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I made this dish for my darling dearest on his 24th birthday…It is a Mexican dessert ….sorta like a caramel custard…Very easy to make…however…very easy to screw up also…. !!! A note about making caramel…You must stir it constantly until it becomes dark-brown…not blackened charcoal! Otherwise…it would taste very bitter!!! …Patience People..don’t give up if you don’t get it the first time.
The actual way to present this dessert is to get it out of the ramekin by loosening the edges and turning it upside down, allowing the caramel to flow all over the custard. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of them while they were still in the ramekins..no worries though…the pictures still look good and well…. the taste is superb! *Try it. This Mexican delicacy makes you look like you slaved in the kitchen for hours!*
My beloved could not stop eating this..haha…
Mexican Flan
This is how it is presented
Baking tools you’ll need:
6-8 ramekins
A baking tray big enough to fit all the ramekins
A whisk
A big baking bowl
Baking ingredients you’ll need:
3/4 of 1 (14 ounce can) of condense milk
1 cup of brown sugar
6 whole eggs, big ones if you can find em
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 can (14 ounce) evaporated milk
Here’s what you do:
Set the oven to 180 c.
1. Boil enough hot water to fill HALF the baking tray.
2. Crack all the eggs in the bowl…whisk them until they’re well blended..Now GRADUALLY add the milks…condense and evaporated..add them in phases while whisking.
3. Add the vanilla and whisk until well-blended. Set aside.
4. Place all 6-8 ramekins side-by-side in the baking tray that is filled wih hot water.
5. Here comes the tricky bit. Turn on your stove to medium heat. Place a pot over the heat and put 1 cup of sugar in there… with a wooden spatula, stir the sugar constantly….add a bit of water to start the melting process… when it becomes dark-brown, turn off the heat.
6. Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of caramel into each ramekin and twirl the ramekin around so the bottom bit is coated. If the sugar in your pot hardens, reheat it to melt it again.
7. Now that all your ramekins are coated with caramel, fill them with the egg mixture.
8. Place them all back in the tray filled with hot water and CAREFULLY put the tray in the oven.
9. Let your flan in the waterbath bake for 20 minutes or until the top is brown. Pierce a fork or a knife through one of the ramekins. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If it is not, lower the heat to 150 c and let it cook until you can prick a fork through it and it comes out clean.
10. Take the tray out of the oven and let cool. Once the ramekins are cool, put them in the fridge to set for about 2 hours…make sure you cover them with cling wrap to avoid loosing the moisture.
11. And finally, take them out and use a flattened-edged knife (it resembles a butter knife), or a flattened spoon and loosen the edges of the custard by going around the ramekin. Turn it upside down on a plate and tap it… Remove the ramekin and voila..perfection.!
If you came this far, I am so proud of you. Baking is easy if you just apply a little love and care …tempered with a lot of patience!
Happy Eating!
Saturday was a great day… it was sunny out and I thought a swim at Aunty Perin’s could go a long way. ..since…well.. I only went to the gym once this week… We took Roshan down to the pool with us…..and all he wanted to do was just play by the edge of the pool…with his pale and shovel…a continuous repitition of pouring water back in the pool… how boring right?
He’s such a cutie though…look:
"Can everyone please stop fussing over me?"
Roshan & me. He refuses to look into the camera!
Kiss Kiss Muah
Aunty Perin's scenic pool
Lovingly saying...Glycogen boy
After our swim, TYL and I went for lunch at this Indian restaurant called Passage Thru india… Yi Liang ordered Kashmiri Pulao (rice dish served with nuts and fruits), and I ordered Dhum Mutton Biryani…and we ordered a side dish of Paneer Makhina (cottage cheese in a buttery sauce)….food was seriously good..however…the Biryani here has yet to top the lamb biryani I had at the Park Hotel in Chennai… mmm mmm mmm!!!
Our food
After lunch, we hopped over to MV …to get my battery for my phone but like when I found out the price..170 bucks…my head went spinning…I was like, forget it, I’ll just get it from Digital Mall. We walked around for a bit..ended up in Dorothy Perkins…bought myself a top and then went over to MPH…where TYL got me another book by Jodi Picoult…Handle With Care….I can’t wait to read it…she’s just an amazing author!
After MV, it was like 5 so We decided that we might as well get the battery thing sorted so we went to Digi Mall in Section 14..the pirated battery costs…50! haha…so we got that lah…
We went to Mc’ds for dins…shortly after….then we went back to Hartamas..
So that was that la for a day in Keisha’s life..
Until we meet again..xoxo
A typical busy street in Chennai
My second day began with a short stint at the gym… in short.. I got irritated at this girl in the gym because she could not stop exercising…. So my motivation was down the toilet bowl as I could barely do a fraction of what she did… haha… so I had a shower, ate breakfast and went to the hospital to see the ENT.
The ENT basically said that at this point, a hearing aid would be necessary to help me cope with college and social situations and hence, he referred me to a distributor of such a product…
After having met the audiologist, he too came to a conclusion that the hearing aid would not only aid in a social situation but it will also arrest and/or slow down the hearing degradation.
