Spanish Flan

A couple months back, Ryan got the word "flan" stuck in his head for some reason.  He said it all the time, "Let's get some flan." "I want flan." "Can you make flan?"  I asked him if he even knew what flan is...nope.  I had never made flan, and for some reason had it in my head it would be a pain in the arse.  Yesterday Ryan got his first publication officially accepted to a big, peer-reviewed journal (very exciting in our nerdy little world!), so I asked him what he wanted for dinner to celebrate.  He's easy, he asked for burritos, so I decided we would need some guacamole to start (guac recipe to come later) and something good for dessert.  Well, the first thing I thought of was...flan!  It went with the dinner theme, and would be a fun surprise for Ryan (even if he didn't know what it was).  Much to my delight, flan turned out to not be so tough.  I also got to try a new baking technique, the water bath**.

Spanish Flan
Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color.  (Stir the sugar a lot, but you don't need to stir constantly, just make sure it isn't sticking and burning.  The sugar will get chunky before it liquefies, so don't let that worry you!  And if the sugar does not completely liquefy, that's okay too, it will continue to melt when you put the whole thing in the oven.)  Carefully pour the hot syrup formed by the sugar into a 9" round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides.  Set aside.
3) Place eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla in a blender and mix just until smooth (this only takes a few seconds).  Pour egg mixture into baking dish.  Cover with aluminum foil (I forgot to cover mine, and it turned out fine, just a bit more browned on top, but not burnt).  To make the water bath**:  place flan dish into a slightly larger baking dish or roasting pan.  Place this in the oven and carefully pour water into the outer dish/pan to within an inch or so of the top of the flan dish (or as high as the outer dish will let you without spilling over).
4) Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes.  Let cool and then place in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
5) To serve, carefully go around the outside edge with a small knife to unstick the entire flan and then carefully invert onto a serving plate (it must be completely cooled!).  Make sure to let plenty of that delicious caramel pour all over it!
6) If you're feeling extra sassy, feel free to dress it up for serving.  Try sprinkling some cocoa powder on top, fresh berries, whipped cream, sliced almonds, shaved chocolate...anything that sounds good to you!  I read a recipe that called for preparing a box of chocolate cake mix and pouring that over the top of the flan before baking it all.

** This is the first time I ever used a water bath for baking.  If it's new to you too, and you want to know more about how/why/when to use this baking technique, check this out:  How to make a water bath

enjoy!
 ~ j

Falafels and Tzatziki

Falafels

This is exactly the recipe I followed to make these.  I thought maybe they were just a little bit too salty, so next time I'll cut back to 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Falafels are usually fried, but after looking at several recipes and reading the reviews, it sounded like baking them would work fine.  So I baked them and thought they turned out great, but you can definitely fry them in oil.

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

1 small to medium size onion, chopped

½ cup fresh parsley

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 egg

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt

1 dash ground black pepper

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup dry breadcrumbs

Instructions:

1)  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a large bowl mash chickpeas until thick and pasty (don’t use a blender, this will make the consistency too thin).  In a blender, process onion, parsley and garlic until smooth.  Stir into mashed chickpeas.

2)  In a small bowl combine egg, cumin, coriander, salt, black & red pepper, lemon juice and baking soda.  Stir into chickpea mixture, along with olive oil.  Slowly add ½ cup of the breadcrumbs.

3)  Form balls and roll each in the remaining breadcrumbs (you can flatten them if you prefer a patty to a ball), then place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes, then turn them over and bake for about 5 more minutes.

Tzatziki (yogurt and cucumber dip)

I read a few tzatziki recipes that used regular (not Greek) yogurt, which required a few hours (or overnight) straining through cheesecloth.  I also read a number of reviews of these recipes that recommended using Greek yogurt because it is already strained.  So I used the Greek yogurt, but I think next time I’ll try the regular yogurt and straining method just to see how it turns out.**

Ingredients:

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded & grated

1 1/3 cups plain non-fat Greek yogurt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

dash dried crushed mint

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp dried dill weed

salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1)  Place cucumber between two towels and press to get most of the moisture out  (I used a cutting board to press).

2)  Mix all the ingredients together.

3)  Refrigerate for a couple hours before serving.

** I have to confess that I took a bit of a shortcut when I made this tzatziki.  I just sliced up the cucumber (did not peel or seed it), pressed the slices in a towel and threw everything in a blender.  It tasted great, but was runnier than tzatziki would usually be.  So if you’re being lazy like me, and don’t mind a soupier dip, that works fine.  :)

enjoy!

 ~ j

Biscuits & Gravy

I know I've mentioned breakfast being our favorite meal around Casa de Sharp, and here's another breakfast recipe for you.  I made both recipes and then froze them for enjoyment at a later (lazier) date.  I froze the gravy in muffin pans and then transferred the little gravy muffins to a big zip-loc bag.  The biscuits are star-shaped because I don't have a biscuit cutter, but do have lots of fun cookie cutters.  The stars were just the right size, and I think they make pretty darn cute lil' biscuits.

Cute little stars served up with
some Boca breakfast sausages

Freezer Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 packages dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

5 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup shortening

2 cups buttermilk

Instructions:

1) Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside.  Sift flour, cut in shortening.  Add yeast and buttermilk to dry ingredients; mix well.  Knead quickly 20 to 30 times.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours.

2) Punch down, roll 1/2" thick.  Cut with biscuit cutter.  Place on a cookie sheet, then freeze.  After frozen place in freezer bag until ready to serve.

3) To prepare:  Place unthawed on cookie sheet in cold oven.  Bake 400 degrees until brown, 25-30 minutes.

**My biscuits turned out a bit on the dense side, but everything I bake here in Denver turns out dense.  I will never be able to adjust for the elevation, so I've given up...but mostly because we're moving down in the world in a few months!  (good for many, many reasons, not just for my baking)  I also think the yeast I used was a little bit on the old side, AND of course, I refuse to use white flour.

The Boca Crumbles definitely made the
gravy less photogenic - I swear that's not cat food!

Country Gravy
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of ground thyme
4 cups milk

Instructions:
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour, salt, pepper and thyme until smooth.  Cook and stir over medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes.  Gradually stir in milk so that no lumps form, and continue cooking and stirring until thickened.  If they gravy becomes too thick, you may thin it with a little more milk.
** I added Boca crumbles to this batch of gravy while I was heating it, which made it look a bit like canned cat food and not very photogenic...but it was really tasty!!

enjoy!
 ~ j