Thank You Melissa

The Noble, The Honorable, The Wise, All Knowing Melissa De Bruyne Choon Ming May. Never would you associate her in any scandal, Nor would you find her doing anything GOOFY or OUT OF THE NORM. No...... not Melissa. She is but the most SERIOUS, the most STOIC person alive. She has NO sense of humour. NOOOOOOO, not Melissa. In fact, to sum her up in a word, she would be
BORING!Ok, if you really believed that drivel, you're EVIDENTLY don't know her. ;-)

I LOVE THIS KID!!!! You never know what she has going up in her head, but whatever it is, you know its gonna be a BLAST! She somehow manages to constantly exude a semblance of calm, under which an aura of insanity. And I meant that in the nicest way possible.

So why bring her up? Well, whenever I think of De Bruyne Choon, I always associate her with creme brulee, simply because she is in possession of one of my lifelong longings.... A CHEF'S TORCH. And from what I hear, she yields it pretty well. When she first told me about her creme brulee adventures, I first got jealous, then curious....... could you actually make that thing, without the blowtorch?So, pig headed as I was, I decided to try it on my own, WITHOUT A PROPER RECIPE! Oh, and a side note, I had no idea how I was gonna brulee the damn thing, but I'd cross that river when I came to it.

NATURALLY it turned out a disaster. The custard was an uncooked river in the centre, but resembled scrambled eggs at the sides, The 'brulee top' which I so 'cleverly' discovered could be done in the oven, wasn't even properly brulee-ed. The whole thing was a mess. So, I did what any girl in my position would do, I dragged my broken heart off to Brickfields to do some Deepavali shopping.

While attempting to SQUEEZE myself out of a particularly tight ( not to mention expensive) punjabi suit, I get an SMS from Melissa asking how the creme brulee went. After a couple of SMSes with me telling her what happened, darling that she was, She TYPED OUT her whole recipe and sent it to me with her blessings. Spirit renewed, i tried again. And now,

I dare you to tell me that doesn't look like a work of art to you. :)

The result I got with her instructions ( with a little tweaking of my own) were incredible! Decadent, custard the colour fresh coconut cream. Smooth, rich and not cloyingly sweet and fragrant, heavenly so. I imagine it to be one of those things you'd turn to after a particularly nasty break up with someone whose been with you for 10 years. Be warned though, the custard takes a while to set up, at least 6 hours, but the result is well worth it. And now, dear reader, I pass the recipe on to you. The little brackets at the sides show you what I did, so it's up to you. Follow hers or mine. Either way, you'll find it to be something difficult enough for you to feel like a competent cook, easy enough to not scare you away, and comforting enough to be enjoyed thoroughly at the end of a rough day.

CREME BRULEE makes 2, 4 inch ramekins
~1 cup cream ( 2/3 cream + 1/3 milk )
~2 Tbsp castor sugar ( 1 + 1/2 Tbsp )
~3 medium egg yolks
~1/2 tsp vanilla essence
~(zest of half an orange)
~ 4 Tbsp castor sugar to brulee



Preheat oven to 150'C
Beat yolks with the vanilla and heat the cream and sugar (with orange zest, if using) over the stove. When cream has heated up, slowly mix it into the beaten egg yolks little by little. This is called tempering the eggs. You're bringing up the temperature of the yolks slowly, and therefore avoiding an inedible mess of sweet eggy clumps floating in an orange scented liquid. Take this custard and strain it ( into a liquid measuring cup for ease ) divide among your ramekins. I imagine teacups would be an absolutely adorable substitution for these, just make sure they are oven safe) place ramekins into a pan and transfer into your waiting, preheated oven. Pour hot water into the pan until halfway up the bowls, being careful not to splash any into the custard mix. This is called a Bain Marie. It is usually used to cook egg based desserts, as it provides slow, even heating which results in a smooth texture. Bake for 25-30 minute. You'll have to eyeball this part, when shaken, the custards should jiggle a little in the centre but be firm at the sides. But DON'T EXCEED the time. Let cool IN THE BAIN MARIE, and when slightly warm to the touch, let cool some more outside the water bath. When cool, let set in the fridge for AT LEAST six hours.

For the caramel top- If you have a torch, just dust the tops of the cold custards with the sugar and melt it to the hue you want. If you don't, melt the sugar over the stove with 2 Tbsp of water, then QUICKLY spoon caramel over top of custards. In both cases, be careful, the sugar continues to cook for a couple of seconds after the heat has been removed.And a sugar that has been burnt too long ends up BITTER rather than SWEET. Always stop at a lighter shade then the one you want to achieve, and work from there. you can always add more heat if you want.

Enjoy!
P.S- Melissa's picture Mercilessly Stolen From KBB's blog. Don't worry, I'll pay her back with cinnamon buns later. ;-D