... to wish all my readers celebrating, a sweet Thanksgiving.
This year I find myself in the midst of a gorgeous Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for. My stuffed turkey roll is gently roasting in the oven and I have a moment to steal away and share my thoughts with you.
You - who have always been so motivating and supportive of me, my work, writing and madness. I am glad I can come here once again today and share a sweet moment with you.
I think this year Thanksgiving is going to be a special celebration. There were so many great moments in our life this year. Yes, we had a few sad ones too - the passing away of my grandma was rather tragic, however the positive and truly wonderful effect of that was the way my entire family simply came together. I mean emotionally. For a person who has her entire family spread across the world these things are so very important.
We met some fantastic people who have become so dear and near to our hearts and I am so glad to be sharing our Thanksgiving dinner with them this year. Our Thanksgiving group has grown from the 10 of the previous years to 15 this year! I am totally ecstatic and I can't wait to have them all - big and small - sitting eagerly at the table so that we can spend a wonderful evening chattering, giggling and simply having a warm and cosey time.
To you all, I also wish a warm and truly wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. So go, bake, cook, eat and have a ball! I leave you with lots of hugs, kisses and a luscious sweet potato flan. A wonderful take on the great Crème Caramel, adding to it the character of the season.
Ingredients
(Adapted from the recipe from Epicurious.com)
Printable version here.
400 g sweet potatoes (yams) - peeled and cut into thick slices
Juice of one lime
190g sugar - divided in half
2 tablespoons water
240 ml milk
4 large eggs
125 ml whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tawny Port
Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Place the thick potato slices on a baking tray lined with a sheet of waxed or baking paper. Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, making sure they do not become too dark. Roast them till soft. Allow to cool. Put the slices in a food processor and add the lime juice; puree until smooth. I strained my puree through a fine meshed sieve to get it really smooth.
Stir about half of the sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil without stirring, until the syrup turns a deep amber color, occasionally swirling the pan. This should take about 5 minutes. Immediately pour caramel into small ramekin bowls or one larger oven-proof dish. Save about 2 tablespoons caramel in saucepan. Swirl each ramekin form around, allowing caramel to coat bottom and about 1 centimeter up sides.
Add the milk to the remaining caramel in saucepan. This will cause the caramel to solidify but don't worry keep stirring over medium-low heat until the caramel dissolves. Whisk eggs in medium bowl until frothy. Whisk in cream, salt, sweet potato puree, and remaining sugar. Gradually whisk in hot milk-caramel mixture then strain back into same saucepan. Stir over medium heat for about 1 minute. Remove from heat; whisk in Port. Pour custard into prepared forms.
Place the forms in a large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to the roasting pan to come halfway up sides of ramekin forms. Bake until just set in center, about 30-45 minutes. If you find the top getting too dark place a sheet of baking paper over the tops. Remove flans from water. Chill until cold for about 5 hours or overnight.
Just before serving dip each ramekin bowl into a pan of hot water for about 15 seconds. Wipe dry. Invert onto serving plates, scraping caramel in forms over flan.
Optional: Decorate with some juicy, sweet pomegranate seeds.
Verdict
I made a test run of this dessert last week. It's incredibly smooth with a sweet mellow flavor of sweet potatoes and a toffee aroma of the caramel. Each flavor, in this divine dessert, comes together so well - without being too overpowering. It makes for an irresistible dessert and simply perfect for any feast.
If you are looking for fun things to do this Thanksgiving weekend, I've written a lovely post about fun and games with family and friends over at the Daily Tiffin. Read all about the Thanksgiving Fun with Kids.
The lovely Leslie over at Definitely Not Martha is celebrating Sugar High Friday this month and has invited us to celebrate with a Beta Carotene Harvest. Hope she'll find room for this on her table! Thanks for hosting Leslie!
Reminder!
Come join me for a Traditional Feast this month. Bring along your favorite dish to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanuka or Diwali.
Details can be found here.
Deadline: December 3rd.
Technorati Tags: sweet potatoes, dessert, beta carotene, sweet, flan, custard, creme caramel, caramel, Thanksgiving, recipe, food, photography, nikon d70s, SHF
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2007 Meeta Albrecht unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First
Happy thanksgiving to you and your family Meeta...have a great time with your dear ones....and that is one gorgeous looking flan .
