Sweet for my Sweet

After an amazing weekend with amazing friends,Monday is here again, my most hated day of the week so I decided to fill it up with pleasant thing to do,so it goes quick and easy.

Saying that I don’t like Mondays, actually can be changed, as I am having a great one already.

The weather moved forward and it’s like a proper spring day, sunny and fresh, not too hot and not too cold - just how I want it.

Little “signore” is behaving very well and that really helps with going though the “Monday” syndrome.

As I already said, had some friends over for dinner on Friday and after a bit of thinking and debating with myself what to cook for them / us I decided to stick with well known chicken made-up on the minute marinade, some spicy potato wedges, asparagus and butter fried wild mushrooms.Yum! Made some dressing for the asparagus with extra virgin olive oil, soya sauce, garlic...

 I am afraid I can’t give you the recipe without the photos so I will make it again and post it after.

I did’t have the time to take pictures and didn’t have the right light too.We were starving and wanted to sit and have a good chat with some good German beer for the boys and great red wine for the precious girls.

I do have a little photo of the dessert though, as I made an extra portion and did take the image on the next day. Hurray!

I found this recipe online and it sounded very easy and different so I had to give it a try. I didn't have very much time on my hands and bambino was wandering around so had to get him involved too, so this recipe was the perfect option.

Flan!

The Spanish, Portuguese or Mexican version of Creme Caramel normally baked in the oven in water bath and turned out on it’s mold onto a plate.

Flan is such an old desert and appreciated by so many countries.

It’s recipes are found as far back as ancient Rome.

The main ingredients are eggs, cream or milk.In those times the milk probably wasn’t cows milk, because Romans avoided beef, and may be the eggs weren’t chicken eggs either.

Romans were obsessed by any kind of eggs and after consulting the Greek’s knowledge of art of cooking, developed new recipes and one of them turned out to be the custardy mixture known later as Flan. 

Roman flan was a savory dish but they did a sweet option too which was flavored with honey.

Published recipes for flan dated from 1600‘s.

Some were flavored with almonds,cinnamon,vanilla,pistachio,lemon,cheese,curd,spinach even fish.

Flan is one of the most popular and loved desserts in Mexico.The dish was brought to those lands when the Spanish arrived in the country.

In England the recipe went its own way and it’s very different kind of flan.

It has pastry shell with open top filled with custard and often mixed with fruit and nuts.

But no matter what it’s for sweet lovers.

We all appreciated it and I have the ambition to find a few different recipes and try them out.

This one was basic and very easy, quick and absolutely divine!

Here is the recipe I’ve used:

6 egg yolks

1 can evaporated milk

1can condensed milk

1tsp vanilla

For the caramel: 3/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C

Add sugar in saucepan on medium heat and let it melt till it caramelizes.

Carefully pour it in the ramekins - 6 of them.

In a bowl mix together the egg yolks, vanilla and  both kind of milk.

Pour custard over the caramel and put in big baking tray, fill it up with 3/4 up the ramekins with hot water.

Bake for 40-50 minutes  till the center is slightly soft.

Let them cook completely.

When you are ready to serve them run a knife on the sides of the ramekins and invert to serving dish, let the flan float in the delicious caramel like a little island.

Buen Provecho!

PS: THANK YOU Roberta,Johan and sweet Ingrid for the lovely evening!