Lan Phan

English 100

5/2/2014

Lauren Shea

The best Crème Caramel in the world

If you could have any dessert for your lunch or dinner, what would you have? Would you have a piece of cupcake, an ice cream or a chocolate candy bar? To me, the most important reason that I chose crème caramel for my desserts because crème caramel is my favorite food and it always reminds me of my sister, who gives me food and prepare the food I love.

My sister is a perfect one. She is the one who knows me best. My sister and I even have many of the same interests, which include making food. My sister knows how to take care of herself and others. She enjoys cooking so much. She always tells me: “If you love someone, don’t say it. Just prove it. Action speaks louder than word”. So, making food is the way she shows her love. Honestly, she is not the one who usually cooks food in my family, but when she does, her food is really delicious. She always knows what I like and makes me happy by making food for me, especially crème caramel.

We are all known that crème caramel originated in Ancient Roman times and it was one of their first recipes to be made with eggs. At first it was not a sweet dish but it was savory one. By the time, people changed the way to make crème caramel better and fit their taste. My sister’s dish is totally different from everyone else. She makes her own recipes and her crème caramel is always good. It’s the best crème caramel in the world that I have ever eaten.

My sister loves making this dessert. When she makes crème flan, my stomach is always rumble because I can smell something delicious. I always remember how the lovely caramel perfumed her kitchen; it’s the kind of sweet smell any child would dream about. Watching her make caramel was a treat; it looked like magic, seeing the white sugar turn into a golden brown caramel. Even crème caramel is easy to make, but if you overcook the caramel, it has a burn taste. It has to be cook just right. I love the delicate, beautiful amber color and its smooth, velvety texture. The cold of shaved ice reduces the sweetest of the flan’s caramel, maintain it texture and keep its nice and cold. I have often watched my sister to make it. . I remembered each flan was made in a very small round. After it was done, the flan was flipped into a plate and topped with shaved ice. Flan was made of eggs, milk, and condenses milk and these ingredients weren’t expensive. My sister made the caramel first, and then made the custard later. By making the caramel she used sugar and a little bit of water. She placed water and sugar in a little pot, boiled the water and sugar for five minutes, stirred it until the syrups started to turn into a deep amber color. The sound of boiling sugar and water in the pot was like the sound of rain beat against the window. It made noise “uuuttt uuuttt”. Then my sister turned the heat off and poured the caramel immediately into a baking pan and tilted the pan to make sure that the caramel is coated evenly at the bottom of the baking pan. She placed a baking tray in the oven, preheated oven at three hundred fifty degree and poured boiling water in the tray about two-thirds way up of the baking flan. Then she started to make the custard. She was really careful to make the custard; she used six eggs, six eggs yolks, one can sweet condense milk, one can hot water, one can hot water, one can whole milk and one bag of vanilla. First, my sister mixed the hot water and condenses milk in a separate bowl, stirred it until it dissolved. She added the whole milk into the bowl, and then she used another bowl and whisked the eggs until it blended. She poured the mixture into the egg bow and did a quick whisk. She also added one bag of vanilla and strained it. She poured plan mixture in a baking pan, placed baking pan in hot tray water and baked it in about fifty minutes. To check if the flan was done, she inserted a toothpick into the flan, if it came out clean, it was done. The last step was just removed the baking pan from the water tray and let it cool. Then she transferred it into the fridge and chilled it for an hour. When it was ready to serve, she ran a knife around the edge to loosen and flipped the custard onto a plate. With those amount of ingredients could serve for more than five people in my family. I usually eat crème caramel with coffee. By adding coffee to my crème caramel, it made my crème caramel more special. I love the bitter of coffee with the sweet of caramel, the smell of milk and eggs, etc...When you take a piece of crème caramel, it feels like you having ice cream in the summer. You can never stop eating it.

I still remember when my family first came to the United States from Vietnam; there were only three days until my birthday so my family didn’t have time to prepare for it. My sister didn’t want me to be sad on my birthday; she made a crème caramel birthday cake for my birthday. It was the only present that I got on my 17th birthday, but it made my birthday more special. The feeling of blowing out candles on the crème caramel birthday cake was totally different from the regular birthday cake. It touched my heart really much. It might nothing else to other people, but to me it meant a lot. Whenever I eat crème caramel, it connects me to my 17th birthday and brings me a powerful sense of contentment.

When everyone asked for the recipe my sister would always say yes, but no one could make it like my sister because technique played a part. There are times when she doesn’t have vanilla she just uses sugar instead but the tastes of her crème caramel is never changed. Her crème caramel has been the wonderful and delicious in the world. She never fails to make it.

I love coming home on weekend with the whole house smelling of eggs, milk, vanilla and sugars. It was like a holiday to our family when my sister made crème caramel. Everyone would gather in the kitchen and wait for that first piece come out of the oven. We'd all fight for that first warm, savory, sweet slice of heaven.

When I think of my sister’s cooking and the dish that is still always in my mind, I still can remember the taste. In some nights, I dream that that I still gather with my family in the kitchen and eat crème cream, when I wake up I feel sad because it was only a dream. Then I realize that those beautiful memories of the happy time I spent with my sister in the kitchen would be always in my heart and my mind. Crème caramel will be my favorite desserts ever.