It has been so warm here recently, although I am enjoying the sun (SUN!!!) immensely, I am also more than a little worried that it is so warm so soon and that the apple trees and other fruit trees might begin their blooming way before the last frost, thereby risking the fruit crop this year. But that doesn't mean I didn't pack or first picnic today and meet nic after work to eat egg salad on light rye sourdough with herb de provence mustard and a spinach salad. I did, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, laying the in the sunshine afterwards with our shoes and socks off, wiggling our toes in their new found freedom. The air always feels so luscious on my toes when they get to be in it again outside after the winter.
I have been experimenting with flan making lately, which I think I now have down. It only took 10 tries, I think. Not only did I have to figure out the ingredients- goat milk maybe 2 cups, eggs three medium, sugar maybe 1/4 cup, cinnamon 1 tsp and vanilla, or chai spices steeped in the milk first. And of course the right process and order of steps, but I had to learn my whole oven, which still seems to be way way hotter than every other oven I have ever worked with. Although doing this all in another system of measure is of course difficult because it is hard to compare. But the recipe I had said that it should bake at a relatively high temperature, I think 325 F for 50 minutes! In my oven that means 150 centigrade for 25 minutes. Anyway, the recipe, sort of: First, start the caramel on the stove (sugar and water) in the dish you want to make your flan in, turn on the oven with the big glass pyrex dish in it already and get the water boiling in the cooker. Then, in another pot, heat the milk on medium with the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon in it (unless making chai spiced flan, then you actually have to do this step first so the spices have long enough to give their flavor. Next, beat the eggs in another bowl. When the water is boiled in the cooker and the milk is warm but not boiling over, pour the milk into the eggs while mixing continuously with a whisk. Pour the whole thing now into the warm caramel, very gently, so that you don't end up with a hole in the caramel. Place the flan into the pyrex dish and then pour the boiling water into the pyrex dish so that 2/3 of the flan pan is submerged (now you have made your bain marie). Now, wait and let it cook. But it should not be too hot, your oven or your flan will puff and turn cakey. It should also not bake too long because either it will turn cakey, or the top layer will become hard and rubbery.
But yesterday, or maybe the day before, I had some apples at hand that needed eating, actually, cooking. and i thought, oh my gosh, tarte tatin and flan all together in the same pan! So I made my pastry- two parts flour to 1 part butter, pinch or two of salt and cold water and put it in the fridge while I caramelized the apples in butter and sugar and then made the flan filling and got the oven and so forth ready as above. Then, i poured the flan over the apples, covered it with the pastry and baked it. I got all confused and forgot I could actually lay the dough into the pan and used a pie tin instead so it would all be the same level, which did not fit quite right into the bigger pan i tried to use rather than my pyrex, and so the water did not even touch the pie plate, and i had no idea how long to bake it given the crust. But still, it was AMAZING! and of course, I have to make it again. No picture, sorry, we ate it too fast. but when I get it really right, then I'll have to take one and post it.
Which reminds me, my boss at the restaurant said that we don't give out recipes, because if the customer thinks that it tasted good, we want them to come back and eat it here, with us. no matter if they were here from really far away for a seminar and won't be around again, if ever for me to make whatever it was I made that they liked. And I thought, how sad, I have always, always given out my recipes- heck, I just gave you all my flan and my tarte tatin/flan recipe- because the point is, let's all eat good food, we deserve to eat food that is delicious and that inspires us to be more alive and more in love. And, food should be eaten together and cooked together and for one another. And, recipes, even if you share them, never, ever taste the same when someone else makes them, even if they use the same recipe, because the hands, heart, soil, ingredients, and ovens of every person are so different. And Listening to Susun Weed about why she uses Simples, that is infusions of just one herb, as medicine, is that they are expressly NOT proprietary blends. They are easy to find, grow, or buy, and easy to duplicate, so that the power of healing oneself and one's family is in every one, not just in some doctor or specialist. The simple also allows us to notice what effect the herb is having and whether it is helping or not. It is a practice of, as Starhawk says, power with, not power over. I mean, when it really comes down to it, is one bowl of chick pea curry really going to make or break the bank? No, but sharing a recipe and giving a person the gift of the story of where that recipe comes from, and how they got it, and passing it on through making it, to others, and maybe sharing the recipe further on. That means something, carries truth and realness in it. It is a handmade thing that can be shared. Like seeds, growing them and giving them away, or trading them, or selling them, so that everyone can grow a fabulous delicious Japanese truffle tomato, if they can gather some earth and a container to grow them in. The whole GMO seed/monsanto/genetic ownership thing has now come to Germany, by the way, regarding where bees collect pollen and who owns the plants, and in the case of big business, who owns the seeds or the patent on the seeds that the bees visit. Can you imagine anything more stupid? But that is a whole other blog post.
Up next in the recipe adventure: Nettle Beer and Sourdough Rye Zwiebelkuchen. Recipes and stories to follow.
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