From the category archives:

Mexican

Travel the World With Flan

by Patricia Fioriello on February 8, 2010

My household is half Mexican and I am very familiar with flan. Absolutely love it. When traveling to Paris, I find the flan is good but not the same as what I enjoy at home. Even when I visit Mexico, the flan is different from what I usually eat. Not to say I do not enjoy the flan. It is excellent but just a different style from what I am accustomed to. As you can see, flan is as diverse as the many different diverse regions that make it.

The Diversity of Flan

The widespread enjoyment of flan makes me wonder about the many different types of flan. Just how many are there? As mentioned, I’ve tasted quite a few flans and one thing I know for certain.  Regardless of the recipe, the best flan is always dense and creamy in taste. And delicious tasting too.

A Flan for Every Flavor

There are many techniques for a person to learn to make an easy flan. Once you have the basic recipe, you can change the flavor for various purposes like Kahlua Flan for Christmas, Pumpkin Flan for Thanksgiving or for Valentine’s Day – Coconut Flan. The other flavors of flan are: strawberry flan, banana flan, orange flan, zucchini flan, cheese flan, ginger flan and many more! How many can you name?

Flans from Different Parts of the World

Spanish Flan is a custard that includes a caramel covering on top. It jiggles when you shake it and gets separated more easily than some other flans.

Dominican Flan is more creamy and rich and tastes like a pudding. Condensed milk is at times heated to make dulce de leche along with eggs. No caramel syrup is poured on it.

In Chile flan is made with dulce de leche (manjar) rather than the caramel that is generally used in Latin America, Spain and Argentina.

Across the Pacific there is Filipino Leche Flan.  Similar to other flans, this one is baked in a pan that is caramel-lined, called a bain marie. The recipe differs according to each family. Some recipes use only yolks, others more yolk than whites and a few use the whole egg. The other common ingredients are sugar and fresh, condensed or evaporated milk.

A friend of mine told me that her grandmother used to add two chicken eggs with duck eggs and water buffalo milk to make the flan richer and then finally added dayap, an aromatic lime to the recipe. Now that’s different!

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Patricia Fioriello

Patricia Fioriello has 79 posts at Recipes for the Family

A New Generation of Quick Easy Mexican Mole Recipes

December 16, 2009 by Patricia Fioriello

Go Mexican this vacation. So what if you can’t finally make a trip to Mexico, brighten up your kids’ mood with the help of easy and quick dinner recipes with a religious spread of Mexican mole.
A perfect dinner party can be arranged with a delicious mole chicken dish. All you need to do is get [...]

Why Everyone Loves Mexican Food

October 30, 2009 by Patricia Fioriello

Mexican cuisine is very delicious and healthy too. The native staples of Mexico are sweet potatoes, avocados, beans, corn, tomatoes, etc. But the main component of the typical Mexican feast is corn. It is used in stews, soups and is also made into dough that is then used for tortillas, but in northern Mexico [...]

Mexican Mole Sauce Recipes

September 23, 2009 by Patricia Fioriello

Mole is one of the unique food items in Mexican food. It can be called the heart and soul of Mexican food and life.
It is basically a thick sauce used in Mexican cuisine. It has very complex flavor. Though mole sauce can be added on any kind of meat people like this sauce mostly on [...]

Mexican Garbanzo Bean Soup

September 13, 2009 by Shelly

Special family recipe from Juana Sanchez. Original traditional Mexican soup. Serves 3 people.
Ingredients
1/2  onion
3 Roma tomatoes
3 Serrano peppers
1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans
3-6 slices of Ranchero cheese (or any kind you prefer)
1 tablespoon oil
salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste
Directions
Dice onion, tomatoes and Serrano peppers.  Drain liquid from garbanzo beans and rinse.
Heat oil in [...]

Chicken and Shrimp Fajitas

August 29, 2009 by Shelly

Fajitas is a Mexican meal of grilled meat (beef, pork, chicken) or shrimp served on a flour or corn tortilla. Usually the meat and/or shrimp is grilled with onions, peppers, tomatoes and vegetables.
Serrano pepper is a type of chili pepper from Mexico.
A tortilla is a type of flat bread made from corn or flour [...]

What is Quince?

August 18, 2009 by aracelyandpatricia

Quince is a fruit resembling a pear or apple. The inside of the quince is white.  When you cook quince it turns to a deep red.  Quinces, like apples, contain a lot of pectin, so they are often used for jams and jellies. Quince paste is a thick jam made from the fruit of [...]

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