The audiologist proceeded to then tune a hearing aid according to my specifications detailed in the audiogram. Apparently, the part of the cochlear that processes high frequency sounds is severely lacking, so the hearing aid has been tuned to amplify high frequencies. I was given a day to test-run the product and boy did some things sound a helluva lot louder!
Unfortunately, the hearing aid is sooo difficult for me to put on due to its small size. My fingers are not so dextrous and finer points of sensation are not so good. As such, I need help putting on this tiny contraption. I was duly informed by the staff at this company on how to maintain this expensive product. Not surprisingly, this hearing aid is sensitive to water, sweat and oil…. moisture in other a words… so I was given this dehumidifier jar to suck out excess moisture every night. And the battery needs to be changed every two weeks… so yeah… the bloody gadget costs as much an apple notebook! Goodness. Gracious. Me.
Too small
close up
That pretty much sums up my time in Chennai… my spine is healthy..my right ear needs help and my spirit is lifted…
As an added bonus, I got upgraded to first class back home.. cool eh?
I am so grateful that the Lord has been merciful in bringing people into my life to help me when I need it. I am so so relieved that my quality of life has not been affected but rather, technology has compensated.
Christmas is around the corner and I know that I certainly have a lot to be thankful for….
until next time xoxoK
So like everyone who knows me were astonished to find out I was travelling alone to Chennai… until I tell them that Dilip is meeting me there… then they all go “ahhh… then it’s okay lah!”
I do admit that I was a wee bit nervous cause it was my first time on my own… but in the end it wasn’t so bad..locating the gate was easy enough… however I NEGLECTED to tell you at this point that I had to hand carry my notebook from K.L. all the way to Chennai. Why? Because the bag I was suppose to carry on-board was too heavy and I had to check it in so obviously I could not risk my computer getting damaged…so I hand carried it in a duty-free bag…
I arrived in Chennai safe and sound…however… Dilip was no where in sight… turned out he missed his flight and he arrived later than I did…
On top of that, I took the wrong bag because it looked like my bag at first..lol… i ran back in as soon as I realized my mistake and the guards were kind and uhmm…sympathetic enough to my plea…lol… haha… you gotta learn at some point.
So finally after I met up with Dilip Gidwani and the cabby, we headed off to our apartment-turned hotel: Krish Infra, Le Grande. In retrospect, Dilip wasn’t really happy with the place because the internet connection was poor. However, contrary to his beliefs about Le Grande, I have nothing but appreciation for a reasonable-ish priced hotel. Let me tell you why: in all the times I have been to Chennai, I have tried a myriad of hotels, ranging from the 3 star to 5 star hotels. I had the misfortune of not being cognizant of the state of these dingy 3 star hotels until I stayed there. I remember the first one I stayed in smelled of insecticide, and the second one I stayed in had no hot water. Furthermore, the beds were totally unbearable for my back. Of course the 5 star hotels were beyond brilliant but the price was through the roof! So in my time at Apollo last year in 2007, my aunts and my mom found this reasonably-priced hotel tucked in a little scenic section of Chennai called Poese Gardens: Le Grande. This picturesque neighborhood is painted by many beautiful houses and mansion-turned apartments. It’s not anything like the stereotypical busy, dirty and polluted streets of Chennai. The neighborhood streets were squeaky clean and were adorned with nature-inspired decor: trees and flowers…
Street of Poese Gardens
Thankfully, the place was clean, the beds were comfortable, the staff were warm and the food was so-so. Internet connection can be lousy but that is the one and only downfall as I see it.
my humble abode
Ok so the good news is that my spine is in good shape but the bad news is that my hearing isn’t doing AMAZINGLY well. As such, Dr. Hegde referred me to an ENT specialist and I was to meet him the next day. The next post will describe the following day at Apollo. Before we left Dr. Hedgehog’s clinic, Dilip and the Doc were making small talk. Hedgehog recommended we dine at Kabul as Dilip was not familiar with the good eateries in Chennai so there you go.. that was our final destination that day before retiring back to Le Grande. Kabul is an Afghanistan-inspired restaurant that serves Indian cuisine. I had the mutton gosht biryani which was absolutely succulent while Dilip feasted on some rotis. For dessert, we had pistachio kulfi… that too was sinfully delicious. I was rather intrigued by the ceiling of this cozy restaurant. It was embellished with Afghan artistry, heavy embroidery with intense yet colorful patterns… What do you think?Too much?
Too much?
There you have it… my first and hectic day in Chennai. After Kabul, I fell straight to bed and dreamt the night away.
Till next time.. xoxoK
front view of Le Grande
I had a good Deepavali lunch last week on Sunday at my aunt’s house. The food that was prepared by my Amama was just tantalizing to the palate… really fantastic as usual. My cousin Natasha did a great job with the decor…. and I just had to take some pictures….it was just so beautiful.
Simple yet stunning centerpiece
Serene candlelight
Cool artwork
My couz got skill!
I
mm MM mmm Dig in!
Enter Through Keisha's Mind & Soul. My writings are my life especially when I write for Life Poetry. Visit my blog to hopefully connect and discover a part of yourself as well. Life is tough and the way to get through it is through support and encouragement. My faith is what keeps me going and I often include my spirituality in my poetry as you will see. God is Good!