Creme caramel excerpted from Recipes from My Vietnamese Kitchen: Authentic food to awaken the senses & feed the soul by Uyen Luu. Photography by Clare Winfield.
Recipes from My Vietnamese Kitchen is a collection of recipes passed down through Uyen Luu’s family.
Uyen was born in Saigon and spent her childhood there before leaving Vietnam in the aftermath of the war. She regularly travels back there to visit family and pick up more classic and modern recipes for dishes found in the homes and on the streets of Vietnam. The recipes in the book tell a story—about Uyen’s family and the culture of food in Vietnam. In essence, the food of her country aims to strike the perfect balance between sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot, and umami, and to cater to any occasion and time of day, every mood and ailment.
Uyen describes some of the most commonly used produce and guides you through chapters such as Breakfast, Soups, Snacks, Noodles, Lunch & Dinner, and Sweets, weaving in tales of etiquette, personal history, and tradition, providing evocative photos of her travels throughout. Popular recipes include pho soup, banh mi baguettes, and summer rolls.
Creme caramel
(kem flan)
In Phan Thiết, there lives a poet and teacher. Every day after school, he opens up his garden at the front of his old house, turns on the fairy lights hanging from a jackfruit tree and people flood inside for tea, coffee and crème.caramel–the best in the world! I always visit this place when I go to Vietnam. It’s a must! The poet does not say much about what goes into his famous dessert. He only tells a story of the love for his wife, his muse, whom he lost. She loved his kem flan, and he tells us that he makes it every day so that she can also enjoy it in her afterlife.
The Vietnamese love crème caramel, one of the things brought over by the French. In Vietnam, they do not really have ovens, so it is usually steamed.
Crème
120 ml/ ½ cup double/ heavy cream
200 g/7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
250 ml/1 cup half-fat milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
4 whole eggs
40 g/ ¼ cup (caster) sugar
Caramel
140 g/ ¾ cup (caster) sugar
100 ml/ 1⁄3 cup strong coffee
20-cm/8-inch cake pan or 10 ramekins
SERVES 8–10
Crème
Preheat the oven to 160˚C (325˚F) Gas 3. Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Caramel
Put the sugar and coffee in a saucepan over medium– high heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Cook for 15–30 minutes. To test if the caramel is ready, drip a little in a ramekin with a spoon. If it hardens quickly, it is ready. If not, continue to cook and re-test. Once the caramel is ready, pour a thin layer into the cake pan or ramekins (enough to cover the base) and swirl around very quickly to coat the base before it sets. Allow to set and harden.
If you are using a cake pan, pour the crème into it. If you are using ramekins, pour about 3 cm/ 1 inch of the crème into each ramekin. Place the pan/ramekins in a roasting pan and pour enough water in to come halfway up the pan/ramekins. This is a bain-marie and allows gentle and even baking. Bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes (ramekins) or 40 minutes (cake). Allow to cool, then chill for at 6 hours or overnight. To serve, run a thin knife all around the edge of the pan/ramekins.
Turn it upside down onto a dish or bowl and tap it to help the dessert pop out. The caramel should drizzle down the sides, forming a puddle
Recipe reprinted with permission from Ryland Peters & Small.