Baked Coconut French Toast with Tropical Fruit Compote

The French toast is plain and easy, just like the many other you can find easily. What's special lies with the fruit compote. The tart sweetness of the marinade is perfect for the tropical fruits, not to mention the crispy coconut flakes. I also sprinkled some almond flakes to the French toast prior to baking. Feel free to experiment with other fruits such as papaya for a more colorful display.

For a balanced morning breakfast, I served up a Scrambled Egg with spinach, sun dried tomato and goat cheese with sprinkle of chopped thyme.

Ingredients:

(makes 2)
Fruit Compote:

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled mango
• 1/4 cup chopped dragon fruits
  
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled kiwifruit
• handful of dried blueberry and raisins (option)
  
• 1 tablespoons agave nectar (or honey/ maple syrup/ sugar)
  
• 1 tablespoons fresh lime juice

French toast:

• 4 (1-inch-thick) slices diagonally cut French bread baguette
  
• Coconut oil
  
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoon maple syrup
  
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinches of cinnamon powder and nutmeg (option)
  
• 1/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut

1. To prepare compote, combine all ingredients. Cover and chill overnight.
2. To prepare the French toast, arrange bread in a single layer in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine coconut milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using) stirring with a whisk, and pour evenly over bread. Turn the bread over to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 175°C.
4. Remove bread mixture from refrigerator, and uncover. Turn bread slices over, and sprinkle evenly with flaked coconut. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes. Bake, uncovered, at 175ºC for 30 minutes or until coconut is golden. Serve warm with fruit compote.

The easiest food blog

Pee Wee recently turned me on to this amazing website called Taste Spotting. I fell in love with it the instant I saw the many tantalizing food pictures! What a great website; it's a collection of recipes from food blogs all over the world. How convenient!

One of the pictures that caught my eyes was this savory baked zucchini cupcake. It has a rather intriguing name - That Zucchini. It uses thick zucchini coins as cupcake base, mounded with spinach-raisin-almond mix. It took a while to take a liking of its complexity. It's an interesting dish that would do wonder for entertainment. The only thing I would change is to chop up the raisins. You got to really make sure there is raisin in every bite; it could be rather bland without the raisins. If you have time, read also the story the writer wrote on the history of the recipe and how the name That Zucchini came about.

If you knew me, you would have known that I am not a rice person. My lab partner in university used to comment that I was the most non-asian Asian person he knew. The first question (almost) everyone would ask is "what about bread/ noodle/ pasta?" Well, I love bread. Not a big fan of noodle nor pasta. Too starchy for my liking. "So it's the starch?" No. Because I love potatoes.

When Adrian came back from Prague, the very first thing I wanted to do was to cook. I knew he must have missed my cooking. And so I immediately put that into action the next morning with a Roasted Garlic Potatoes in Thyme and Butter. You will never go wrong with garlic. And with a hint of lemon juice, this herb roasted potatoes were a hit when paired with Smoked Salmon Frittata.

My father used to make this baked potato boat that I really liked. The picture of the Pesto Baked Potatoes reminded me of those days when my father would take out the convection oven and make a whole bunch of baked potato stuffed with luncheon meats (yeap, those were the carnivorous days). The potatoes didn't look anything like those in the recipe. But heck! They taste real good. I added some uncalled-for blue cheese to the stuffing as I remembered a double-cheese potato that I once made. My version of the Baked Pesto Double Cheese Potato got an instant YES from Adrian. He even remarked how I changed his taste for potatoes. Now, that's a real testimonial.

I also tried two of the sweet dishes: a French Toast and a Brownies. Although the French Toast was actually savory.
It's called the Savory Parmesan French Toast. Adrian had a hard time figuring the French Toast out - he kept waiting to taste "French Toast". If you know what I mean. He even added maple syrup to it. To be fair, it was good. I guess it would help not to get caught up with the name. What about changing it to something like.....Savory Parmesan Toast......not very creative, am I?


There also the brownies made of two of the best things in the world: Nutella and peanut butter. I gave some to my Korean friend, Sandra, who accompanied me to watch a German opera at the Thailand Cultural Center. She reported the next morning that the brownies were a success with her kids. Good! There was a pigeon stranded at our porch after a storm. Adrian fed it with some brownies and it wouldn't stop eating. Even birds can't resist the goodness of Nutella and Peanut Butter. The brownies were moist and soft. My only complaint is it didn't do justice to the hazelnut-ty taste of Nutella.

Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast.

Some time ago I bumped into a website dedicated to breakfasts. I didn't give much thought about it because frankly, Mr Breakfast himself doesn't look all that much of a breakfast role model. Recently, I revisited the site because I was desperate for more breakfast recipes. I must admit that Mr Breakfast does have good stuffs. For instance the Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast. I can feel my saliva whirling as I read the recipe.
Before I give out the recipe, I'd like to, once again, stress the beauty of frozen berry: CHEAPer than fresh. If you are lucky to live in a place where fresh berries are aplenty throughout the year, I'm jealous. I've been having similar discussion with a few friends the last few days. We unanimously agreed how inexpensive the imported berries are. Then came my lecture on the wonderful locally (Thai) produced frozen berries. If you still haven't seen one, I just bought a packet of frozen raspberry and strawberry (see picture) from Gourmet Market at Paragon. Most of the times Tops at Central Chidlom has them (blueberry too), too, but not recently. They are probably trying to sell the imported ones which are currently on 1/2 price if you are their member.
I don't usually buy frozen strawberry. This is an exception because I wanted to make strawberry jam for this Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast. It feels like such a waste to make jam out of fresh strawberry.

Homemade Strawberry Jam
Of course you use strawberry jam from the store. I just figured it's so easy to make, why not? The sourness of lemon juice neutralise the sweetness of both strawberry and sugar.




Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh or frozen strawberry, hulled and mashed slightly if you are using fresh.
4 Cups white sugar
1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice

In a saucepan, toss together strawberry, sugar and lemon juice over low heat until sugar is completely melted. Turn the heat to high and let it comes to a rolling boil. Stirring constantly. Remove from heat when the strawberry are melted and transferred to a sterilised jar**. Seal and invert the jar for 10 minutes before you transfer it to the refrigerator.



**Put jar and its cap into hot boiling water bath. Remove and let it stand with the top side down on a clean towel. Do not touch the inside of the jar or lid with your fingers.






Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast

I must tell you how great this Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast is. You have to try this if you like strawberry AND French Toast. I'm so glad that I made the strawberry jam because it's THE bomb. It's not overly sweet and went extremely well with the french toast.

Ingredients:

(4 servings)

• 8 slices of French bread - cut diagonaly
• 1 cup fresh strawberries -- hulled and sliced
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Strawberry syrup or jam for topping

In a medium bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.

Take 1/2 of the halved bread slices and and spead the ricotta on one side. Top with remaining bread to create a collection of half-sandwhiches.

In a large shallow bowl, beat together eggs and milk.

Melt butter in a skillet or griddle set to medium heat.

Dip ricotta sandwiches in the egg mixture, coating both sides.

Cook until golden brown on each side. You can place completed French Toast slices on a serving plate in an oven set to 100 degrees -- to keep finished slices warm as you cook the others.

Serve with strawberry slices and syrup or jam. It works with the Cinnful Apple Fruit Salad, too.