Poo Pudding (or Dates Part II)

If I thought the braised chicken with dates looked sketchy while it was cooking, then this date pudding looked like a toothless crackwhore standing in the doorway of an opium den with a heroin needle sticking out of her arm, beckoning passersby to taste her earthly delights.

All the ingredients were normal: dates, brown sugar, butter, but somehow, through alchemy or magic or a natural defense mechanism that dates have, the batter for the pudding looked nasty.  I mean NASTY, with a capital "N" and a side of ocular herpes.  Whereas the chicken with dates looked kind of bland and watery while they were cooking, the cooked dates looked like poop.  A thick, sticky mess of feces.  Poo Pudding, Crap Cake - we were all skeptical of eating the pudding, but it was very moist and flavorful and more cake-like than pudding-from-a-pudding-cup-like.  It has very a wintery, Christmas-time taste, which is appropriate because it was in the December issue of Everyday Food.  I've been a little behind on food blogging, but that's no reason to not make this pudding as a dated (ahaha!) ending to the braised chicken with dates dish.

 WTF.  How could anything edible look like this?

Looking better now.  All the other ingredients mellowed out the poo vibe.

Toffee Pudding

(from Everyday Food magazine or Martha Stewart's website)

Serves 8 (or 16 if you eat sweets sparsely like me)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking dish
• 2 cups chopped (about 8 ounces) pitted dates
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Toffee Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter an 8x8 inch baking dish.  In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup of water with the dates.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and add the baking soda.  Stir the hot mess until it thickens, 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, allspice, and salt in a medium bowl.  In a separate, large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium to cream the eggs and sugar until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and keep beating until combined.
With mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the egg-butter one, then add the date mixture.  Keep alternating the flour and date mixture additions three times, starting and ending with flour.  Up the mixer speed to medium and beat some more to combine.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer/toothpick/cake tester poked into the center comes out clean.  While the pudding is baking, make the Toffee Sauce.
Once the pudding is done, put the pan on a wire rack (or not) and poke holes all over with a wooden skewer/toothpick/cake tester.  In the picture below, you can tell I poked holes in a semi-grid pattern, but you can be random.  Just don't poke so many holes that the pudding is all torn up.  Pour half of the toffee sauce all over the top and let sit for 10 minutes.
Serve the cake warm with extra Toffee Sauce.

Toffee Sauce (aka, the most delicious sauce ever.  You might want to make extra sauce so you can really pour it on the finished pudding)

• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons whiskey (I used Jack Daniel's once, and Canadian Mist the other time.  I think I preferred the Jack Daniel's, but that may be 6 months of time and memory lapses talking)

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, cream, and salt.  Heat over medium-high and cook until sugar dissolves and mixture boils, stirring constantly.  Reduce to a simmer and cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the whiskey.

The now good-looking date pudding with a glaze of toffee sauce.

The moral of the story is:  Things that look like feces may actually be delicious.  And maybe we should give that toothless crackwhore a chance.

Date (the fruit, not the romantic encounter) Dinner

Those samplers at Sam's Club know what they're doing. I once had a "Fancy Medjool Date" handed to me on a toothpick by an elderly lady wearing a hairnet, and I was delighted. The date was gooey and honey/raisin-y. My mom hated it, but I wanted to eat more.

Maybe it was serendipity, maybe it was good seasonal planning on MSLO's part, but a few weeks later I got an issue of Everyday Food magazine in which the "Have You Tried...?" section highlighted....Wheat Germ!

I jest. It was dates, everyone's least known drupe fruit!

The next time I was at Sam's Club, I bought dates so I could make two of the dishes from the magazine - a delicious chicken dish and a festive date pudding.

The braised chicken with dates was surprisingly delicious. I was weary of the yellowish, watery mass that was the braising chicken, but it was pretty tasty, especially with couscous.

 There are a lot of onions, so this dish has to be good.  There are few things more mouthwatering than the smell of sauteing onions when I'm hungry.

Dates in the background, minced ginger in the foreground.
 

Mmm.  These assorted chicken parts have been browned for flavor, but are still raw and teeming with Salmonella and E. Coli and all sorts of other bacteria inside.

Cooking the sauce with dates, cilantro, and spices.

Braised Chicken with Dates
(from Everyday Food magazine, or Martha Stewart's website)
Serves 4

• 1 whole chicken (3.5-4 lbs, quartered) OR 4 split breasts OR 4 leg quarters    (I didn't have a quartered chicken, so I used 3 leg quarters and 2 thighs.  All in all, I preferred the thighs.  They were much easier to eat.)
• Salt
• Ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 yellow onions, chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika (or regular paprika.  It works just as well.)
• 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander (I omitted this and it was fine.)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1 cup chopped pitted dates (about 4 ounces)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 lemons, halved, for serving (or not.  I didn't want to buy a lemon, so I left this out.)

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces.  Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven (if you are so fortunate as to have one) over medium-high heat.  Cook the chicken, skin side down, until it is brown and crisp, about 6 minutes.  Flip the chicken and cook for about 6 minutes more.  Transfer the chicken to a plate.
Add onions to the pot, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the ginger, paprika, and coriander.  Cook for 2 minutes, stirring. 
Place chicken evenly over the onions and spices.  Add the water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until chicken is done, about 40-45 minutes.
Move the chicken to a serving dish.  Increase the heat to high and boil the cooking liquid until it is reduced by half, 12 to 15 minutes. 
Stir in dates and cilantro.  Season with salt and pepper. 
Pour sauce over chicken and serve with lemon halves and couscous. 

Chicken with sauce and couscous.  A hearty Middle Eastern-esque dinner.