Crema Catalana

As any normal sunday morning in the Carmen household, the day started by me (Carmen Jnr) asking mum (Carmen Snr) what was happening today (in the hope that we would get to go shopping). Instead, the reply was something towards the lines of "I'm cooking". The look of disappointment on my face wouldn't surprise many. Mother wasn't impressed, "You know Carmen, you should cook with me. You need to learn to cook". If this wasn't the 500 millionth time I had heard those lines, I might have paid attention. Except this time, for some reason which I cannot currently remember, the thought came to mind that I should make a blog about this, the whole "my mother won't shut up about teaching me how to cook because I'm not a real woman if I can't cook" thing. Oh wait, I remember now. I told Mum to make a blog about her recipes, since she has been complaining of not being able to find the "perfect" recipe book (us Carmens are picky creatures). So yes, I decided to start a blog. And here is the first recipe in it, one that is very (extremely) simple, but delicious nonetheless.

(aka Crème brûlée: the spanish version)

 

Ingredients:

1/2 L milk (full-cream preferably)

4 egg yolks (refer to <how to properly separate egg yolk from white>)

150g sugar

--> mother does this by eye. therefore, amounts are approximate and may differ. Do it by taste, as below

Method:

In medium/large saucepan, heat milk and add other ingredients.
Mix continuously, ensure there are no lumps (lumps=bad)
If lumpy, use a hand-held blender to mix thoroughly
Keep heating until mixture becomes thick, the time it takes will depend on amount of ingredients.
Once mixture reaches approximately the texture of thick custard, remove from heat.
Pour into one large (preferably flatter) container/dish or into individual mini-pots.

Refrigerate until cold

Coat the surface of the “crema” mix with sugar (about 1mm thick, until you can no longer see the yellow under the white coat of sugar)

The following step can be done using either a flame torch or a branding iron (refer to images). Burn the sugar until it turns brown (brown, not yellow – if it is yellow, keep burning it).

Refrigerate until burnt sugar coating (or “caramelo”) turns hard.

Serve cold, and enjoy!

 We tested a brand-new flame torch today, after having used a branding iron many times before, and were not impressed: it took ages long to make the sugar go crispy. Therefore, we turned to the branding iron we had always used, and as a result the flame torch is up on ebay.