Making Won Kim Proud (sort of)

Won Kim's Peach Pudding is a popular dessert served at Hyde Park Bar and Grill in Austin. It's basically a sweet spongey cake with fresh peaches baked over its top. The pudding is served warm, in a shallow bowl, and partially submerged in sweet cream. A good friend and I have long considered the Won Kim to be the best dessert we've ever tasted, so I thought it would be a fun (and slightly daring) cooking challenge.

The procedure is actually quite simple, and my friend and I had no trouble, even though we had never made anything remotely pudding-like before. Here are the ingredients:



Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 3/4 cups and 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cups buttermilk

4 cups peeled sliced peaches (from about 3-3 1/2 pounds)

Whipping cream (sweetened as you like)

In reality this pudding is really just a cake with peaches on top, and the baking procedures are very much like baking a cake. Fresh, ripe peaches are essential if you want to achieve a taste on par with the restaurant's incarnation. 

Procedure

While the oven is pre-heating to 350 degrees, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth, then beat in the sugar gradually. Repeat with vanilla and the eggs (one at a time) in that order, remembering to mix well in between each addition. Next, beat in the buttermilk and the flour alternately, in 3 additions each, incorporating well.


Transfer mixture to a baking dish that is 13x9x2, and sprayed with vegetable oil. Arrange peaches evenly across the entire mixture, covering all batter.


 

Place a sheet of tinfoil, sprayed with oil, oil-side down across the baking dish and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the tinfoil and bake an additional 40-45 minutes, or until peaches are golden brown and awesome looking. Allow 1 hour for cooling, and serve warm with cream!


Ours turned out great! Unfortunately not as good as Hyde Park's, but definitely a dessert I'll be trying out again sometime soon!

Pancit Canton

One of the signature Filipino dishes is Pancit. Pancit is noodles that were introduced to the Philippines by the Chinese. They are very similar to chow mein and lo mein. There are various forms of Pancit such as Pancit Bihon and Pancit Canton.  I have grown up eating the various Filipino dishes such as bistek, which is thinly, sliced beef cooked with soy sauce and lemon juice along with onions and caldereta is basically a Filipino beef stew with various vegetables. Another popular Filipino dish are egg rolls. At your typical Filipino party you would most likely all of these dishes.  A Filipino almost always eats Pancit on their birthday because according to Filipino tradition the noodles represent long life and good health.

            Pancit Canton differs from Pancit Bihon because of the noodle used. Pancit Bihon uses rice sticks while Pancit Canton uses flour sticks. I prefer Pancit Canton because I think the flour noodles taste better but that’s just my opinion.  So I decided I would attempt to cook Pancit Canton.

So I decided I would use this recipe:

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1 med. onion, finely chopped
1 c. shredded cabbage

1/2 c. celery, cut in strips

1/2 tsp. salt and pepper

1 pkg. pancit canton

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp. soy sauce

2 cups chicken broth

You can add pork, chicken and shrimp, but I decided I would keep it simple since this was my first time making Pancit Canton.

I heated up the oil to brown the garlic cloves and then added the onions. I then added the some soy sauce for flavor. Next, I added the cabbage and celery season them with salt and pepper. Then I added 2 cups of chicken broth and stirred it for 2 minutes. Lastly, I added the Pancit canton noodles and cooked over low heat for 3 minutes.

Although they weren’t as good as my grandma’s, I thought they came out pretty well especially for my first time.

Baklava

Baklava is really good. really good. It is a Turkish dessert but is also very popular in Greece and along the Mediterranean. I mean its just an amazing concept, isn't it? Layers of buttery flaky dough sprinkled with nuts and cinnamon all covered up in a an amazing sticky honey sauce. A wonderful invention. So I thought it would be a great second recipe, and since I've never made pastry before, a great challenge.
The recipe I found I thought would be pretty reliable since it was from a blog written by a Greek woman, and traditional recipes written by experienced matriarchs are always the best, right? Philo dough was the most important ingredient the recipe said, this is what gives baklava the flaky layered texture, something like a croissant, only completely different. Between the layers of philo dough there is a mixture of nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla that is sort of like the 'meat' of the pastry. This assemblage goes into the oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Poured over the top once it comes out is a boiled mixture of honey, sugar, vanilla, and water that is the delectable take-me-home-to-die part of baklava. I went to H-E-B and bought a package of frozen philo dough, sugar, butter, and the nuts, the rest of the ingredients we fortunately had in the common room or the kitchen already.

Done

I put the dough and nut layers together like the recipe said, alternating with painted layers of melted butter. Then I sliced the surface diagonally into diamond shapes and put it into to oven. While waiting, I boiled the water and sugar then let it simmer with the honey in it; this was the part I was sure I would mess up since it seemed there were so many things that could go wrong with melting sugar. Sugar just doesn't seem like its supposed to melt. Thankfully Gabby and Kali were there to keep me sane and stir it when I forgot. The insane part of this recipe was that when the baklava came out of the oven and once the honey mixture had been poured over the top, the author of the recipe was asking me to wait 8 hours for the honey to soak in. A ridiculous request, but we made it. I think maybe I put in too many nuts that maybe weren't chopped small enough, but other than that I am glad to be able to say that Ive made baklava, and even happier that it went so well with coffee the next morning.

