Recipe for creme caramel, by popular request

Well, there were at least two! I'm not proud, even ONE request would have had me scrambling for the recipe in my jumble. (Yes, jumble. It's not a folder, it's not a file, it's not a book. It's just a random collection of pieces of paper with sometimes handwritten and sometimes printed recipes.) In politically-correctspeak, I guess the description would be "differently organised".

Anyway, on with the show, as it were...

CREME CARAMEL

Ingredients:

2 cups milk (about 500 ml/half-litre)
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar (24 tablespoons!)
1 tsp vanilla essence/2 tbsp rosewater/1/2 tsp cardamom powder (choose one, not all)
2 tbsp sugar for caramel

Method:

1. Beat/cream egg and sugar till light and creamy.

2. Add milk in a thin stream while stirring continuously, until it's all mixed in.

3. Cook over a double boiler on a low flame, until the mixture begins to thicken. Keep stirring often. This should take about 10-12 minutes, I guess.

4. Once it's fairly thick, take it off the flame and set aside.

To caramelise the sugar, place it along with 2 tbsp water in the custard mould (preferably a stainless steel vessel, or something that can be placed directly on the flame.) Let it cook over a low flame, swirling it occasionally, until the sugar melts and becomes a beautiful golden brown. Swirl the caramel so that it coats the bottom AND sides of the mould, take it off the flame and let it harden for 5-10 minutes.

Now add whatever essence you are using to the egg mixture and stir it in. Pour the mixture into the mould. You can cover it with aluminium foil, in which a few small holes have been made, so that the steam can escape.

Steam in a pressure cooker (without the weight) for 20 minutes. Let the custard cool completely in the pressure cooker (this is important). Then remove the foil and put the mould in the fridge to cool for a few hours, or overnight (this is important too). Unmould the creme caramel carefully in a serving dish. If the custard hasnt pulled away from the sides of the mould, insert a thin knife (or spatula) around the edge and loosen gently before unmoulding.

(To unmould, I put a serving dish over the mould and quickly turn it upside down... it usually works! If it doesnt, it still tastes good even if it looks like.... um, I wont say what it looks like, I'm sure you'll come up with your own imagery! But it WILL taste gooooooooood.)


PS. If you dont have a double-boiler, do this: Half-fill a big vessel with hot water, and cook the egg mixture in another, smaller vessel which is placed in the big one. The idea is that the mixture cooks in the heat from the boiling water, instead of directly on the flame. I prefer to hold the smaller vessel with a potholder to ensure that it doesnt even touch the bottom of the big one.