Custardy French Toast (Bánh Mì Rán)

Tower Cafe in Sacramento is known for its famous French toast. Once in a while, my husband would show off his romantic side by taking a few hours off work to take me there for breakfast. He knows I like this place best for its relaxed outdoor garden ambiance and the famous French toast, of course. I usually don't care much for French toast, but the setting sure lends itself at Tower Cafe.

Their French toast is slightly crisp on the exterior, silky, custardy, and  luscious in the center. It's addicting.  All these years, I had never bothered to figure out their "secret custard recipe" that they use for their famous French toast until I tasted Shokupan that I bought at my local Japanese bakery a couple weeks ago.  Shokupan is literally translated as "eating bread". The bread is about an inch thick, white, much fluffier, and softer yet resilient but not too chewy.  It would make really good French toast, I thought. 

So I whisked up a can of condensed milk and fresh eggs and soaked Shokupan slices in the egg custard. When thick slices of bread are soaked in sweet, creme anglais custard, fried in butter and oil, doused in syrup and served along fresh fruits, what could be better?

The French toast recipe I am sharing with you is inspired by Tower Cafe. They use French baguette for their French toast and people use a variety of different breads to make it. However, it's essential to use the right bread and the right thickness. The sandwich bread will not give you the same texture and delicious result as the bread is too soft and the size of the slice is too thin. Day old French baguette, challah, or brioche would also make delicious French toasts if you don't have Shokupan. 

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RECIPE: Custardy French Toast

printable recipe 

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Ingredients 

about 4 Shokupan slices or day old French baguette, cut at least 1-11/2 inch thick slices 

4 eggs

1/2 cup condensed milk 

1 cup hot water or milk 

fruits 

butter

oil
1 teaspoon vanila extract, optional

whipped butter, optional

powdered sugar, optional 

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Directions

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Preparing Fruits

Wash fruits thoroughly. Drain and set aside.

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Making Whipped Butter, optional

Beat 2 tablespoons of milk with 1/4 lb softened butter together on low speed for 1-2 minutes, or until the butter and milk combine. Then, mix on high for 2-4 minutes, or until the butter is light and fluffy.

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Preparing Custard 

Whisk condensed milk and hot water or milk until combined. Add eggs and whisk until blended. Strain the mixture to remove any egg that has not been fully incorporated.

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Preparing Bread 

Take your pick at cutting the bread slices into half, quarter, or leave it as whole. If used French baguette, cut bread diagonally into at least 1 1/2-inch for extra-thick slice.

Place bread slices in the custard bowl and give it time to soak, about five minutes. Flip bread slices and let soak for another five minutes until custard has been absorbed. The soaking time depends on the type, the size and the thickness of your bread slice. Extra-thick slices can be soaked overnight. 

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Pan-Frying French Toast

Heat equal parts butter and vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Using both butter and oil will help prevent the butter from burning.

Fry bread until golden brown on both sides. After each batch, be sure to wipe out the pan with a paper towel, then add fresh oil and butter. Otherwise, the butter will burn and brown bits will stick to the next batch of French toast.

If your bread slice is too thick, the outside of your toast is golden brown but the inside might still cold and soggy. To get the best result, you need to finish cooking the pan-fried bread in the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake until cooked through, about 10 minutes. It results in a crispy on the outside, and luscious on the inside.

day old French bread

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Presentation

Sprinkle the toast with some powder sugar and serve with whipped butter, and assorted fruits.  The buttery sweetness in this toast is just right for me so I don't even need to douse it with syrup, and top with whipped butter, but you can indulge yourself.   

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Eat well. Stay healthy.

Matcha Crème Brûlée (Creme Brulee Vị Trà Xanh)

Nhã-Hân and Ân-Hy were half way through their crème brûlée when I finally had a few minutes to sit down and watch them enjoy their dessert. As Nhã-Hân dugged her spoon into the crisp caramel, it cracked open and revealed a beautiful pastel green, creamy, decadent custard. She exclaimed, "Why is this so good?". It triggered my curiosity about the history behind this wonderful crème brûlée. Though the exact origin is uncertain. France, England, and Spain all claim to be the country where crème brûlée originated. 

