AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com » Food & Drinks

Guatemalan Dessert: Flan Antigüeño

Rudy Girón — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:59:02 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe it took me 1,420 days to show you the world-famous caramel flan antigüeño. Bad Rudy, bad. Well, as the cliché saying goes, better late than never.

So, here’s something sweet I would like to share with you for the beginning of the week. I wonder if Amanda from Antigua Flavors and Colors is already selling flan antigüeño? You should stop by her AntiguaFC.com site anyway to order some Guatemalan sweet goodies for this week. I heard she’s selling authentic Finca Filadelfia coffee now.

If you have a recipe for the flan antigüeño, please, share it with the rest of us.

UPDATE: Thanks to Laura for sharing her recipe with us.

Laura’s Flan
serves 10-12

Ingredients:
For filling:
1 can evaporated milk (any 10-15 oz can will do)
3 cups whole milk (or more, see directions below)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract (the real stuff)
5 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar (or more depending on how sweet you like your flan)
pinch of salt

For caramel:
1 1/4 cups sugar

Also needed, flan mold or a good 5×9 loaf pan, and mesh sieve. Make sure that your flan dish can fit inside a larger dish filled with water as this is critical for the cooking.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325.
Boil water in a saucepan for the bainmarie (water bath).
Heat1 1/4 cups sugar in a small saute pan under low heat until it melts completely and turns a medium brown color. Stir so that the sugar doesn’t burn. Carefully, pour the melted sugar into the bottom of your flan mold and let cool.

Beat the eggs and yolks with a pinch of salt, pour through a fine mesh sieve. Then mix in 1/2 cup (or more) of sugar.

Mix the can of evaporated milk with regular milk until you have 5 cups. Heat the mixture until almost boiling. (I do this part in the microwave.) Whisk the hot milk slowly into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract.

Pour the mixture into your flan mold. Place mold in your bain marie (with water at least halfway up the pan that the flan is cooking in). Put the whole thing in the oven. The water shouldn’t boil so if it is boiling at 325 you need to turn down the heat.

Cook until the flan is just set. It should still jiggle at this point, but just a little. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Then cover tightly and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 and up to 72 hours before un-molding.

To un-mold, slide a knife around the edges of your pan to loosen the flan. Then you can flip it over quickly onto a plate. When you un-mold the pan, if there is extra caramel in the pan, you can add a little water and heat it to get more caramel out.

¡Buen provecho!

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Contrast: Red and Green

Rudy Girón — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:11:52 +0000

Guatemala has very creative names for their chilies. For instance, diente de perro, dog’s tooth, and diente de caballo, horse’s tooth, come to mind. The chilies in the picture above I believe are diente de perro, although I have heard some people call it chile de huerta, orchard’s chili. These chilies grow in our garden/orchard and are among the hottest I have ever tried.

What other Guatemalan chili names do you know? Also, do you know what make Guatemalans so hot?

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Guatemalan Cuisine: Higado encebollado

Rudy Girón — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:59:12 +0000

We visit the daily menu again with today’s higado encebollado, liver with onions. It is so ironic that one can get home-made style healthier food for less through the discounted Menú del día, daily menu special, found at most diners and restaurants; don’t you agree. This Higado encebollado took me back to my grandmother’s cooking; what an incredible nostalgic culinary trip!

When was the last time you had higado encebollado?

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Living La Vida Digital in Antigua Guatemala

Rudy Girón — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:17:18 +0000

I found the juxtaposition of cutting edge telecommunication technology and colonial lifestyle and architecture so fascinating and that’s why I have covered it in the following articles:

Today’s picture is mostly focus on living la vida digital that is feasible in La Antigua Guatemala. The photograph depicts some of the elements that are present in a geek lunch that can be had in Silicon Valley, London, Singapore, Tokyo or La Antigua Guatemala. Also, the photo above shows the cosmopolitan aspects of La Antigua Guatemala: a Philly cheese steak sandwich, French-style vegetable chips, German-style coleslaw, Wired magazine [tnx querida amiga, you know who you are], authentic coffee from Antigua Guatemala, a smartphone from Finland, all in a French bistro on Calle del Arco. Life is good!

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Guatemalan Town Fair Pizza

Rudy Girón — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:59:35 +0000

We get a lot of things from our neighbors from the big white north like remittances, retired chicken buses, junk cars, and so on. Now, it it looks like we are also getting the eating habits and as a result Guatemala has made the top ten of the most obese countries.

Other Latin American countries with high obesity rates are Mexico (fifth) and Venezuela (sixth) according to an article recently published by the newspaper El Tiempo.