Photos of Dinner at Dr. Piedmont-Marton's House!

Thank you again for a very tasty meal! We appreciate your hospitality!

Tweety Cookies!

I have attended a summer camp owned by my relatives for 7 years, most recently as a counselor this past summer. One staple at this camp, and also in my house, are the famous Tweety Cookies. These cookies are not just regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies; the added cinnamon spices them up, and everyone familiar with Camp Mystic knows that Tweety Cookies are made with one super special ingredient- love. (Yes I realize how cheesy that sounds, but I swear that it's true!)

Anyway, as Jose, Joe, Sarah, and I set off to HEB to buy the ingredients for our home cooked meal, I underestimated the cost of some of the simplest ingredients. Granted, not too many things were unreasonably priced, but the thought of spending almost four dollars on a jar of cinnamon that I only needed a teaspoon of made my money-conscious college mind not too happy. I will say that almost all of the ingredients I bought are now an investment in our quad's baking supply, so I hope that someone will put them to good use.

With all of the ingredients, we headed to to the apartment. After Jose, Joe, and Sarah had all cooked wonderful appetizers and entrees, it was time for cookies!

 

This recipe yields about four to five dozen cookies, depending on how much batter you choose to eat in the process. I swear, it's addicting. Sarah and I couldn't get enough of it. The first batch of cookies didn't turn out too pretty, but tasted delicious, so those are the ones we ate at the apartment. The next three batches looked better, but in my opinion, as long as it tastes good, who cares what it looks like.

Here is the final product!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed them, and am very thankful that I did not get blisters from making them this time! (This happened last time- I blame it on the wooden spoon.) I can't wait to make these again; All four dozen were gone within three days. They're just that good!


-Chase Eastland

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

       After raising four children on a limited budget and later feeding 20 people on a monthly basis for the many birthdays and holidays throughout the year, my grandmother has never been afraid to use short cuts or cook from packaged ingredients. In the past few years, a favourite at holiday gatherings has been Broccoli Cheese casserole, which she has had to double, then triple to have enough to keep everyone happy. With frozen chopped broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, a jar of cheese whiz and minute rice you don't even have to cook ahead of time, this recipe is an excellent example of the labor saving recipes being hocked at housewives during the mid-century. 

     When shopping for the ingredients, we couldn't find any frozen chopped broccoli, so we had to chop some frozen florrets ourselves, which turned out better than I though it would. We mixed the jar of cheez whiz and mushroom soup with onions sauteed in a stick of butter, resulting in a mixture that conjured a unpleasant face from Gabby when she looked at it. After adding the chopped broccoli and raw minute rice, it just had to bake for 30 minutes and was ready. Even though it initially brought strange looks when it was in the goopy cheese soup stage, by the time it was done baking, it smelled like Thanksgiving and the entire casserole dish was eaten in two meals.

Chicken Croissant Squares

Chicken Croissant Squares

I chose to cook "Chicken Croissant Squares" as my family recipe because they're a go-to favorite in our house. They're nothing fancy, but they're crowd-pleasers! My siblings and are I always asking my mom to make these for us, and they've also been requested by many family friends, and for quite a few birthday dinners at our house. As you can see, the recipe--which is in a decade-old homemade cookbook from my mom's babysitting co-op--is rather well-worn...

 

We went shopping for supplies, and I bought everything I needed (except croutons, because I knew I wouldn't use them again - so I bought crackers instead, planning to crush them and use them in place of crushed croutons). I would usually use cooked chicken, but in the interest of time and limited college supplies/funds, I (regrettably) went for the canned this time.

I got started on the recipe by preheating the oven and blending the cream cheese and butter. Then, I got out the chicken. However, to my dismay, a can opener was nowhere to be found! I was kicking myself because I almost brought my can opener from the dorm, but at the last minute decided I wouldn't need it! We scrounged around in drawers for a can opener of any kind, but to no avail. After emptying at least two utensil drawers and scouring the pantry as well, it became obvious that we were going to have to go with a plan b. 

Our first attempt at resolving the issue was watching some YouTube videos that claimed "How to Open a Can with Just a Spoon Easily!"... not so easy. I tried the spoon method with no luck, and returned to digging around in the pantry. I did not find a can opener, but I found something else that I thought might work.

I grabbed the screwdriver and hammer, and started working on the can with the tools! I was not strong enough, but fortunately Jose was able to break the metal seal while I held the can in place. It took a lot of effort to get it open, but I finally was able to rinse, drain, and scoop out the chicken. It wasn't pretty:

Note to self: the can opener was one of the greatest inventions of all time.

Once I finally made it past the can-opening snafu, I could mix the rest of the ingredients with ease, seasoning to taste. That's another great thing about this recipe - the filling is super tasty by itself! 

I laid out the four rectangles of dough, spooning an adequate amount of filling into each and wrapping them up into neat little pockets. I brushed the top with a little butter, and used the breadcrumbs we found in the pantry on top. I put them in the oven for about 20 minutes, and they came out perfectly golden-brown! 

I thought they turned out tasty! Even though it isn't at all the most complicated of recipes, it definitely produces one of my favorite comfort foods. It was the best taste of home I'd had since I left, and it reminded me of being with my family! The recipe was a success, and was the perfect reminder of my family's everyday cooking. But next time I will certainly remember to bring a can opener!