Crema Catalana Recipe
Today, we are together with one of the most delicious desserts of the Spanish cuisine, with the more accurate discourse, of the Catalan cuisine.
It is separated with the French dessert creme brulee with a thin line. The fact that Catalonia is on the French border makes it very very normal to have similar dishes. The similarity between the brava sauce on patatas bravas and mayonnaise is another good example. Since French cuisine has managed to make its name more known to the world in both cases, it is considered to be the original, but there is no reason why this can not be the other way around. In fact, it is not impossible to create similar dishes with the similar ingredients by different people in closer geographies.
Do not intimidate with the excess amount of egg yolks, eggs do not smell if you don't make a vital mistake. What could be a life mistake? First possibility is to use stale eggs. Stale eggs smell more intense than fresh ones. So check the eggs before using. Shake the egg, if you hear a noise and feel a swaying inside, it means that it's stale. As the egg gets stale the inside separates from the shell and when you shake it you can feel the swaying.
The second possibility is not mixing the egg appropriately. If you do not mix eggs well and mix them well with other ingredients, the proteins are not decomposed and mixed with other ingredients and they are cooked as egg. If you cook the egg, it smells of eggs, nothing more natural than that. All you have to do is whip the egg well and mix it well with other ingredients appropriately before the cooking process starts. In this recipe, the egg yolks are mixed with hot ingredients, so the situation is a little more sensitive. You should add the hot milk to the eggs very very slowly and beat the eggs very very quickly.
If you don't have a blowtorch you can bake the ramekins as I did in my creme brulee recipe.
Enjoy the recipe.
Ingredients
- 500 ml milk,
- 4 egg yolks,
- 3 tablespoons sugar,
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch,
- Peels of half an orange,
- Peels of half a lemon,
- 1 cinnamon stick,
- Extra sugar for topping.
Preparation
- Take the milk to a sauce pot,
- Add orange and lemon peels and cinnamon stick,
- Heat until it starts to boil in mid heat,
- In a separate bowl combine egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch, mix until smooth,
- Remove milk from heat and remove peels and cinnamon,
- Add the hot milk slowly to the egg mixture and mix the mixture quickly,
- Take the mixture in the pot again and cook until the desired consistency by stirring continuously on medium heat,
- Pour the dessert into four ramekins,
- After a skin is formed over, sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top and burn with a blowtorch (if you don't serve it immediately, do this immediately before serving).
Bon appetit...