Sunday, November 23, 2008

Fakesgiving - 11.23.08

The other students in my program decided to follow through with my Fakesgiving idea (the one that my friends and I have been doing for the past 4 years). We had a great get-together with all sorts of classic and non-typical Thanksgiving fare. Here are my contributions:

Tomato Bread Pudding

I found this idea in Gourmet Magazine (where they also tend to take pictures of food in its more natural state, hence my half-eaten photo). It is for a savory tomato bread pudding. You start by roasting some halved plum tomatoes that have been coated in olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence for about 45 minutes until they are cooked down and the flavors are concentrated (tomato confit). Next, cube one loaf of French or Italian bread, coat with some olive oil and cook on a cookie sheet until they are golden brown on the edges, like underdone croutons. Let everything cool once it comes out of the oven. Place the bread into a buttered baking dish. Mix together 1 cup of heavy cream, 2 cups of whole milk, 8 eggs, a head of roasted garlic, 2 cups of grated Fontina cheese, and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Pour this mixture over the bread. Top it all with the tomatoes, inserting some of the tomatoes in between the bread. Bake this for about an hour, let cool slightly and enjoy. Warning: though delicious, almost no bread pudding is by any means healthy. They usually involve lots of cream and, in the case of the sweet ones, lots of sugar. One of the best bread puddings I've had was one made with chocolate and croissants instead of normal bread. If you don't care about calories, cooking is a simple equation: delicious = fat + sugar.

Mocha Marble Cake

We had a birthday at Fakesgiving, so I took it upon myself to make a cake. I was going to be very fancy, but decided to go more straightforward with it. I made a marble cake (vanilla batter + chocolate batter + butter knife swirling) with mocha frosting (confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, coffee, vanilla, butter, and a little half-and-half). Marble cake is not one of my favorites, but this one came out moist and the frosting's deep chocolate and coffee flavors made it all the more delectable.

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