Coconut-Lime Cornmeal Pudding

We need a new word for fusion...the good kind. Fusion cooking is forced. It’s mango salsa on your spaghetti. Or a sushi casserole. No no no. 

But mixing cultures and cuisines can also create some really great dishes. The question is: what makes one dish a revelation and another just plain revolting? 

It’s a delicate line and I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules about it. For me, it’s a gut feeling. Does it feel contrived, like a mix-and-match experiment? Scrap. Does it feel fresh and interesting? Keep going. 

It helps to look at cultures that created their own cuisines by mishmashing others. Think: Hawaiian spam musubi (canned meat from soldier rations + sushi), or Vietnamese banh mi (French pate and baguettes meets Vietnamese herbs and pickles).

More Macau specialties from my 2006 trip: almond cookies and super-moist beef jerky

Macau is a striking example of authentic fusion cuisine. I visited in 2006, knowing little about its background. Long story short, Macau is an island 40 miles from Hong Kong. It was colonized by the Portuguese 400 years ago. Today, it’s a special administrative zone of China and the only place where you can legally gamble in the country. All of these influences -- Portugal + China + Las Vegas -- make for some really interesting cuisine. 

Here’s an example of a dish that doesn’t seem all that “fusiony” but actually has a lot of history to it. This coconut lime pudding doesn’t have cornstarch, like you’d expect from a pudding. It’s actually thickened with egg and cornmeal, similar to papas de carolo or cornmeal pudding. The coconut makes it more suited to Asian tastes. 

When I was in Macao, I had this flavored with ginger. But here I added lime instead. Not because I was trying to be clever and fusiony. But because it was good. 

RECIPE 

1 ¼ cup milk (regular, soy, almond) 
Scant ½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely-ground cornmeal
½ cup coconut milk
4 egg yolks
Zest of two limes
Shredded coconut for garnish 

In a saucepan, add almond milk and sugar. Simmer on medium until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool at least 5 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, coconut milk, and egg yolks. Whip with a fork until frothy. Place saucepan with almond milk back onto heat and whisk cornmeal mixture slowly over medium heat until thickened, about 10 minutes. Maintain a low simmer, increasing or reducing heat as necessary. When ready, stir in zest of two limes, reserving some for garnish. 

Spoon into individual cups or one large bowl. Chill until set, at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, top with shredded coconut and lime zest. 

TIPS & TRICKS

• When you’re dealing with eggs, milk, and something with a light color and subtle flavor, you really need to keep an eye on your heat. Avoid scorching by going slow and steady. If the mixture starts bubbling furiously, turn down the heat and let the pot cool off-heat before returning to the burner. 

• Other fun variations … Add in place of the lime zest: lemon zest, orange zest, grated ginger; Steep with the milk and sugar: pinch of cinnamon, dark rum

Tahini Banana Bread

For some, this is a breakfast cake or something to nosh with afternoon tea. But if your family is like mine and doesn't like anything too sweet, then behold the perfect dessert. 

I made this for my Dad's birthday last weekend because it has all the hallmarks of a Tom-family classic. Fruity, nutty, not too sweet. This is a banana bread with a velvet cape, made luscious with sesame and tahini. 

To be totally honest, I also made a coconut-mango panna cotta that was a complete fail. I used coconut sugar with the coconut milk, so that layer was an unappealing medium-toned brown. The top never evened out, so it had a lumpy look to it. And then, it never completely set! 

So we spooned the failed panna cotta over this dessert, and that added a little fruit and moisture. But I wouldn't recommend it. 

RECIPE: Adapted from El Rey's Sesame Banana Bread, from Bon Appetit

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast 2 tablespoons of white sesame seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 5 minutes. 

Blend 4 very ripe bananas to a smooth puree. In a separate bowl, mix 1 3/4 cups cake flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. In an electric mixer, whisk 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of tahini, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Add 1 cup of dark brown sugar and 1 cup of turbinado sugar and banana puree. When well blended, whisk the dry ingredients. Fold in toasted sesame seeds. 

Pour batter into an 8" x 8" cake pan and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of sesame seeds. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan, then serve. 

Jackfruit Boats with Chia Seed Pudding and Coconut Flakes

There are only so many foodstuffs that can be boats. Endive boats. Gravy boats. A banana boat is a thing, but not edible. 

So when I come across a potential boat, I pounce on it. Jackfruit is not easy to find in American grocery stores, but pretty easy to find in Asian ones. Jackfruits can be huge -- up to 80 lbs -- but you can buy them in pieces. 

Word to the wise: there's another large, prickly fruit in Asian grocery stores, but you do NOT want to get it by mistake. Durian -- the notorious, banned-on-public-transportation fruit -- looks very similar. A fresh durian will smell like dirty feet so you're probably not in danger of buying it by accident. But a chilled or old durian will have a mellower or non-existent smell. Jackfruit: this. Durian: that. Got it? 

Moving on... Jackfruit flesh comes out in little pouches that can be split into boats. The inside is filled with large seeds (which, by the way, can be boiled and eaten like boiled nuts), while the pouches themselves are encased in a matrix of fibers. It's rather tedious to prep, but at least you can snack while you work (as opposed to say, peeling garlic). 

The taste of jackfruit is basically a cross between a mango, pineapple and banana. It has a mango's tropical brightness to it, along with banana's tropical mustiness. (Also like a mango, it can cause some irritation in your throat). Add coconut, and you basically have a piña colada. 

RECIPE: There's really nothing to this besides making the chia pudding. Soak 1/3 cup of chia seeds with 1 1/2 cups of milk. I used almond milk, but this would be extra-amazing with a coconut-almond milk blend. I don't sweeten the pudding because I think the jackfruit is plenty sweet, but this is a matter of taste. 

Once the seeds are plump (about 4 hours), spoon into your halved jackfruit boats and sprinkle with unsweetened coconut flakes. 

Brûléed Peeps

Today I lived my fantasy of brûléeing Peeps. Now I want to brûlée everything that's sugar-coated. 

The appeal is obvious -- it's crème brûlée meets s'more. Unlike a creme brûlée, the sugar on a Peep is very fine, resulting in a very thin sugar crust. Think: a film of frost rather than a hard chunk of ice. 

At first, I was a little scared to use the blow torch. It's not some frou-frou Williams-Sonoma thing -- it's the real deal to solder pipes and repair cars. I assembled a kit and was kinda scared I was gonna blow up. 

But I guess my pyro tendencies took over and I got the hang of it. FIRE! 

Strawberry Snack Mix

Necessity is the mother of invention. Or annoyance. Or disappointment.

FreshDirect, as you may know, makes a trail mix they call Rainbow Delight. It's raisins, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and of course -- the source of the rainbow -- M&M-like candy.

Due to a shortage of some sort, there was a period of time when some bags, packed in some factory, replaced the rainbow candies with plain chocolate chips.

Oh. No.

So while we wrote to customer service and waited out the great rainbow drought of 2013 (the M&Ms have since been re-instituted), I made my own snack mix.

It doesn't have a name yet, but it's red. It's sweet and salty and -- something relatively new to the snack mix game -- a little squishy.

So what's in it? It's a mix of unsalted cashews, chocolate-covered raisins (I also tried blueberries, but raisins are more than sufficient), dried cranberries, salted peanuts, and freeze-dried strawberries.

It's a summery snack mix and sort of sexy, too.

I know this is true because recently in Paris I found that Pierre Hermé had his own version, based on his famous Ispahan rose-raspberry-litchi macaron.

His version is a little more refined, but that's not always what you want in your pre-meeting food grab.