Summer of 2020

Where did the last few months disappear? We are now well past the middle of this annus horribilis. A few months ago, when a friend I was emailing with casually predicted that this new world we are in will remain in place for the next 18 months, I was amazed at her negativity. How could this dire situation possibly continue for more than a couple of months, I thought. Turns out she was prescient and my optimism was misplaced. I have learnt my lesson. I will make no more predictions about the end of this pandemic. Que sera sera.

We pretend the giant park we live next to is our backyard. Even though each day bleeds into the next and it is hard to keep track of time, the park tells us summer is here. The flowers are certainly not in quarantine. And they aren't practicing social distancing either. 

We live in a part of the U.S. where people are reasonably sane when it comes to relying on science and data, and thinking rationally about how to navigate a pandemic, which is to say that everyone wears masks outdoors. But we still encounter clusters of twenty and thirty somethings picnicking in tight circles, around a nucleus of beer bottles and pizza boxes. The other day, we saw one particularly excited millennial running towards her friends, arms spread wide, ready to dispense hugs (and viruses, potentially).

Even though I have not had the chance to post in a long time, I have been churning out all sorts of things in my kitchen. I was particularly happy with a recipe for banana chocolate chip bread pudding, which I attempted not once, but twice. Both the inspiration and the recipe come from a delightful restaurant in a gritty part of San Francisco which serves Southern favorites like jambalaya, po'boys, fried chicken, and beignets. 

I remember our first visit. I had just had a birthday dinner at a Scandinavian restaurant. I had been looking forward to the meal, being totally unfamiliar with the cuisine. It turned out to be one of those pretentious places which serve small slivers of food for large sums of money.  My meal was not memorable but I do remember that there was very little food on my plate even before I started eating. By the time the waiter came by with the dessert menu, we had already started thinking about where to go next. I am not sure how we came upon the place, but we eventually ended up at Brenda's. Unlike other cities I have lived in, I haven't seen people in San Francisco visit a restaurant just for dessert. But at Brenda's, we did just that. It must have been a weeknight, because I don't remember having to wait in line. Knowing what I now know about Brenda's, that is a very rare occurrence. We got the banana chocolate chip bread pudding. I fell in love with the dessert and the restaurant. Brenda's is as unpretentious as they come, and the pudding was delicious, with puddles of melted chocolate, the flavor of banana coming through without overpowering the pudding, and a decadent sauce to take things over the edge. We have been to Brenda's just for that pudding many times since. It never disappoints. 

In a stroke of luck, I chanced upon the recipe on a blog created by the owner of Brenda's, which documents the early days of the restaurant. The posts are few but they are all fun to read. 

Here's the recipe for the pudding, copied verbatim from the blog. And here's a picture of the pudding I made (sans hard sauce). Not my finest work as a photographer..

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce

8 C Lightly Packed Day Old Bread, Torn into Pieces
2 C Over Ripe Bananas, Mashed
1 1/2 C Chocolate Chips  
Bread Pudding Custard Base (Recipe Follows)
Hard Sauce (Recipe Follows)
Whipped Cream (Optional)

Bread Pudding Custard

2 Eggs
3/4 C Sugar
1/2 TSP Cinnamon
1/2 TSP Nutmeg
2 C Milk

Whisk Together.

Hard Sauce

1/2 Stick Butter
Pinch Salt
3/4 C Sugar
1/4 C Bourbon
1/2 TSP Vanilla Extract

In a small saucepan, melt butter, salt and sugar together. Whisk together then add bourbon and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

To make the pudding: Lightly grease a loaf pan. In a large bowl combine bread pieces, mashed banana and chocolate chips. Pour custard over bread mixture and mix together. Pour into loaf pan. Place pudding into another pan large enough to hold it and fill larger pan with 1″ water. Cover Loaf pan with foil, place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes in a 350* oven or until done in the middle.

Serve bread pudding drizzled with hard sauce and whipped cream. 

Notes: I used old heels of bread that I had saved in the freezer in a ziplock bag. I zapped the slices in the microwave to thaw them, simply tore them into chunks, and then dunked them in the custard. Sourdough bread worked very well, and as usual, I cut the sugar (I used 2/3rds of what the recipe called for, I think?) with perfectly good results. Best not to add more bananas than called for. I added an extra one that needed to be used up, and sure enough, the pudding ended up a little mushier than ideal.