Quarantine can surely make us miss things we usually do or get outside our homes. In my case, I've been eating mostly salty and sour foods since the quarantine rule was implemented. It's been more than a month and I'm getting really sad and desperate to eat something sweet. Lol.
I was looking for something delicious but easy to cook. And I found this.
The all-time favorite, leche flan (caramel pudding)!!!
Leche flan is a dessert introduced by the Spanish to Filipinos during the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. It is a sweet delicacy made of eggs, milk, and sugar. "Leche" means milk in Spanish.
This sweet treat has been among my favorites since childhood and I wouldn't mind eating it everyday. I remember when I was a kid, I had my mother buy me a pan of leche flan and devoured it only myself. 😂
Of course, I do not have my own recipe for leche flan and so I searched for a recipe with little measurements of ingredients so I don't use up a lot of our stocks. I found this recipe on Youtube which is originally for a Japanese caramel pudding. But it doesn't matter, it's still the same leche flan. Lol. I didn't follow one step though, so here's how I did it.
INGREDIENTS:
CARAMEL
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Water
PUDDING
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 Cup Sugar
- 300ml milk / evaporated milk
PROCEDURE:
CARAMEL
1.) In a pan, pour 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp water. Wait until the sugar melts and turns to light brown. Set aside.
PUDDING
1.) Beat 3 eggs and add 1/3 cup sugar. Mix.
2.) Slowly pour the milk while mixing. Continue mixing until the mixture has blended well together. You can add vanilla extract but that is optional. In our case, we didn't add vanilla extract because we have none. Ugh, quarantine! Lol.
3.) Using a strainer, pour the mixture to the pan where the caramel is. Straining the mixture will lessen or remove the bubbles on the pudding.
STEAMING
1.) Use a pot and place another container to elevate the pan. And then, pour water on the pot. You can choose to cover your pan or not. However, if you don't cover the pan, some water from steam will go to your pan. But that's fine.
2.) Steam to around an hour in low heat. Use a toothpick to check if the caramel pudding is already cooked. Poke the pudding and if there's no pudding sticking on the toothpick, your caramel pudding is cooked!
3.) Remove the pan from heat and let it cool before putting inside the refrigerator. Cool for an hour or more and it's ready to eat! You can loosen the edges with a toothpick or knife and flip the pan upside down for presentation or you can just eat it directly on the pan. Lol.
ENJOY!
Maybe you're wondering what's that thing floating on the middle of the pan. It's a slice of lemon my mother put for "additional taste". Actually I'm not sure if it's the one causing the slight bitter taste or is it due to the burnt caramelized sugar. Lol. Maybe I'll try not to put a slice of lemon on some pan next time to find out!
This measurement can make 2 pans of leche flan. :)