Sugar

Sugar is SO MUCH FUN! I decided that I was going to make a flan for my mom's homecoming dinner. Dad and I decided that it would be a gourmet meal after all of the good finds from yesterday. So we're going to have bacon-wrapped shrimp, seared yellowfin tuna, tuna sashimi/sushi (if it's good enough fish), flan with papaya and lime slices, and probably some asparagus and sweet potato tempura. All I need to do is get my dad to take me to a nearby Asian mart to pick up the short grain rice and nori (seaweed sheets). And some pickled ginger because mom loves the stuff. Talk about international...

I had to give my little brother a cooking lesson today because he kept saying "I'm boooooooored" and I wanted him to be quiet. I taught him the wonders of custards (flan), how to make caramel (the topping for it), and colors (define amber, warm colors, and cool colors). Yay.. . The fun part, though, was then making another small batch of caramel and doing sugar work with it. We now have a plate-full of caramel ribbons/threads. I was going for Jacques Pepin's sugar nest, but it didn't quite work out that way. Now we have a crunchy flan topping!! My orthodontist will hate me. Hahahahahahaaaa... (I don't really like the orthodontist, but they're fixing my teeth so that's what matters). I'll post some photos later.