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Whole Wheat Bread Budín

I had not shared this recipe with you guys because at some point… this recipe was helping me make a living. When I was still figuring out this thing of working by myself, on the side, I was baking some things under the KarmaFree Cooking banner. I baked lots and lots of carrot cakes, made tons of hummus, veggie dips and red bell pepper dips. I also baked a lot of these budíns… especially for my friend Vanessa, may she rest in peace! She would order one from me almost every week…

This whole wheat bread budín is the Puerto Rican version of a bread pudding. The cool thing is it needs no egg custard to cook or any pre-soaking, like many recipes I have seen made at the Food Network. Just whiz the bread on the food processor, mix the rest of the ingredients and BAKE!!!

See why this was so cool to make for sale?? I hope you enjoy it as much as my friends enjoyed it when I was cooking for them…

Whole Wheat Bread Budín

1 lb package of 100% whole wheat bread

1 quart of milk, I usually use a box of Parmalatt milk

2 cups brown sugar

6 tbs melted butter or you can use 5tbs of coconut oil too

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla powder or extract

Cinnamon to taste

1 cup of raisins

8oz guava paste

Process the bread in a food processor until you get crumbs.

2. Transfer the bread crumbs to a large bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients, except the guava paste.

3. Transfer to a 9 x 13 pan. I used to make this whole recipe to make 3 smaller size pans for sale. A lasagna pans is what the supply shop used to call this size. If I had one here I would measure it.

4. Bake in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. I turn off the oven at 45 mins, but leave the pans in for an extra 10 minutes with the residual heat. That will ensure the budín is cooked, yet not too dry on the outside.

5. After the budín has cooled off a bit, in a small sauce pan, add the guava paste with a little bit of water to make it into a pourable spreadable sauce. Pour on top of the budín as a glaze.

You just serve it directly from the pan… cut it into squares and serve your guests or bake sale customers.

Tags: brown sugar, cinnamon, Egg-free, egg-less, food, guava paste, milk, pudding, raisins, vegetarian, whole wheat bread

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Categories desserts, Puerto Rican delicacies

Acerolas are here!!

11 Jul

I’ve seen them called Caribbean cherries… we just simply call them acerolas. And they’re in season.

They’re tart and sweet and they make the best juice and fruit compotes.

Have you ever had acerolas? What do you like to enjoy them?

Tags: Acerola, caribbean cherry, food, fruit, Puerto Rico, vegetarian

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Puerto Rican delicacies, treats

Soursop Juice

10 May

Growing up I did not like any of the tropical fruit flavors… tamarind, mango, papaya or soursop. I would only like cherry, grape or orange. You know… the artificially-flavored stuff. Buying piraguas in Old San Juan, I remember they had syrups made from our Puerto Rican fruits flavors, but I always chose the deep dark red one; the one I would stay farthest away from nowadays.

Then your tastes change… and they evolve and those flavors that you once thought were not that appealing are the ones you crave and appreciate the most.

Soursop is one of those flavors to me… I remember my grandma offering us guanábana at our casa de campo and we refusing profusely. Now, it’s one of my favorite flavors. But soursops are very hard to come by sometimes. Soursops have a newfound rep of having cancer-fighting properties and when those types of reports start crawling around the internet, things get scarce. Whenever you see soursops at the grocery store, they’re expensive. So if you have a fruit-bearing tree… take very good care of it.

I found some soursops at the grocery store the other day and I decided to treat myself to some juice… it’s so easy to make yourself.

Look for soursops that are starting to give a little bit. If they’re hard, they’re not fully ripe yet. Allow them to fully ripen on your kitchen counter. And if they are beginning to soften and you can’t get to it, place it in the fridge to stop the ripening process.

SOURSOP JUICE for one…

1/3 cup of soursop pulp

About 1 cup of filtered water

2 tbs brown sugar

I like to remove the seeds from the pulp. I read from someone on Facebook that you could leave the seeds in… I guess you could, but it will become a mess when you strain it. I prefer to remove the seeds and try to grow some new soursop trees from them.

In a blender or your Magic Bullet, add the fruit pulp, water and sugar. Add an ice cube if the water is not cold. Blend well together. The mixture will become white and creamy.
I like to strain it… It’s not necessary, but I think the texture is better if you strain the juice before drinking it. Besides, if you miss a seed, you’ll be sure to take it out before drinking.

This is the measurement I use to make juice just for me in my Magic Bullet. I prefer to keep the pulp in the fridge and make the juice fresh right before I am about to drink it. All you need to do to make a larger batch for your family is to increase the quantities. Basically you’ll need 1 part pulp to 3 parts water and sweeten to taste.

Add sugar as you see fit. I like my soursop juice sweet. Sometimes the pulp is not as sweet as you would like. So feel free to adjust the sugar amount to your taste.

Tags: cancer-fighting, food, fruit, guanábana, Puerto Rico, soursop, tropical, vegetarian

Comments 19 Comments
Categories beverages, Puerto Rican delicacies, treats

Sweet Vegetarian Ham and Pineapple

27 Mar

When I wasn’t a vegetarian growing up, our traditional way to celebrate Easter was Jamón con Piña, or Sweet Ham with Pineapple. My mom would buy one of those canned Virginia Hams and bake it with cloves, pineapple slices, brown sugar and maraschino cherries. Later on, when I was a teenager, I also learned how to make myself Smoked Pork Chops… which you would fix in a pan using the exact same flavors.

Now that I am vegetarian, I can still enjoy the same sweet flavors without sacrificing any life… I purchase vegetarian ham at NYC’s Chinatown. This is the brand I like to get. It comes frozen… but after you thaw it, the flavor and texture is very, very similar to what I remember real ham to be.

I thaw it in small portions and keep it in a plastic zipper bag in the fridge. But if you don’t take my word for it on how similar these ham slices are to the real thing… check out my nieces enjoying some crepes filled with vegetarian ham and cheese. They are not vegetarian, they’re super picky and they regularly eat the real thing. Picky eaters asked me for MORE VEGETARIAN HAM!! So it’s that good…

SWEET VEGETARIAN HAM AND PINEAPPLE

6 slices of vegetarian ham

1 individual serving container of cut pineapples in their juice

1 ½ tbs brown sugar

5-6 whole cloves

In a glass oven-proof dish, place the vegetarian ham slices slightly overlapping each other.
Sprinkle with the brown sugar and pour the pineapple juice over them, dissolving a bit the sugar. Place the pineapple pieces as evenly as possible over the ham slices. Sprinkle the cloves over.
Cover the glass dish with parchment paper and a piece of aluminum foil on top. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes at 350F. If you prefer, you can take the cover off and bake for an additional 5 minutes to allow the sugar to caramelize a bit.

Serve warm with a potato salad.

Tags: brown sugar, chinatown, clove, food, ham, NYC, pineapple, vegetarian

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Categories main courses, Puerto Rican delicacies

Best of KarmaFree Cooking – 2012 Edition

31 Dec

I am so happy for everything that has happened during 2012…

It’s been a great year, filled with lots of travel, personal accomplishments and even a brand new baby niece!!! I am super appreciative that you guys continue to visit KarmaFree Cooking and enjoy what I share about my vegetarian lifestyle.

So as a farewell to 2012, I want to share our most popular recipes released this year:

By far, our most popular recipe this year was a recent one…

Kick-butt Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna