, discipline, rules of conduct, artistic taste and human relationship. Thai food has its unique name with précis meaning of feature, flavor or the methods of cooking, Tong Yip and Foi Thong are examples of Thai sweets in this case. To understand causes and effects of Thai food cooking is to achieve.

To preserve the Thai nationality, the learners of how to cook Thai food should both keep Thai national values of the past and also accept any new ones.
Thai Food of Each Festival:

Thai food is cooked in agreement with Thai festivals organized according to Thai religious customs.

The fifth Month (April):

The old Thai New Year is celebrated in this month of April (between April 13 and April 15). To relieve the hot weather in the summer month, the dainty Khao Chae, (-a luncheon dish which includes rice served in scented water with jasmine and rose petals, and with seven or eight side dishes-), is used to serve monks, relatives and friends in the merit-making occasion. Kaaraamae (a Thai caramel) is made as well as Khao Niew Dang (Sweetened red glutinous rice) to give among friends and relatives.

The Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Months:

The Eighth Month (July) is in the rainy season and the Buddhist Lent. Fruits are in abundance so they are preserved in many techniques of cooking: stirring, or cooking as well as soaking in thick syrup. Durian Guan, Kluai Guan, Kluai Taak, Sabparod Guan are examples. Fully ripe chillies are sundried for the needed time. Fully ripe and sour tamarind is pitted, sprinkled with salt, pasted and preserved for the coming days. Fishes which are also plentiful, are sundried or grilled, for the next days.

In these months, Thai people do their merit-making at the temple. They offer foods to the monks in the form called “Salaag Puut”, that is, the monks are offered foods by drawing slots. The baskets offered to the monks, contain with both fresh and dried foods. The people, offering foods to the monks, are very exited to see who is going to get their basket by drawing lots

The Eighth Month is also the time for young Thai males to enter the monkhood. Folks helps bringing foods and sweets to join the occasion. The foods are of various kinds with ingredients of vegetables, fishes, coconut or sugar. One example of these is Yam Kamoei cooked with any food stuff found at hand but delicious with its sauce made with crunched, red chillies, garlic, vinegar, fish soy, lime and sugar.

Main dishes are often many kinds of curries and lon (a kind of sauce served with raw vegetables). For the funeral, Plara Lon(a sauce made with fishes which are fermented by salted and roasted rice) and foods with noodle-ingredients are avoided because of Thai superstition of death prolongation.

The Ninth Month (August):

The Ninth Month is the most favorable month for wedding ceremony, new house merit making, and age meritorious performing. Favorite Thai sweets, symbolized fortunes and honors, Khanom Chaan (sweetened, light color pudding with many layers) and Khaaw Niew Kaew (sweetened, glassy glutinous rice) are favorably cooked.
The Tenth Month (September):

The Tenth Month (September) is the month for Sart Thai Festival.
Krajaa Sart (sweetened, forested, and popped rice mixed with peanuts and sesames ) and Khaaw Yaa Koo(a cake made of sugar boiled with water received from crunched young rice grains) are popular sweets.
The Eleventh, Twelfth Monts:

The Eleventh Month (October) and the Twelfth Month (November) are months of Krathin Ceremony (the offering of Krathin Cloths to the monks) and Oogpaansaa (the outing of the Buddihist Lent ). Khaaw Tom Paad (glutinous rice wrapped by banana or bamboo leaves cooked by steaming ) are offered to the monks in this festival. Other favorite foods are rice cooked and wrapped in lotus or banana leaves accompanied by fried food such as Paad Prig Khing, dried curries, Namprig Makaam Paad, Namprig Makaam Piak and Namprig Taa Dang including salted food as salted meat and salted eggs, along with vegetables plucked along the way.

By: Manora

Ka moo pa-lo (ต้มขาหมูพะโล้)

Thai Recipe Ingredients

* 1 pork leg (if possible choose front leg), 600 grams
* 100 grams shitake mushroom (or other fresh vegetable)
* 4 eggs
* 3 coriander roots
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon black soy sauce
* 4 tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon five spices powder
* 3 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 teaspoon peppercorn, crushed
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 3 cups water
* 3 coriander leaves (for garnishing)

Sauce


* 2 yellow chiles, finely sliced
* 1 teaspoon coriander roots, chopped
* 3 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons white vinegar

 Thai Food Preparations

1. Heat water in a pot. Add eggs and wait until cooked. Remove from heat and peel out the egg shells.

2. Heat water in a big pot. Then add pork leg, garlic, coriander roots, five spices powder, black peppercorns, light soy sauce.

3. Wait until the water boils again, then add dark soy sauce and shitake mushroom. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes.
4. Prepare the sauce by pounding all sauce ingredients using mortar and pestle or food processer until all ingredients mixed well. Then add vinegar and stir again, set aside.
5. After 30 minutes, remove from heat, then cut the pork leg into a well pieces and transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with coriander leaves on top and serve immediately with sauce and steamed rice.

Thank You : http://www.ezythaicooking.com/free_recipes.htm

Food Is Innocent

Any organism needs to be fed in order to grow and survive. Just like any animal, humans need food in order to receive the necessary energy with which they will grow and continue to function properly. But food has lately been blamed as the cause of obesity, and has been accused to be linked to a number of diseases and eating abnormalities. Fortunately for human beings, these accusations are far away from the truth. In fact, what mistakenly people consider to be the enemy is not. Food is not to be blamed because none of the food substances have a negative outcome if people do not oversize their food portions or eat without any control. Thus it is important to understand what food is and what can we do to balance our eating habits, without loosing in taste or variety.

Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats and proteins that are consumed by all animals-including humans-for nutrition or pleasure. It is also widely known that almost all foods come from plants or animals-except water, salt, baking soda, fungi, and processes foods-and humans as omnivorous animals are able to consume everything. After developing agriculture and becoming hunters, humans managed to add to their dietary habits different tastes that came from mixing and matching a variety of ingredients to improve the final culinary result. But recently, the once healthy portions of food people used to eat have dramatically increased and due to lack of time and focus people are now battling with their dietary habits against diseases and various types of illnesses.

In particular, concerns about foodborne illnesses have long influenced the human diet. Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans, and one needs only to consider that eating disorders interfere with normal food consumption leading to excess weight or a skinny human silhouette. But food is not to be blamed for these dramatic results. The changes in nutrient content of diets in industrialized countries have come to produce foods that contain more animal fat, sugar, alcohol and less dietary fiber, carbohydrates and antioxidants. Today's working habits and family stress, alongside with reduced exercise patterns, have caused considerable concerns to health practitioners who examine the traditional eating habits and reveal negative results for humans.

Thus, it is imperative for contemporary people to be informed and educated from an early age in relation to the effects of adopting a healthy diet plan and maintaining their weight constant and within a logical range when they have reached adulthood. Food is not the enemy in this issue; people's dietary habits are the cause of the health problems related to food.

By: Kadence Buchanan