Crème brûlée might appear complicated to make but it's actually very simple and incredibly delicious with just a few ingredients. The top layer of crème brûlée is lightly burnt and crispy with toffee flavor. The word “brulee” means “burnt”. That’s where the blow torch comes in. For the finishing touch, the top of the custard is sprinkled with sugar and subjected to very high heat. The sugar caramelizes to a crispy, brown crust. I sometime use just vanilla pure extract or Grand Manier orange liqueur in crème brûlée but if you love tea like my little girl Ân-Hy, add matcha to crème brûlée to infuse an exotic flavor and subtle taste, along with a mega dose of antioxidants in every bite.

Matcha literally means Japanese green tea powder. Matcha is essentially the youngest, finest and most tender green tea leaves that have been steamed, dried, and stone-ground into a fine, delicate powder. Matcha, considered an anti-oxidant powerhouse, claims to have amazing health benefits such as burning fat, boosting your energy level naturally, cleaning your body of toxins and focusing your mind, helping your body fight infections and diseases.

There are different grades of matcha. Ceremonial grade is the highest grade which is used on special occasion and to be served straight. Premium grade is still very good and it is more of an everyday beverage. While Culinary/Ingredient grade is cheaper and is added as an ingredient to foods and beverages. This grade is mixed with older tea leaves which has a stronger flavor.

The taste of high grade Matcha is smooth and mellow, while lower quality matcha can leave a bitter taste. For this recipe, I used a ceremonial grade matcha that a friend of mine brought back from Japan.  If you're in Sacramento, Oto's Marketplace has matcha - culinary quality for about $10 per ounce. Click on my Amazon affiliate link here to purchase.

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RECIPE: Crème Brûlée

make 6-8 creme servings

printable recipe

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Ingredients

5 extra-large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon matcha, click here to purchase

fruits, for decoration, optional

Supply/Equipment:

culinary torch, click here to purchase
ramekins, click here to purchase

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Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Boil a pot of water.

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Cooking Heavy Whipping Cream

Place heavy cream and matcha into a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir often until it's just about to boil, hot to touch but not boiled. Remove from heat and let it cool down. 

You can also cook the heavy cream without matcha. Matcha can be whisked together with the egg yolks in the next step.

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Whisking Egg Yolks

Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and matcha, if used in this step, by hand or in a stand mixer until well blended.

Slowly add heavy cream a little at a time, while slowly whisking. Avoid pouring the heavy cream into the egg too fast as the heavy cream is still warm and it will cook the egg. Be careful not to over mix to avoid foams.  

Add vanilla extract.  Strain egg mixture through a strainer for a fine texture.

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Baking Crème Brûlée

Place 6-8 ramekins, depends on your size of ramekins, into a baking pan and pour liquid into ramekins. Place the baking pan in the oven. Being careful not to splash the water into the ramekins, pour boiling water into the pan to come two-thirds up the height of the ramekins. 

Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes, until the custards are set when gently shaken, but still jiggly in the center. Remove ramekins from baking pan and let it cool down before refrigerating and allow to set for at least 2 hours or until chilled.

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Torching Crème Brûlée

vanilla crème brûlée

When you are ready to serve matcha crème brûlée, sprinkle sugar on the top of each ramekin. Gently swirl the ramekin to create smooth layer of sugar then pour out the excess sugar. Hold the chef's torch about two inches away from ramekin and caramelize the sugar by moving the flame continuously over the sugar in a circular motion, until the sugar is melted and turns golden brown.  

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Presentation

It's hard to resist an enticing matcha crème brûlée with toppings of sweet and tart fruits such as strawberries, blue berries, raspberries, or bananas. The palate is quite rich yet the balance of acidity and sweetness make it ideal. 

As I was strolling through my backyard to look for some beautiful micro edible flowers to garnish the crème brûlée, a blossoming apricot tree and fresh mint plants caught my eyes, heralding the arrival of spring.

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Eat well.  Stay healthy. 

Chè Hạt Sen Nhãn Nhục Đười Ươi Hạt É (Summer Sweet Dessert Drink)

The cold mercilessly penetrated through my skin and bone as I walked my girls to school this morning. The change in weather was so sudden. Some students with short sleeves, and shorts were shivering as they weren't prepared for the cold harsh air. I was observing a classmate of my daughter snuggling onto my little one's shoulder to keep warm. I knew summer is fading quickly. It reminded me to rush home and finish up blogging about a summer sweet refreshing drink recipe that I've been wanting to share with you.

