Maque Choux with Bread and Butter Custard

Today, I mixed a little Cajun with a little Caribbean with my two dishes.
The first, maque choux, is an interesting one - chopped onion, diced bell pepper and tomatoes, plus a mixture of corn and milk blended in the food processor and cooked for 20 minutes and seasoned with salt, black and cayenne pepper are the ingredients. The recipe states that the cook should aim for the consistency of scrambled eggs - it kind of looks like it, but I think I used too much milk. My maque choux was okay - the cayenne and onion gives it a bit of a zing.


For dessert, I made bread and butter custard. It's basically bread pudding, except the recipe called for the bread to be buttered first before pouring the mixture of evaporated milk, cinnamon, eggs, and raw sugar on top. The mixture soaks for 30 minutes and then bakes for 30-40 minutes more. I let it bake for longer - 42 minutes to be exact, and the custard turned out absolutely delightful! I would make this recipe again.

Pennsylvania Dutch Fried Tomatoes and Ham, plus Avocado Soup

It has been a busy last couple of weeks - homework for a master's class that I am taking and the school play kept me occupied throughout. But the play went on today - Hyronomous A. Frog: The Frog Prince was a rousing success! So, to relax, I cooked this afternoon. Two dishes were made; the first was Pennsylvania Dutch Fried Tomatoes and Ham. The recipe came from a cookbook entitled Around the World in 450 Recipes; obviously, the recipe could be found in the North American section. This was easy to make: Lightly coat sliced tomatoes in flour; fry in butter.


Once browned, the tomatoes are placed on hot buttered toast. I added a few slices of ham for a little variety. A little addition is to take the brown bits and cooking juices and stir in 3/4 cup of half-and-half. Theoretically, this will make a creamy gravy to pour over the tomatoes.
In theory, this would be somewhat tasty. But....the gravy turned out really runny.... fried tomatoes are not really my thing.... and most of the taste came from the ham. Thought I would try something today; once will be enough.
Here's the finished product:


With that done, I thought that I would try my hand at an avocado soup. Not too difficult, this one. Take 2 large ripe avocados, remove the pits, mash up the flesh. Press the mash through a sieve into a warm soup bowl. Heat 4 cups of chicken stock with 1 cup of light cream - until hot, but not boiling. Whisk with pureed avocado. Season with salt and white pepper. The white pepper gives it a little kick, but not enough to make you sweat. I bought more avocados than I needed, so I made a double batch - lots of leftovers!
Here are a few pics:

Fresh avocados

Pureeing the avocados

The final product - the soup can also be served chilled.