Egg Custard in Squash

Sung Ka Ya Fugtong



This year, the hype for Halloween around the East coast is subdued by the coming of hurricane Sandy. This is going to be my first major storm to be experiencing. In my life time, somehow, I always miss all the storms happened in my path. When Irene hit last year, I was back in Thailand for grandma's funeral. So, this is it, and I don't know what to expect.

Well, what ever is going to happen, we are going to deal with it, and we've been prepared. I've stock up some cooked foods, and yes, desserts.





This is my Stormy Halloween dessert, the Egg Custard in Squash. It is a very common dessert in Thailand, where Kabocha squash are grown widely. They can be made into a yummy meal and delicious desserts.





Easy prep!

-1 one small kabocha squash, 1 1/2 lb. Clean and cut the top off as in the picture, scrape off all the seeds.
- 5 eggs
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 3/4 cup palm sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3 fresh or frozen pandan leaves (if you can't find them, use 1 tsp. of vanilla extract)

Set up the steamer

1. Fill the steamer with water - enough water for steaming up to 1 hr.- put it to a full boil.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, coconut milk, palm sugar and salt together, add pandan leaves and use your hand to squeeze the pandan leaves as well as to mix all ingredients together at the same time to incorporate.

*If not using pandan leaves, just add the vanilla extract and mix all ingredients with a whisk until incorporate.*

3. Filter out the mixing, and pour into the prepared squash.
4. place the squash and the carved out lid in the steamer - steam them for 45 min. - don't you dare to peek, it might cause the squash to break when opening the steamer.
5. After 45 min. open the steamer and use a fork to test if the squash is cooked through, the fork should go inside the squash and come out with no force.

Let the squash cool down completely before cut and serve.

Lard-Na Noodle

The word Lard Na in this dish means to top on, so basically it's the noodle topped with stew-like kind of sauce.

It's a great dish to serve the whole family without breaking too much sweat in the kitchen, and it's so versatile that you can use any kind of noodles you love with this sauce - it's sort of the same idea of making pasta.




I love to make the sauce in advance, mostly Friday night, and just heat it up the next Saturday and Sunday as our lunch or even dinner sometimes, so I don't have to spend most of my summer weekend in the kitchen and rather running around out side.

The authenticity of this noodle is the stir-fried noodle topped with pork and Chinese broccoli in a stew-like sauce, no other meats or vegetable will be added. I would say the pork is the creme de la creme of this noodle dish. To some Thai people, to judge what store has the best Lard-na noodle is mostly judged by how they make the pork. Pork should have taste succulent - almost melt in your mouth, and also has a taste of smoke or slightly burning smell when you taste the noodle, which means they know how to properly stir-fire the noodle to get the burning smell, but the noodle still isn't burned, which requires a personal technique and some experiences to come up with the perfect stir fired noodle and yummy Lard-Na sauce.





In my version of homemade Lard-Na noodle, I don't have a niche to get a perfect burning smell of  stir-fired noodle because of many reason such as finding the right broad rice noodle, the right wok, and the right heat - I have none of the above....but hey!...my pork has its call, at least.

Marinated
- 1 cups of thinly sliced pork, or your meat of choice or tofu if you want to go veggie.
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. corn strach

Mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl, cover it up and let them marinate in the fridge over night. If you choose to go with tofu, skip the marinate part.

The sauce
- Marinated pork
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
- Chinese broccoli, cut into small bite - as much as you like.
- 1/2 cup, canned bamboo shoots
- 1/2 cup, canned or fresh baby corns
- 2 tbsp. of fermented black soy bean
- 2 tbsp. of sugar
- 3 tbsp. of corn strach, mixed with 3 tbsp. of water
- 2 tbsp, saute oil





Making the sauce

1. In a sauce pan with saute oil, add garlic and marinated pork, saute until the pink disappear then add water.

2. leave it  to a  boil, and later lower the  heat to medium low, let it simmering for about 5 minute.
3. Add all vegetables and start seasoning with fermented soy bean, sugar and taste it. If you need more salty taste, add a pinch of salt.

Serving : Heat up the noodle, and top with the sauce. As always, you can still season your noodle at the table before eating, if you like, with vinegar, sugar and fish sauce or soy  sauce.