Halloween in the Food Desert:
I've been thinking about ways to get canned pumpkin into the Food Desert posts: it's an exceptionally nutritious ingredient that doesn't really suffer from being processed, particularly in this situation. However, although I'm certain it can be used in this recipe, I decided on a different ingredient - partially because I had some on hand: frozen pureed butternut squash, readily available wherever frozen foods are sold. Sparky used to live on this stuff: I'm pretty sure it was his first solid food after cereal. After seeing
thaiobsessed's post, I rolled up my socks and went hunting for a savory recipe; this is what I came up with:
Winter Squash (or Pumpkin) Flan with Sage Brown Butter and PepitasThe recipe, as written, offers two fairly generous portions - but you should be able to double it and bake it in a standard-size round cake pan.
1 cup boxed frozen squash or canned pumpkin
1 cup milk (I used 1%, it's what I have)
2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, divided (I find that canned parmesan works OK if you're cooking with it and not sprinkling it over something)
3/4 teaspoons finely sage, divided
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 cup pepitas or walnuts
2 tablespoons sherry
1/8 tsp granulated garlic
1/8 tsp granulated onion
Pretty simply, blend together the eggs, squash or pumpkin,
milk, 2 tablespoons of the parmesan,
1/2 teaspoon of the sage, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons of butter, melted.
Pour into a buttered 6" round baking dish whose bottom is lined with buttered parchment (or double the recipe and use a standard cake pan)
If you've never tried to line a round cake pan with parchment, here's a quick pictorial:
Note: some of my problem may well have been use of a springform pan (recommended by the recipe I started with) which leaked in both directions. If you choose to use a springform, take out some insurance and line the outside with aluminum foil all the way to the top. I don't have experience unmolding a flan from a solid cake pan, but it could hardly have come out worse.
Place the baking dish inside a bain-marie (another, deeper dish which you carefully fill with hot water halfway up the side of the inner pan. You do this AFTER both dishes are nested in the oven, being careful not to get water in your flan) Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the flan is set and a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes while you make your sauce.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.
Add the remaining sage and salt, the garlic and onion, and about 2 tablespoons of sherry. Whisk vigorously, allowing the sherry to come to a rapid boil and reduce a bit. When the butter starts to brown and things smell wonderful, toss in 1/4 cup of pepitas or walnuts and the remaining parmesan. Stir briskly
Now, here is where things kind of went south: I ran a knife around the edge of the pan, and then instead of inverting it on a dish as directed, I opened the springform.
After holding together manfully for a few minutes, the flan finally succombed to my clumsy attempts to move it onto a serving plate and desintegrated. I tried it, and as it was still tasty, I served it up with the pepita sauce: excellent light dinner. The sweetness of the squash and the creamy texture were counterpointed well by the slightly bitter sage butter and the chewy pepitas, made even nuttier by the inclusion of parmesan.
There are a number of factors at work here that could have caused the lack of structural integrity. One, I didn't have cream and tried to build up the fat lost in the milk by increasing the egg yolks and butter - I don't think that's the issue, or I'd have noticed a more general texture problem. Two, (I think more importantly) the springform leaked some water into the custard (it was watery-scrambled-eggy where this happened, and the major site of the breakdown; I'm inclined this was it.) Three, I lost my nerve and did not play the game right and invert the plate over the flan and then turn the whole thing upside down to release it.
Any thoughts? I do recommend the recipe for flavor and texture if not presentation - if you try it, please let me know if you have better structural success!