Bread pudding
CEBU, Philippines — The prevalent Filipino idea of pudding is as a dessert. But actually pudding can also be a savory dish. But then again the sweet one is the pudding that most Filipinos love.
But in the Philippine countryside especially, the bread pudding is not called such – but as “budin.” It might just be a transliteration of the original word, since “pudding” and “budin” sound closely similar. The early Filipinos must have misheard the name from their American colonizers, although they learned the recipe just the same.
But, curiously, “budin” is also a traditional Puerto Rican bread pudding. And the word pudding itself is believed to have come from the French “boudin,” originally from the Latin botellus, meaning “small sausage,” referring to encased meats used in medieval European puddings. And so the question: Where does the Filipino “budin” take from – the American colonizers, the French or the Puerto Ricans?
The answer doesn’t seem to matter anymore. What matters is the sweet taste of the “budin” that Filipinos have come to love as their own. And the following recipe from the website www.filipinorecipesite.com may be of help to anyone who wants to try making “budin” at home:
Pinoy Budin
Ingredients:
4 cups Milk
2 cups day-old Bread, diced (about 6 bread slices)
2 pieces Eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup Sugar
½ tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
4 tbsp. Melted Butter (or margarine)
1 cup Shredded Macapuno (or 1 cup drained langka preserves)
Procedures:
•Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 1½-quart casserole. In a saucepan, heat milk over low heat until tiny bubbles appear around the edges. Remove from heat, add diced bread.
•For custard-like pudding, let bread soak for about 30 minutes, mash pieces against the side of bowl with a spoon until mixture is smooth.
•Blend in eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla and butter. Add macapuno or langka.
•Pour into greased casserole or caramel-lined pan, place in a larger baking pan with warm water about one inch up the side of the casserole.
•Steam-bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until tester knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
This recipe serves 6 to 8 persons. (FREEMAN)
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