by Misty I.

The school that I work for is an innovator in education. For the next four years, I will have the privilege of being what they are calling a “Middle School Culinary Arts Integration Teacher.” I am not deserving of this title but jumped at the chance. Here’s to new adventures, wish me luck!

During a recent staff development day, I had faculty members assemble this kalo bread pudding.

We made two pans of it. One was baked in the oven as the “control” and the second pan was wrapped tightly and lovingly placed in an imu for 12 hours.

Here I am trying to act like I know what I’m doing. That’s the “I’m a little nervous” smile. The faculty and staff actually loved the imu version of the kalo bread pudding. It took on a beautiful mahogany color and somehow tasted like kulolo. Just in case you are wondering, it was still very moist too.

We served it with haupia ice cream as the sweet ending to our lunch and it was so yummy. I don’t know how many of you have access to an imu, so I’ve included the oven version here too.

My kalo bread pudding is based on Ella Yasso’s recipe. I invited Ella to come to my session as I was sharing the moʻokūʻauhau (evolution story) of this bread pudding with staff that day. I wanted to honor Ella and thank her for having such an easy and delicious recipe!

MISTY’S KALO BREAD PUDDING

1 loaf Punalu‘u sweetbread (original) 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ blocks butter or margarine 8-10 large eggs
1 C. sugar 1-2 C. cooked kalo, diced into 1“ cubes
3 C. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter, sugar, and milk, set aside to cool. Cut bread into 1-inch pieces in lightly greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Sprinkle cooked kalo over bread pieces. Add eggs to melted butter mixture (make sure it is not hot or eggs will curdle.) Add vanilla and stir mixture. Using a small cup, pour mixture evenly over bread pieces, letting it soak for 15 minutes. Bake for 45-60 minutes.

IMU METHOD: Same method as above, but use an aluminum pan and wrap entire pan tightly with foil. Carefully place in the imu.

That’s it, only easy!

Here’s a pic of the grinds we had that day! Edamame rice made it on this plate too!