It seems like Guatemalans are abandoning the traditional cuisine in favor of fast food. This can be seen even in the remote villages where pizza, hot dogs, french fries, tacos, hamburgers, et cetera, can be found at town fairs.

What do you think of this switch in eating habits?

Democracy Now Podcast Aside: I am subscribed to receive the Democracy Now podcasts which go directly into my iPod Touch to listen to anywhere I find the time. Interesting enough today’s podcast from Democracy Now was an interview to Michael Pollan, who is the author of Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. He is a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His earlier books, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat. Below you can read the introductory paragraph to the very interesting interview or listen to the entire podcast.

MICHAEL POLLAN: The way we eat has changed more in the last fifty years than in the previous 10,000. The modern supermarket has, on average, 47,000 products. The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating, because if you knew, you might not want to eat it. (… Continue reading the entire interview transcript at DemocracyNow.Org)

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Guatemalan Beer: Chelada or Michelada?

Rudy Girón — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:04:28 +0000

Chelada or Michelada, or which ever way you have them, Guatemalan beers are so refreshing!

How many Guatemalan beers can you name? How many different Guatemalan beers have you tried? What’s your favorite Guatemalan beer?

Ephemerides Aside: 34 years ago today Guatemala had the most devastating earthquake of its recent history. On February 4th, 1976 Guatemala experienced a 7.5 earthquake that killed over 24,000 and injured over 77,000 Guatemalans and changed Guatemala forever. Read all the details and about it at ClimaYa.Com and the eye-witness interview to Kara Andrade’s abuelita at NewMaya.org; both great readings.

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It’s Coffee Time!

Rudy Girón — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:59:22 +0000

In La Antigua Guatemala we are so lucky to be able to get excellent coffee just about everywhere. Cafetenango in Finca Filadelfia is such a place where one can drink an amazing coffee grown, harvested, dried and roasted in the premises. At Cafetenango there are baristas on site who like to draw all kinds of figures over the milk foam. I really like the views available from Cafetenango with all three volcanoes, Agua, Fuego and Acatenango, breaking away from La Antigua’s skyline. If you come to Finca Filadelfia for the Antigua Canopy Tours, make sure you make time for coffee; you won’t regret it.

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Guatemalan Cuisine: Carne Adobada, Longanizas, Viuda

Rudy Girón — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:59:20 +0000

We continue with tortillas con carne adobada and longanizas. I can easily explain longanizas as Guatemalan white sausage which has chopped onions and yerba buena, mint, along the ground meat. However, carne adobada is a little more difficult since I don’t know what’s in the adobo mixture, except for achiote (annatto).

Can anybody help explaining what carne adobada is or how it is marinated?

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Guatemalan Cuisine: Tortillas con Carne

Rudy Girón — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:59:19 +0000

Tortillas con carne could be the Guatemalan equivalent of the Mexican taco. Tortilla con carne is basically a piece of charbroiled steak of beef, adobo marinated pork steak, chicken, chorizo (Guatemalan red sausage) or longaniza (Guatemalan white sausage), served over two or three grill-heated corn tortillas and top with chirmol (Guatemalan tomato-based salsa), guacamol (Guatemalan style avocado sauce) and cebollines (baby onions or chives). I use the term carne, meat, as umbrella term for all the different cuts that are charbroiled.

I say that tortillas con carne could be the equivalent of the taco because they are omnipresent in every little corner of Guatemala. There are tortillas con carne at every town fair and market. There is at least one booth charbroiling meats in every street food stand plazas. Chuparrascos, the weekend and holiday get-togethers, are organized around tortillas con carne. There restaurant chains based on tortillas con carne as their main menu. All Guatemalas, from the Maya to Ladinos, from the less fortunate to the wealthy, enjoy tortillas con carne.

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I want gringas, You want gringas…

Rudy Girón — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:59:58 +0000

Gringas are tacos made with flour tortillas and cheese. For some unknown reason, gringas are very popular in Guatemala. Believe it or not, Mexican cuisine has not succeeded into making its way into Guatemala the same way as in the U.S.A. and the world. I find this very strange since there’s a huge overlap of ingredients in both kitchens. Tacos and gringas are probably the best samples of Mexican cuisine available in Guatemala, yet the selection of tacos and salsas leaves much to be desired and the flavor is not quite right. I would venture to say that tacos and gringas taste more like Guatemalan cuisine than Mexican.

Why do think Mexican cuisine has failed to enter the Guatemalan palate?

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