Having spent many years as a child in the Canary Islands, I grew up eating flan.  I thought it was a Spanish dessert until I moved to Guam and found it served at every village fiesta.  Then I started traveling to Japan regularly and guess what I found there?  Yes, a commercial version of crème caramel can be found there in nearly every “7-11” type store.  And since it was originally a European dessert, it is very often found on Italian menus as well.

Some people call it flan.  Some people call it crème caramel.  Some people call it custard.  I call it delicious.

People often think custard is a difficult dessert to make.  It really is not.  It has very few ingredients, is simple to prepare, and is best made ahead, making it a great party dessert.  Here is the list of ingredients:
12 eggs
1 c. sugar
2 c. evaporated milk
1 vanilla bean
1 c. water
¼ c. additional sugar with 2 T. water
My very old recipe comes from a Spanish family friend.  Preheat your oven to 350F and let’s get started!

1)  Crack all 12 eggs into your mixing bowl, and mix at low speed.  You don’t want to get the eggs all frothy; you just want to mix them long enough to incorporate all the yolks and whites so you can’t see the whites any more.  When you’ve got a big bowl of yellow, add the 1 c. sugar, and continue to mix for a short time to dissolve the sugar.  Set aside.

2)  Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrap out the fragrant little seeds.  Pour the evaporated milk into a small saucepan and add the vanilla seeds.  Oh heck, throw the whole empty pod in there too.  Heat gently over low heat just until the milk is all nice and warm and making you want a cookie.  Remove from the heat, and let the vanilla bean steep in the warm milk while you make the caramel sauce.

Now comes the exciting part!  It’s time to make the caramel sauce. 

1)  In another small saucepan, add the ¼ c. sugar and 2 T. water.  Heat over low heat to melt the sugar.

2)  Once the sugar has melted, turn up the heat to med-hi.  You don’t need to stir the sugar, but do use a wet pastry brush to wipe down the inside walls of the pan, and swirl the pot around once in a while.  Take care here, because as soon as the sugar syrup becomes amber colored, it can burn quickly.  

3)  When you have a nice caramel color, pour it very quickly into your mold, swirling the mold a little to spread the hot syrup.  (I use a glass pan similar to a 9-10 inch deep-dish pie pan.)  You may find the syrup firms up very fast.  Don’t worry about it!  It will get all ooey-gooey again in the oven.

At this point, we are going to go back to our egg mixture.  Add the 1 c. water to the egg mixture.  Pluck out and discard the vanilla pod from the milk mixture (leaving the lovely little seeds in the milk), and pour it too into the egg mixture.  Turn the mixer back on for a moment to incorporate the eggs, water and vanilla scented milk.

1)  Set your mold into a larger baking pan.  Pour the egg mixture into the mold….that’s right…right on top of your firmed up caramel sauce.  

2)Get some very hot water out of the tap and pour it into the larger baking pan so it comes halfway up the side of your custard mold.  Carefully, carry it to the oven and pop the whole thing in there for 45 minutes to an hour.  When you check on it, you want it to be gently set when you jiggle it.

3)  Your house will smell fantastic by the time its done.  Take it out of its water bath, and place the mold on a cooling rack.  When cool, chill overnight or for several hours.  When you’re ready to serve it, run a knife around the edge to loosen and unmold it onto a deep dish so all the lovely syrup can run all over the top.

I could eat the whole thing by myself, seriously.

Most every Italian trattoria has Spaghetti alla Carbonara on its menu.  It's delicious, classic, and nearly foolproof.  So why did it take me SO long to figure out how to make it?  There's one simple secret.  Read on:

The ingredients are the definition of simplicity: spaghetti, diced pancetta (an Italian equivalent of smoky bacon), olive oil, garlic, eggs and pecorino cheese.

Prep your ingredients:  Put your pasta water on to boil and when it boils, toss in a goodly quantity of coarse salt before adding your spaghetti.  This dish comes together so quickly and needs to be eaten immediately.  So, if you're having a salad, or other veg be sure it's prepared and ready to go before you start working on your pasta dish.  Dice your pancetta (or bacon).  I cheat and buy mine pre-diced.  Put your eggs in a bowl and beat them up.  Grate a lot of cheese.  Smash your garlic clove.  

A serving of pasta is considered to be about 2 oz. per person.  I then use about one egg per two servings.
With regard to bacon, I probably use about 2 oz per person as well.
With regard to garlic, I'm not sure the Italians use it in this recipe, but I like to flavor my oil with a little garlic.
With regard to cheese......well, I use.......a lot :)
Is your pasta water boiling?  Is your spaghetti almost al dente?  Let's get started.....

Drizzle a little olive oil in your skillet and heat it up over medium high heat.  When it's warm, toss in your smashed garlic clove and rub it all around in the oil.  When the garlic is getting nice and fragrant, turn your heat down a bit to medium and add your diced pancetta.  Why do we turn the heat down?  You don't want the pancetta to cook too fast and get all crispy and hard.  You want to render out the (Watch out!  I'm going to use the "f" word.) fat because that fat is so flavorful.  Stir the pancetta around so it releases its fat into the olive oil.  As the pancetta cooks, you can go ahead and toss out the garlic clove.  At this point, you need to be sure your pasta is ready.  If it's not, then turn the heat off on your pan until the pasta is ready.

Once your pasta is cooked, make sure your pan is nice and hot again before draining it and adding it into the hot pancetta.  Using tongs, toss the pasta about in the pan to coat it all with the olive oil, bacon fat mixture.  Working quickly, add in your goodly amount of shredded cheese, and again toss it about.  It will melt quickly, so work quickly.

Remember that secret I mentioned above?  Here it comes.....
TAKE YOUR PAN OFF THE HEAT BEFORE ADDING IN YOUR BEATEN EGGS!

Yes, remove your pan from the burner, and quickly pour in your beaten eggs.  Again using your tongs, toss everything about.  Many people think carbonara is so creamy and lovely due to the addition of half and half or cream.  This is simply not true.  It's so creamy due to beaten eggs combining with the melted cheese and bacon fat.  But if you add the eggs while the pan is on the heat, they immediately begin to scramble and your "sauce" gets all lumpy, curdled, and unappetizing looking.

Quickly plate it up, garnish with more cheese and hope everybody is ready to eat NOW.  As it sits, it firms up and becomes less appetizing.  It truly is one of those dishes that is best consumed the minute it hits the plate.  It's creamy with little hits of crunchy saltiness.  Oh, so good.

Tonight we had a red wine called Tributary from Russell Creek winery in the Columbia Valley.  Delicious!

Buon Appetito!