Recipe: Flan again.. and again!!

Flan. Flan. Flan. I love you flan. Flannity, flan. flan.

As is probably evident to many by now, I am a major fan of flan. Like I could have it every day, day after day and still ask for more. Friends who have visited Parsee restaurants with me in Mumbai know that my meal shall end with flan, flan, flan. :)

So a couple of months back when I found out that it's the husband's favourite-est dessert too, I decided to try my hand at the humble yet delicious caramel custard. I got the recipe for the best flan in the world, my mother's recipe, and decided to MAKE it.

This is an incredible dessert for those last minute dinner plans as it can be made with ingredients lying around in any average household.

On popular demand, the recipe has been reproduced below with a few tweaks.

Portions: Serves four
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Time to set: At least two hours

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 glasses regular milk (full cream milk for a creamier texture but that packs in a lot of calories)
Sugar to taste
Water
1 tsp vanilla essence

Tip: Milk should be in proportion to number of eggs, two glass milk for two eggs etc.

Directions:
For custard:
Bring the milk to a boil and add sugar. Stir. The sugar should melt in the hot milk.
Thicken the milk on a low flame till almost half
Take off the flame and cool
Take eggs in a bowl, add vanilla essence
Beat eggs well, for about 2-3 minutes
Add eggs to the cooled milk
Mix well.

For caramel:
Take 4-5 tablespoons of sugar and mix with little water
Put the water and sugar mixture in a heavy, flat bottomed vessel on medium flame
Keep stirring with short breaks till the sugar dissolves in the water
*Once it starts bubbling and turns dark brown in colour, take it off the flame
Swirl it around the vessel to cover the sides, if using the same vessel to set the flan OR transfer to another cook-friendly vessel and swirl.
Do this quickly as caramel cools very fast.
Cool completely.

Combining:
Once cooled, pour the mixture into the vessel with the caramel.
Pour some water in a large vessel, like a kadhai and place the container with the mixture inside it.
Close both tightly and place on low flame.
Steam for 35-40 minutes.
Make sure the water from the larger vessel does not enter the flan container, especially once it starts boiling.
#Take off the flame and cool.
Once cooled completely, cover and keep in fridge.
Un mould right before serving.

Enjoy! :D

And, DO send me pictures once made and let me know how it turns out. :)

Notes:
*Caramel can be a little tricky as it tends to burn very fast. Keep a watchful eye on it once the sugar starts changing colour.

#Insert a knife into the custard to check if cooked properly. The knife should come out clean if ready to be taken off heat.