The Making of Flan

I never had a bite of flan. The image of the silky dessert in my cookbook is quite breathtaking. These photographers sure are good. Somehow they managed to capture tranquility, in a piece of partially eaten flan. These images stir up emotions and leave strong impressions. I am left with an urge to be more, to be better, regardless of my cooking skills. I want to make flan!

One problem that brings the whole flan operation to a stand still is the lack of an oven. How can a house not have an oven? I ask my mother this every time I have the urge to bake. When my parents remodeled the kitchen a while back they opted not to have an oven. They don't use it, except to store pots and pans. Hmm? you may be wondering how do they bake cookies and other sweet delights?! Oh that's easy! They just don't. Vietnamese cuisine does not have as many baked goods as the western side of the world. My family in particular does not make many sweet desserts let alone anything that involves an oven. Yea, it sucks for an eager cooking connoisseur, such as myself.

Well, maybe I will try this at my sister's house (she has an oven, but like mom does not use it except for storing pots and pans) or maybe Dan's place (a white boy- very familiar with the oven). But my mother insists that I don't need an oven to make flan. No oven?!? The recipe says oven (and coconut milk and a few other ingredients)! My mother born and raised in Southern Vietnam said that she use to make flan all the time back in the day. She never used any oven, just a steamer. I was very skeptical, but showed my respect by demanding her to prove me wrong. So she's in the kitchen mixing this and that - totally abadoned the recipe I showed her. Where's the coconut milk? I thought that was one of the main ingredients. Why is there coffee? Condensed milk?!?

I can't keep up. I was put in charge of making the caramel syrup. I burned it - just a little! heh?

Making of the custard. Mom is adding condensed milk. ugh.

Put your custard cups in a steamer - not an oven. Pour a thin layer of the caramel syrup in your custard cups. In our case the caramel coffee syrup. Then pour 3/4 of the cup with the custard.

I don't know about you, but it looked mighty unappetizing on this end. I understand that it's been a while for my mom. She probably needs a few practice runs before she can nail it. But it was gross. It tasted like steamed egg custard.