Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Flan Man

No pictures once again. I'll take some pictures of the set up and stuff like that next time I go (my mother's suggestion).

Cooking With Cultures is a program that the BU Culinary Program runs for kinds in middle or elementary school to come in and watch a demonstration of cooking, usually of a certain culture that they've been studying in school. The kids can learn about native dishes to that culture. After the demonstration, the kids can eat the food they just watched being prepared. Most of the classes are about Spanish culture, since most kids study Spanish in school, but there are some other cultures as well. Today was about Hopi culture and food. Basically the only thing I did to help with that class was to stir a pot of succotash so that it didn't burn.

I did, however, help make some flan for tomorrow's Cooking With Cultures program which is focused on Spain. Flan is usually made the day before the event. We made flan for 100 people, though not that many are coming. I got to crack 50 eggs, 20 of which had to be separated, today. That is a lot of eggs. We also made caramel for the bottom of the cake pans we were going to cook the flan in so that there would be a nice caramel top to the flan. When preparing food in mass quantities, you use so much of each ingredient and huge mixing bowls, which you would expect. Yet, sometimes after you triple a recipe, you look at how much you need, and you're like, "Wow. That's a lot of eggs." Even though you expect it, it can still be surprising.

And now for a little lesson (what I learned) about making caramel. When making caramel, you don't stir the sugar/water mixture because when it get onto the sides of the pan, it might boil down faster than the rest of the mixture so that you get lumps of hard sugar candy. You also don't put the heat up too high (if you're using a gas stove) because then the flames might touch the sides of the pan, causing the mixture on the sides to boil down faster and become hard as well. You take the mixture off of the stove/heat a little before you get the desired color because the sugar is so hot that it continues to cook after you take it off. In a professional kitchen, it's bad to burn your sugar because then you have to start again, which is bad especially if you're time pressured.

After I left BU, I went back to school to work on my DocFilm project which is due this Sunday. I basically finished it, so all I have to do left is write the evaluation.


  1. Mother's are always right. More pictures please, especially of the good things to eat. You can make a daily post around supper time so everyone can work up an appetite.

  2. Dear Lily, again a great posting. I did know that one is not supposed to stir a caramel sauce but I never knew "why." The "why is important to understand and to remember. Thank you. I liked the tip of taking the pot off the burner "before" it reaches the colour you want because it retains its heat and cooks more. I have had poor results not knowing what I was doing wrong. There is a stir fry pork dish that I make that uses a caramel sauce. I will pass it on to you. You might like it. lots of love, D.