Braised and Infused

Sweet Corn Flan

I hadn’t planned to husk corn in May, but I wanted to try the Sweet Corn Flan recipe that Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl included in her post about the Minnesota Homegrown Cookbook. It’s not corn season, but I’m planning a few dinners for friends and when the dinners are multi-course, I like to practice dishes before serving them.

What stirred my curiosity about this flan recipe from Restaurant Alma’s Chef Alex Roberts was the tiny amount of cream, only half a cup, with seven eggs. I typically have made savory flans with about 4 eggs/cup of cream. I wondered how much liquid I could get out of the corn and how small the flans would be. The recipe said it served six. I was dubious. I made two versions: the recipe as printed and another version with eight eggs and two cups of cream.

Lessons Learned
I have a makeshift chinois. Despite my love of kitchen tools (cut to scene of wife rolling eyes) I’ve managed with a fine mesh strainer and the back of a large spoon. With this combination I was able to get only about ten ounces of strained batter from Chef Roberts’s flan. A better tool for straining the corn would have been a tamis (drum sieve) and now I have a valid excuse to finally buy one.

I expect fresh local corn to puree better, but if you’re going to make six flan, they will be small. Strive for at least 12 ounces of strained batter for six servings. Two ounce servings are quite rich.

For Chef Roberts’s version I pureed everything together in a blender. It was very thick and my blender was very unhappy. For my version, I pureed the corn and cream and added the eggs to the blender after I had a good puree.

The original recipe leaves the seasoning up to the cook. For both versions of the flan, I used a ½ tsp of cumin (toasted and ground) and ½ tsp of salt. The cumin was very subtle. Truffle oil is extremely potent and too much would have been overwhelming. I found 2-3 drops sufficient.

Unmolding the flan can be unnerving. I tested some ramekins with parchment rounds on the bottom. I unmolded some the same day and some the next day after refrigeration. All of the ones with rounds came out of fine. Some without a parchment round that I unmolded the same day stuck. The next day they all came out fine after a brief stint in hot water. If you’re making the two ounce version, use smaller ramekins. The flan won’t fall as far when you unmold it.

I covered the pan to bring the water up to temperature faster and in the case of the corn flan it prevented the top from drying out and turning a darker yellow than the bottom.

Thoughts
I enjoyed the minimal approach to cream in Chef Roberts’s recipe (photo right). The focus should be on the corn. My version (bottom photo) had a creamier texture. I was surprised that the extra one and a half cups of cream didn’t diminish the corn flavor as much as I had anticipated.

Once fresh corn is available, I’ll be curious to see how much volume I can strain out of it. If you don’t have fresh corn, I don’t think adding another ½ cup of cream to Chef Roberts’s recipe will damage it. Or you could add more corn. That’s the beauty of this recipe. You have a wide range of egg/cream to suit your taste. Both versions are extremely rich. Depending on the number of courses, the two ounce version is great as a starter or first course. I wouldn’t make one bigger than four ounces or you might have to garnish it with Lipitor.

Possibilities
There it sits. Corn flan. All by itself. Tasty, but if I want to serve this for dinner with friends I’m going to have to compose a dish. I could opt for vegetarian or add shrimp or duck. Maybe some cheese or tomatoes or red bell peppers, or … something else? I’m happy to have some time before the local corn arrives. Does anyone have any thoughts about how to dress it up?

Crab Cakes

I love making crab cakes. On a weeknight, they are the centerpiece of a light dinner. Or I can dress them up with a sauce, place them on greens, and present them as the first course of an elegant dinner with friends. It’s a wonderful way to serve crab. I like being able to make and refrigerate the cakes ahead of time before finishing them under the broiler. And, a homemade crab cake is as good, if not better, than a restaurant one.

Crab cakes had been on my mind for a couple months after reading about a version using potatoes as a binder on the blog Ideas in Food. The chef’s post on crab cakes is less recipe than compelling narrative. I had to make them. When I walked into Coastal Seafoods and found some Dungeness crab meat, it was all over but the shouting.

The basic ingredients in the chef’s description are crab meat, potato, hot sauce, egg, butter, sour cream, and bread crumbs. I altered his ingredients by using a pound of Dungeness crab, half of a very large russet (5-6 inches long) potato and three splashes of hot sauce (a little more would have been all right).

I made a salad with blue cheese dressing using St. Pete’s Select from the Faribault Dairy Company. I sliced a baguette from Rustica Bakery and opened a bottle of Kistler Chardonnay 2003 McCrea Vineyard. I served the crab cakes with a squeeze of lemon juice.

My wife had seconds and the children ate them without complaint. I finished some strawberries drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar and all was well for a weeknight dinner.

Barista Excellence

For fifteen minutes in front of an audience, under spotlights and with his every move projected on two large video screens, Andrew Milstead (a barista from Kopplin’s Coffee), ground, tamped, steamed, pulled, and mixed his way through three coffee drinks: espresso, cappuccino, and a specialty drink of his own creation. Four savory judges evaluated his drinks and table service. Two technical judges scored his technique, cleanliness, and movements.

Milstead’s intense devotion and expertise is why drinking an espresso at Kopplin’s is an experience in excellence.

He was competing today at the United States Barista Championship (USBC) held in the Minneapolis Convention Center. The competition is part of the annual convention of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. The winner of the championship will represent the United States in the world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Push button baristas need not apply.

I’ve been a fervent fan of espresso for a decade. Five years ago, I purchased a Rancilio Silvia espresso maker because I could not find a decent shot in the Twin Cities. I had to work at mastering the Silvia, but the sad truth is that I can pull a better shot than the vast majority of coffee houses. But not Kopplin’s. The staff has introduced me to a variety of single origin coffees with diverse flavor profiles and they’ve given me pointers on time and temperature for when I take beans home to make my own.

If you're new to espresso, know that great espresso is not bitter. If a shot is pulled correctly bitterness is only one component that is properly balanced with the other components. If you want to understand what it is to enjoy a complex, intense espresso go to Kopplin’s. The flavors linger on the tongue for minutes after you’ve finished the espresso. Then you’ll have a standard to measure all others.