Chè is a general term describing a traditional Vietnamese sweet dessert in the form of pudding or plain drink. It is available in both hot and cold versions, and usually served in a small bowl or in a glass over shaved ice, therefore, it makes a nice sweet treat for any season of the year, but best served during the summer of course.

Most of the Vietnamese desserts frequently use coconut milk as a base, but this dessert recipe that I am sharing with you contains  rock sugar, coconut water, and four dried ingredients - basil seeds, malva nuts, lotus seeds, and dried longan. These ingredients are available at any Asian markets.

All of these dried ingredients have been used for their medicinal properties. According to Chinese medicine, the use of these four dried ingredients is to remove heat from the lung, cure cough and sore throat, counteract toxicity, and relax the bowels, decrease the body temperature and treat intestinal infections. It is believed to have an effect on relaxation, benefits to the kidneys, helping to restore vital energy within the body. How about that for a dessert drink?!

This recipe is not intended to treat any ailments but is offered mainly for your enjoyment. It is quite refreshing and delicious, making it much easier to beat the wicked heat.

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RECIPE: Summer Sweet Dessert Drink
make about 6 quarts

printable recipe

sweet refreshing drink with goji berries

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Ingredients

1/2 cup basil seeds (hạt é)

1 cup lotus seeds (hạt sen)

Malva nuts 1 cup (county orangutans)

1 cup dried longan (longan flesh)

1 bag rock sugar

8 cups (2 quarts) water

12 cups (3 quarts) coconut water

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Directions

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Cooking Syrup

Boil water with sugar until dissolved. Adjust sweetness if necessary. This is a refreshing drink so I like it with just a slightly taste of sweetness. Let it cool down.

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Soaking Basil Seeds

My daughters called these basil seeds "frog eggs."

Place the basil seeds in a large strainer and quickly rinse them under running water to remove any dirt, then add water and basil seeds in a large bowl, soak for about 10 minutes or until the seeds become gelatinous.  Soaking in hot water shortens the process. Strain the seeds and set aside.

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Soaking Malva Nuts

Đười ươi - malva nuts or poonparai are fruits collected from Scaphium macropodum, sometimes called Scaphium lychnophorum or Sterculia lychnophora. The flesh surrounding the dried seeds swells to eight times its original volume when soaked in water, forming an irregularly shaped, reddish gelatinous mass. Pretty cool huh?

Quickly rinse the malva nuts to remove any dirt, then soak them in a large bowl of water for about 30 minutes or until they swell. Separate the flesh from the skin and seeds, discard the skin and seeds. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Set the malva nuts flesh aside.

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Cooking Dried Lotus Seeds

Instead of dried lotus seeds, I sometimes prepare this refreshing drink with trom latex (mủ trôm) from a trom tree with the scientific name sterculia foetida tree. Since I ran out of trom latex, and my husband brought home a necklace of dried lotus seeds, it was a perfect replacement.

Wash and rinse dried lotus seeds thoroughly. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add lotus seeds and bring them back to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook;  covered until lotus seeds are tender - usually takes 40 minutes to 1 hour. When the seeds are soft and friable, they are fully cooked.  Strain the lotus seeds.  Place them in the syrup to impart sweetness.

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Cooking Dried Longan

Rinse dried longan quickly under running water to remove any dirt. In a small pan, bring some syrup to a boil. Turn off the heat then add dried longan. Let it sit for about 20 minutes until dried longan are soft.

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Presentation

Combine lotus seeds, basil seeds, flesh of malva nuts, and coconut water into the longan syrup pot, stirring well.

Transfer it into a pitcher and keep it chilled in the fridge before enjoying.

Sometimes, I add fructus lycii, also called wolfberry or goji berry in this refreshing drink. Fructus lycii is also used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine.  Some of its interesting claims include nourishing the liver, promoting vision, invigorating the kidney, and replenishing essence (whatever that means). To prepare fructus lycii, bring some of the syrup to a boil then add fructus lycii.  Turn off the heat and let it steep for a couple minutes.  Add fructus lycii and the syrup to the mixture and what you have is a gorgeous, exotic dessert waiting to be devoured.

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Eat well.  Stay healthy.