Echo

(From www.katinkateeny.multiply.com. This is slightly edited because this will be seen by some people who are not privvy to certain personal matters in my life. I decided to put this here though because I thought it was a cute story. Teehee.)

My mom makes fantastic leche flan. I mean, it’s creamy and sweet and
rich and makes you believe in your fervent wish that eggs do not
contain bad cholesterol. She uses my Nana’s recipe, and it’s more or
less a no-brainer in terms of putting it all together. (Hyuh-rayyt.
Tss.)

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 ok, 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…

This afternoon was golden because I made syrupy, sipon-like, palpak leche flan with my brother. We
laughed and screamed and laughed at ourselves. It was fantastic.

Lots of fun. Can’t wait for the 3rd time, the Baby Bear attempt.
 

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