Most of my close friends already know this, but the first time I made leche flan, I had my Mom taste it. She thought it was the best puto she had ever tasted. My brother made a similar attempt with (eerily enough) similar results.
A few hours ago, Mama cooked a few pans for a costume dinner party she was invited to (yes, costume dinner party...Since it's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here, they're all supposed to be dressed up as human rights activists. Yep. They do stuff like that around here...Tell me about it...Tss...) Providentially, my brother was here at that time.
Big. Deep. Breath. My brother and I decided to tackle that wretched leche-flan-making hurdle once again, but this time, we were going to do it together.
So I did the batter thing...making sure that it didn't get bubbly but remained creamy (hence the puto-effect daw before.) Paolo took care of caramelizing the brown sugar (we both got a little jumpy when the sugar went bubbly and popped, hehe...note for the future: it really does that, so don't scream like a girl...).
We were doing okay, the batter had about 2 bubbles in it and the caramel burned only in a teeny spot...we wrapped it (double wrapped it in fact!) so that the steam wouldn't get into the pan but merely surround it to cook it perfectly (another reason for the puto effect...)
Meanwhile, Mama left dressed as a Muslim activist in honor of our Muslim heritage (we're from Iligan).
(This is totally non-sequitur but I just had to say, she looked really funny in a malong in the middle of a snow storm.)
We waited the pre-requisite 1 hour. We took it out of the steamer. (It looked really professional, too...we have those huge steamer thingamajiggies that the chinese use...) We removed both foil wrappings.
It was too liquid-y.
Denial always comes first, doesn't it?
We said it wasn't undercooked...we just had to let it set. So we let it set. Then we both thought maybe it would be better if it set in the fridge, so that's what we did.
45 minutes later, we had the best tasting squishy pudding we had ever tasted.
As I see it, the foiled leche flan attempt (pun intended, you'll see how there's a pun in a bit...)
1. The double foil wrapper might have blanketed the pan too much. (See? The pun...) As a result, it might have needed to be inside the steamer a bit longer.
2. The pan was too big (it was a bit big...). It might've needed more cooking time.
3. Mama left, bringing with her the good leche flan joojoo.
4. The 3 Bears Theory (patent pending...): First 2 attempts must always be too (insert adjective) - Papa Bear - and too (insert opposite of previous adjective) - Mama Bear. Third attempt will always be just right.
But this trumps all of that...
For those of you who know the sub-reason for my being here, who know the back story...this afternoon was golden because I made syrupy, sipon-like, palpak leche flan with my brother.
With my brother.
We laughed and screamed and laughed at ourselves. It was fantastic. It was fantastic to be that way with him again. It was fantastic.
Can't wait for the 3rd attempt, the Baby Bear attempt. We're all gonna be just fine. :-)
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