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By Request

By Betty Shimabukuro

Wednesday, August 2, 2000

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Chef Jim Gillespie's Plaza Club Bread Pudding
is buttery and rich.

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Pudding, mochi
always favorites

If you were to categorize all the requests made to this column over the many years, there'd be a dead heat for No. 1 most-wanted recipe: bread pudding or mochi.

Two not-at-all similar desserts, but they sit at the top of the heap.

Today's recipes are in keeping with the tradition.

Carol Ann Fujimoto is after the Plaza Club's bread pudding, "the most delicious bread pudding I've ever had."

Chef Jim Gillespie says the dessert is served two or three times a week in the private club's weekday lunch buffet. It's especially rich, he says, because its base is leftover pastries -- which are packed already with butter and sugar.

On the mochi front, we have Violet Tasaka, home cook and experienced recipe-contest winner. Tasaka won the Star-Bulletin's pupu contest last month, and in the write-up it was mentioned that she had won previous contests for her banana pudding and mango/ mac-nut mochi recipes.

Immediately, three requests came in for those recipes, from Joyce Akaji, Margie Castro and Robert Fitzhugh. Castro has called no less than four times to find out if the recipes are forthcoming.

Fitzhugh, corresponding by email from San Ysidro, Calif., had never heard of mochi, but found the idea intriguing. "I have some Japanese neighbors and wanted to maybe surprise them."

He reads the Star-Bulletin online, where, by the way, you can use the search function to find the many, many bread pudding and mochi recipes that have been printed in the past.

Plaza Club Bread Pudding

1 stale French bread baguette or 10 cups croissant and Danish pastry pieces
1/2 pound butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart cream
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 teaspoons cinnamon

Break up bread or pastries and place in a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add cream and vanilla. Fold in raisins. Pour mixture over bread and let sit 45 minutes.

Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until set. Let rest 30 minutes before slicing. Serve with vanilla sauce if desired.

Tasaka's mochi recipes are meant to be prepared in the microwave using a tube or bundt pan. If you don't have that type of pan, use a 9-inch non-metal pie pan and place a custard cup upside-down in the center.

If you don't have a microwave, use a lightly greased 8-by-8-inch pan, cover in foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

The first recipe won Hawaiian Electric Co.'s Healthy Recipe contest in 1997; the second won the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut contest the same year.

Banana Cream Mochi

1 cup mochiko
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons instant banana cream pudding/pie filling mix (1 tablespoon if using sugar-free)
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup kinako or cornstarch

Combine all ingredients, except kinako. Mix well. Pour into a 12-cup microwaveable tube or bundt pan sprayed with vegetable spray; cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high 5 minutes.

Immediately remove plastic and cool. Pull mochi from sides of pan and remove to a cutting board dusted with kinako. Cut in 1/2-inch pieces and coat each piece with kinako. Makes 32 pieces.

Mango Mac Nut Mochi

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ripe mango, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup mochiko
1/2 cup macadamia nut pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup kinako or cornstarch

Whisk together water, mango, sugar and mochiko. Add nuts and vanilla and mix well. Pour into a 12-cup microwaveable tube or bundt pan sprayed with vegetable spray; cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high 5 minutes.

Immediately remove plastic and cool. Pull mochi from sides of pan and remove to a cutting board dusted with kinako. Cut in 1/2-inch pieces and coat each piece with kinako. Makes 32 pieces.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Can you help?

Be a hero and answer one of these requests. Get in touch through one of the methods below:

Mildred Tierstein and Doug Kaya want to make saimin from scratch. None of this frozen noodles and packaged broth; they want to make everything themselves. Anyone have a tested recipe for noodles and stock?

Ron Schaeffer is looking for the recipe for a Samoan dish of breadfruit and coconut milk.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
By Request, Honolulu Star-Bulletin Food Section,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.