Saturday, February 7, 2009

Nap's Cheesy Eggy Bread Using Crunchy Pandesal Shells

Pandesal is considered one of the staple food of Pinoys. It's so common that you can buy them fresh from the local bakeries, supermarkets, early morning peddlers or even the classy bakeshops. While best eaten in the morning when pandesal is hot and fresh from the bakery, some prefer a new batch in the afternoon after siesta.

There are lots of ways on how to eat pandesal. Some eat it plain, some stuff palaman in it. Some dip it in coffee or hot choco. I tried roasting it over a flame for the roasted aroma. I tried grilling it along with barbecue for the flavor of the barbecue residue. I've tried almost all of the known ways, but here is something fancy I thought of.

Long before, I loathed the upper shells for being to hard to bite so I preferred the soft lower halves with bread spread on 'em. For a change, and to show that I love the upper halves just as much, here's a recipe that uses only the upper shells of the pandesal.


Preparation time: 15min

Ingredients:
4 pcs pandesal
4 tbsp grated cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. Toast pandesal in preheated toaster oven for about 3min or until pandesal shell is crunchy. A little burnt is good too.
2. Slice pandesal horizontally in half, only the upper crunchy shells will be used. You have the lower half to munch on while cooking. ;)
3. Heat butter in pan. Munch on one lower half of the unused pandesal, can't let it go to waste.
4. Dip the soft part of the pandesal shell lightly in beaten egg. Don't get the crunchy part soaked.
5. Put grated cheese on egg-ed side of the pandesal. Add more egg to keep the cheese from falling off--the eggier, the better.
6. Cook egg-and-cheesed side of pandesal in heated pan with butter. Munch on some more lower halves of the unused pandesal.
7. Serve while hot. Crunchiness lasts for that long. Now you get to devour everything.


This is so easy to prepare as all the ingredients and tools are readily available. However, if you don't happen to have a toaster nearby, you can always roast the pandesal over a flame or the ungreased pan. Butter can always be replaced by margarine. I did this minutes before I went to an appointment, it's good for a busy schedule.

Preparing food need not be classy. Take a bite, and enjoy the ride. :)