The Most Dangerous Game

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Have I mentioned we like to cook?

We do. And when conditions allow for it, we like to invite as many of our friends at post over for food as we can. Sometimes, we can get away with it easily because we have the space, like when we were in Ashgabat. Sometimes, like here, not so much. There's a limit to how many people we can find room for, so all our events at the home have been smaller as a result. This past week was the embassy thanksgiving potluck / trivia night. As we won't really be celebrating Thanksgiving at post, we brought our Thanksgiving (minus our yams :( ) to the potluck. As it was not in our house, this made it even easier to make food for more than eight people. We ended up bringing a turkey, gravy, green bean casserole, corn, and last but not least, flan.

For those of you who don't know what flan is- it is a custard dessert, made with sweetened condensed milk. You could say it is similar to Crème brûlée (which I also like), but you would be wrong because Crème brûlée is like a 'delicate' version of flan. Flan is like its older, bruiser of a sibling that smacks you in the face with flavor.With Crème brûlée, the sweet, sweet caramel is on the top. With flan, it lurks at the very bottom of the pan, underneath the flan itself*.**



Like the picture above, of my loaf pan before I poured the flan mixture inside and set it to cook in the oven. You may be wondering to yourself how I got the caramel in the pan, coating the sides and bottom.

That, my friends, is the most dangerous (and tricky!) part of making flan. This caramel sauce is made in the loaf pan, on the stove.

Sugar close to caramelizing!
If you try to move the sugar around too much, it will crystallize in the pan. So, you have to let it sit till it begins to melt and caramelize (usually beginning in the center of the pan). Shortly thereafter, it will spread to the rest of the sugar and (while wearing oven mitts or using pot holders!) you can begin spreading the caramel onto the sides of the loaf pan. Word of warning- if you try to make this stuff, don't burn yourself with the caramel because it is like lava and you will be in horrible pain if it comes into contact with your skin!


 As I cannot give you my mom's recipe for this (because she'd kill me), I can point you to a very similar recipe online for flan that you can make and get similar delicious results. I will also say that if you have not already, you should invest in a temperature gauge for your oven, so you have the accurate temperature at all times. Also, you might want to strain the flan mixture as your pour it into your loaf pan. And cover it with aluminum foil before placing in the water bath inside the oven.

Another not as perfect (but still delicious!) flan from this week.


Happy cooking!


*...because most of the time you never get to pop the flan out of the loaf pan, because people just start getting slices and scooping out caramel before you can flip it and make it presentable.

** Which is why I have no pictures of the finished flan, as it was devoured in short order at the potluck before I could take photos. :(







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