Gable's Grumblings

I often find myself in the position of talking about food. I work around it daily. I talk to vendors in the morning when they arrive with fresh product. I talk to the prep cooks who break down the product into our various prep, sauces, chutneys, desserts, and soups. I talk to the line cooks who use the prepared sauces to create delicious entrees. I talk to our servers about how to best describe our new dishes. And I talk to our guests when they tell me how much they enjoyed it. Or didn't. With all that talking, you'd think I'd be quiet once I got home. But you'd be wrong. I then proceed to chat about food with anyone interested in the subject or even uninterested for that matter. In leiu of driving any more friends crazy with food chat, I'm putting some recipes I've used in various restaurants, here on this blog. Only ones that I know are delicious. And if you disagree or make a mistake or can't get it to come out correctly, you can always leave me a comment to let me know.

Toasted Coconut Bread Pudding

• 1 Lb. loaf of challah/brioche bread, cut in 1 inch cubes
• 1/3 Cup dried apricots, small dice
• 1/2 Cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 30 Oz. Coco Lopez cream of coconut
• 2 Cups milk
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 Cups sugar
• 3 Tablespoons sweetened shredded coconut, toasted for garnish if desired

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 10" X 13" X 3" pan.

In a large bowl, toss the bread, apricots, and the shredded coconut together.

In a sauce pan, heat milk, coconut cream, vanilla and granulated sugar until the sugar completely dissolves and the milk is tepid but not hot. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then temper them by slowly adding 1 cup of warm milk mixture while whisking quickly. Slowly pour the egg/milk mixture back in the warm milk and stir until well incorporated.

Ladle the egg mixture over the bread mixture. Toss with your hands, making sure all the bread gets moist. Let sit 5 minutes and toss again, making sure all liquid at the bottom of the bowl has been absorbed evenly by the bread. Place the bread in the loaf pan.

Cover with foil and place in a water bath: use a sheet pan if necessary, fill it with an inch of hot water AFTER placing it in the oven with loaf pan sitting on top. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden.

Use a sharp edged spatula to cut into squares if you plan on eating immediately. Or I prefer letting it chill in refrigerator, to set back up a bit, then inverting it onto kitchen counter, cutting it into triangles, and reheating a piece in the oven for 8 minutes or until warmed through out to 120 degrees.

Sprinkle bread pudding with powdered sugar. Serve warm with a scoop of french vanilla or coconut ice cream on one side and whipped cream on the other. Finish with toasted coconut on the ice cream or around plate.