ReplyDeleteHappy thanksgiving to you and your family Meeta..that dish looks so yummy...pls do update with pictures of your get together...would love to see how a typical thanksgiving party looks like!...
ReplyDeleteHappy Thankx giving meeta.
ReplyDeleteHere we don't celebrate thankgiving, so it is a very normal day today.
The flan looks delicious.
Happy Thanksgiving Meeta. Being a vegeterian, no Turkey for us, Only Potato and Broccoli..:))
ReplyDeleteThe Flan looks amazingly beautiful. Can I send my Thanksgiving recipes which I am planning to make today for ur 'Traditional Feasts' event? Thought they are not 'traditional'!
-Siri
Whaouuuu, this picture is...is what...just perfect! I'd like to taste your flan ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo lovely! I'm making Paul a pumpkin dessert although he requested sweet potato - I had better not let him see this lovely flan!
ReplyDeletep.s. I love the new layout (new to me, anyway!), so clean looking!
I know this will be perfect. I cook something similar with Sweet potatoes. The flan looks gr8 and yum.
ReplyDeleteCreme caramel to a whole new level! What an innovative recipe! thanks for sharing and wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving. Blessed are those who remember to be thankful!
ReplyDeleteOh I love it....sweet potato flan...two things I love brought together.
ReplyDeleteMeeta,
ReplyDeleteThat looks delicious & luscious!
Have a lovely Thanksgiving, Meeta. Like the idea and it looks tempting.
ReplyDeletenever knew yams cud turn into something so unexpected and delicious-looking :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a big flan fan, so I'm going to share this recipe with him. Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you too! Sweet potato flan is such a perfect dessert - I've often thought that regular flans could use a littl texture. Not to mention beta carotene :-)
ReplyDeleteSmita
This looks like a beautiful dessert option for holiday time. And your photos... I am not worthy!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving! Your flan looks delicious. I'm sure everyone had a wonderful time in your home.
ReplyDeletePaz
Thanksgiving is always a special celebration - a wonderful opportunity to spend more time with those you deeply care about, and enjoy a delicious feast with them. I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving yourself, Meeta!!
ReplyDeleteSweet Potato Flan? Sounds quite enticing!! Gorgeous photographs, as always.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Meeta. I'm thankful to you for sharing your wonderful talent of writing, cooking, and photography to all of us. You are inspiring!
ReplyDeleteOh glory Meeta. Thanksgiving always seems more wonderful with more doesn't it. I always feel like it brings about so much more variety and more cheer.
ReplyDeleteHope those 15 enjoyed it all.
Ohhh, I have been really into sweet potatoes lately. This sounds wonderful!! Thank you for always sharing such wonderful and beautiful recipes!!
ReplyDeleteThat looks fantastic Meeta. Hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving celebration.
ReplyDeleteHoep you had a great Thanksgiving, Meeta.
ReplyDeleteThe Flan looks incredible, so rich and the texture is great.
Thanks everyone for all your great comments. It is exotic and a dream come true. Hope you enjoy making it!
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine the smooth velvety texture in my mouth. This is an outstanding dessert, Meeta. Great job!
ReplyDeleteJust found you via the SHF round-up. This looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnn at Redacted Recipes
Hi meeta.....you have a wonderful blog here.I feel like trying each and every recipe of yours whenever i visit your blog.some i tried and i'm successfull but yesterday when i tried this flan i was a great disaster.I cut down the recipe to half and baked for 45 mts.i kept in the fridge for 4 hrs and when i tried to remove it from the ramekin it came out mushy,there is no caramel nothing.the caramel even turned into mushy.i don't understand where i went wrong.Can u please help me?
ReplyDeleteAnyway i'm going to try it again tomorrow.
hi rama, i cannot explain why it could have been mushy. each oven works differently so you might want to up the time to more than 45 minutes the next time you make this. let me know if it works out!
ReplyDeleteI'm making this tomorrow. I think I'll try to shoot it, but I don't think it will be as pretty as your picture!
ReplyDeleteHey Dazy, you will love it. come back and tell me how it went! hugs!
ReplyDelete