What’s cooking in Portugal?
Pudim, Portuguese Caramel Flan
Ricardo is from Porto, in the north of Portugal. He moved to Geneva when he was little, and has lived here almost all his life, apart from 9 years spent in Portugal as a young adult. In Geneva, he sometimes misses Portuguese food, even though a lot of things are available here. When Ricardo goes back to Portugal, he visits his parents who live there, and enjoys the home cooked meals his mother makes when he comes home! Last time he was there, his mom made a traditional Pudim, together with Ricardo’s daughter Lara. She wrote the recipe on a very small paper for him, and now Ricardo also makes it at home. I am glad that Ricardo wanted to translate the words on the small paper for us!
Pudim, Portuguese Caramel Flan
There are varieties of a flan in several countries. This traditional Pudim is cooked in Bain Marie and has a bit of Porto wine in it which gives it a particular taste.
Ingredients (serves about 6):
- 1 whole egg, and 8 egg yolks
- 11 tablespoons of sugar
- 200 ml of milk
- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- A small glass of Porto wine (optional)
For this recipe it is good if you have a Portuguese Pudim mold but other pudding molds will work.
How to prepare:
- Mix the eggs and the yolks with the milk, the cornstarch and the bit of Porto
- Put the 11 tablespoons of sugar in a small pan and put it on medium heat to caramelize. Stir constantly until you get a nice, brown caramel.
- Pour the caramel into your mold, on the bottom, but also try to put some on the sides by turning your mold around (careful, depending on the mold you use, it could be hot). By putting some caramel on the sides, it will make it easier later on to get the flan out of the mold.
- You then pour the mixture into the mold.
- The mold goes into a bigger pan that you fill up wil water until approximately half the height of the Pudim mold.
- You then cook the Pudim in Bain Marie for 35-45 minutes (you need to look whether it is not liquid anymore). Try to not have water enter the mold with the Pudim. You cook it on medium heat. If you have a cover on your mold, it could be a good way to avoid water coming in.
- An alternative would be: to put the pudim in a large oven dish, fill up the oven dish with water, also half height of your mold. You can then cook the Pudim in the oven at 180 degrees celcius for about an hour. Check in between.
- Once it is finished, you let it cool off a bit, until luke warm temperature, you put a plate on it and turn it around. If it doesn’t come out immediately (which was my case) you can gently hit a bit on the top and the sides of the mold. I guess the better the caramel was distributed, the easier it comes out.
- A Pudim can be kept in the fridge for 3 days, but we don’t think you will be able to stay away from it that long :-).
Ricardo says adults can still top the Pudim with a bit of Porto wine. We had fun making this and tasting this! Thank you Ricardo!
