Dairy-free Leche Flan (Filipino style)

Well the holidays are coming and I started craving Leche Flan. Leche flan is a Filipino custard-type desert.  I grew up eating it, made by my parents using the traditional way. Loaded with milk and eggs.  My daughter and I are allergic to dairy and I had to find a way to make it safe for us.

Warning: Recipe contains a lot of sugar!   We don't eat this everyday so to me it's okay.

Ingredients:

For the caramel syrup:

1 cups organic sugar

For the flan:

3 beaten eggs

4 large egg yolks

3/4 cup organic sugar

2 1/2 cup rice or hemp milk(probably almond milk will work too)

1/2 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla

You will need some sort of a mold or ramekins. I used medium sized ramekins, Corning ware.  You will also need a metal roasting pan, aluminum will do.

In a heavy pan, heat 1 cup of sugar until it melts on medium heat. Swirl it around to make sure there are no lumps.  Do not burn the syrup!  After it's done, divide it between the ramekins. For my recipe I had 5 ramekins.

Now on to the flan.  In a sauce pan, pour the non-dairy "milk" and the vanilla.  Don't boil it but just let it simmer on low. 

In  a bowl mix the eggs and sugar using a handheld mixer. I mixed mine on medium setting until it's fully mixed.  Then slowly add the non-dairy milk/vanilla mixture.  Mix it again with your mixer. Pour it in the ramekins. Fill the roasting pan with water and place the ramekins inside. You want to make sure the water comes up at least halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cook it on 355 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.  You want it a little jiggly and a bit firm. 

Once it's done, take them out. To get the flan out, you want to use a sharp nice and run it inside the edge of the ramekin.  Then get a plate, place it on top of the ramekin, shake it a little and the flan should slide right out.

I hope you enjoy it! Everyone that have tasted this said it tastes just like the Filipino Leche flan. 

Gluten-free Turon

Turon is a popular Filipino sweet, sort of like a lumpia-wrapped banana or plantain.  I am used to it being a plantain lumpia.  I grew up eating it but since going gluten-free 5 years ago, I've had to figure out how to make it okay for us to eat.  While the lumpia wrapper is made of wheat, the wrap I used is made of rice.  I made these several times until I decided why not post it, maybe someone else might like it.  My family loves it.

You can purchase the rice wraps at Kroger and Asian and Filipino stores.  Follow the instructions that comes with it.

Ingredients:

1 large very ripe plantain
1/4 cup organic sugar
Sunflower oil or use coconut oil if you're able to tolerate it(I can't)
Sliced jackfruit (optional)

Cut the plantain in thin small sizes.  Get the rice wraps ready.  Lay the plantain on the wrap, add a little bit of the sugar and fold it in sideways and roll it all the way. Seal the end with a little water.

Heat oil in medium on a frying pan.  When it's hot then you can slowly put the turon to fry. They tend to stick to make sure they are spaced apart.  Cook until both sides are light brown and crispy. Drain. You can serve it with ice cream or just eat it by itself.

Enjoy!

Plantain(flour) pancakes

I have been meaning to post this and keep forgetting. This is one of our favorites. If you wanted to try something exotic, try plantain flour. Plantain and plantain flour are staples at our house. I normally use the flour for making pancakes. I don't really measure anything when I make plantain pancakes but I'll estimate for the sake of this post.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plantain flour
1 egg
2 tbsp sunflower oil or any oil you prefer
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp aluminum free baking soda
1/4 cup milk or anything non-dairy that you use. I mostly use hemp milk
2 tbsp Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Mix it all until all lumps are gone.  Heat skillet to medium.  Once on medium,  I normally turn it down to less than medium, on my stove it's on a "3."  It doesn't take long to cook so keep an eye on it and flip it to cook the other side.  Serve warm with organic maple syrup.

(Non-dairy) Cheesy and crumbly chicken

I am missing breaded chicken so I came  up with this recipe.  This is an easy dish and you don't need a lot of prep time and cooking time either.

Ingredients:

4 pieces of chicken breasts, thawed
1/2 cup of shredded  Daiya cheese mozarella flavor
1/2 cup of crushed Nature's Path rice cereal
2 tablespoon of organic Spectrum shortening (not melted)

Preheat the stove at 425 degrees F.  Cover the chicken with the shortening, then roll around the crushed rice cereal and Daiya (cheese substitute).   Make sure it's covered.   Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until done.

For the side dish:

1 package of organic green beans
1/2 cup water
Leftover bacon fat(from frying bacon), you can use any animal fat you have such as tallow or duck.

In a frying pan, put the green beans and the water. Bring to a boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes or until tender. Then when the water is nearly gone, add the bacon fat and stir it around.  Serve hot with the chicken.

My daughter loved this, she was begging me to make more later.