Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Flan Wars
So, Kate’s flan recipe? Big hit with me and Karen. Don’t know about Jake yet, since the boy is odd when it comes to sweets. Loves Nilla wafers and orange Tic Tacs (though not together), dislikes most chocolatey desserts. Usually, he doesn’t even want dessert, which might explain why at ten years old he still only weighs about 50 pounds.
I don’t understand Beth’s animosity towards flan. Count on Beth not to be vague in her opinions:
Oh please, you have to be willfully blind to the gelatinous, slimy, jiggly, sloppy-wet texture of flan to NOT see how very snot-like it is. All you flan-lovers are kidding yourselves. You’re eating snot-like food. It’s okay, you’re ALLOWED to like snot-like food. You probably are okay with steamed okra, too.
Beth, you do NOT know booger foods until you eat fish stomach. Or some damned thing. I have this dim memory of my high school girlfriend’s mom feeding me something protoplasmic that tried mightily to climb back out of my esophagus. I think the Chinese word for it sounded like “jook,” and I was told it was fish stomach, although this may have been merely another of that woman’s many hazing rituals for me. May, you’re Chinese, aren’t you? Care to figure this one out?
I’m waiting for someone to say, “Oh, jook! That’s delicious!!! But you wouldn’t understand — it’s comfort food.”
It’s true. No one can understand comfort food except for the comforted. Like Jim yesterday with matzoh brei. How can anyone not like matzoh brei? But then I remember how much my wife likes mochi. If flan is snot, mochi is snot allowed to dessicate a few days under the desert sun.
Two questions. One I’ve asked before, but it was ages ago and I have new readers. The second is self-explanatory.
1. What is your comfort food?
2. Flan: snot or not?
D.
I’ll make my own flan and let you know whether you should try my recipe.
If you were told it’s fish stomach, then it’s probably fish maw. It’s fish innards, and I think it’s sold dried.
People cook soup with it, and it’s supposed to be one of those things that are good for you. The thing is, aren’t you supposed to only drink the soup? I don’t know, my mom doesn’t cook fish maw soup and I don’t think I’ve ever had any.
Poor Doug. Thanks for taking one for team.
*bursts into laughter*
Okay, I just checked with a friend and she says you’re supposed to eat it.
Comfort food tends to be stodgy food rich in carbohydrates. Pasta or mashed potatoes, yum.
Don’t know about flan. I’ve never had any, but if I have egg yolks left over, I’ll pop in over the weekend to let you know.
Comfort food for me: Mashed potatoes and gravy. Brown gravy, preferably home-made from the drippings of a pot roast or roasted chicken [turkey’s good, too].
When I was pregnant the first time, I was sick as a dog and one time, I wanted real mashed potatoes and gravy [from a restaurant, though, because I couldn’t stomach cooking, and Steve’s got three dishes he can make, and they all involve macaroni and cheese. No potatoes, no gravy.] The only restaurant I knew of that used real potatoes was 25 miles away.
Off we went. Only to find that they were closed on Mondays, which was the day I needed it.
I cried all the way home.
Flan? Definitely snot. I tried it once after trying the two other desserts available at that restaurant: fried ice cream and sopapillas. I love fried ice cream, and the sopapillas were good, so I figured the flan would be wonderful as well.
What a letdown. Blech. It was too bland, too slimy, and too, bland. I’ve never tried making my own, though. Just didn’t seem worth it.
Comfort food – chocolate brownies right out of the oven. Yummm…gotta close your eyes to eat them, they’re so good. Pot Roast.
Flan – not snot. Or at least, the good flan isn’t.
May, thanks for clearing that up. Excuse me while I go barf up something that’s been sticking around in my stomach for the last 24 years.
Shelbi, I fixed it 😉
Hi Noxcat! Chewy brownies are the best.
Comfort food – a big ole hamburger that the hubby cooked on the grill. You know the kind – a little pink in the middle but not too much so with some lovely melted cheese on top. You need 2 hands to hold it and after you eat it, you think I really shouldn’t have done that.
Flan – not snot. Can be yummy if done right.
Hi Doug,
My husband liked mochi but I thought it was like eating playdough.
My confort food is strawberry Haagen Daz ice cream.
Never tried flan.
Flan = YUM. But then, I love custard period, caramelly stuff or not. In fact, thank goodness it takes so freaking long to make custard (I like mine really light, so I make it with skim milk. Mixes don’t do the trick.), or I’d have it every day.
Bread pudding is a close second, again using skim milk because I like it light.
And gelato, as long as it’s GOOD gelato–you know, not to sweet, not too heavy.
And popcorn.
I’m seeing a theme here. Possibly that it’s time for lunch.
Mashed potatoes with Miracle Whip and canned peas.
Yes, I know.
Yes. I KNOW. There’s a story behind it, but it’s too pathetic to tell in public. Suffice to say the combo never fails to make me feel better. And glad I’ll never be fourteen again.
and I happen to LIKE junket which is made with cow stomachs. Total comfort food.
and rice pudding made the simple way and bread pudding when I make it (drier rather than late-cold-snot moist)
wonder if anyone considers haggis as anything other than disturbing food (opposite of comfort food)
Comfort food: cooked cabbage. I don’t know why, and yes, it’s dumb, but it always works.
Flan’s not snot. Not my favorite dessert, but it’s okay. I prefer plain, unadulterated NY style cheesecake.
Sorry, Kate, I can’t get my head around Junket. Way too runny. I can conjure the flavor of strawberry junket after all these years (I don’t think I’ve had it for 30+ years) and blech.
Seems we have a bimodal consensus: ice cream vs. mashed potatoes. Of the two, I’d go with mashed potatoes with lots of butter and gravy.
Comfort food = A greasy hamburger with chili.
Flan = snottacious
Just found your site. I do Enjoy it so far!!
Comfort food = grilled cheese…made with amish potato bread and american cheese. If you’re feeling ambitious, cook bacon til it’s crisp and put in on one piece of bread before mashing the two pieces together.
Flan = Yum. Properly made, it bears no resemblance to snot.
As for cooked cabbage, I prefer sauerkraut. Cooked cabbage? Too bland.
JMC, yup, I agree. Not snot. If flan reminds Beth of snot, Beth needs to see an ENT.
Hi Jan! Welcome aboard. Let’s see if I can scare you away with my upcoming post.
Thanks, Doug. Feel free to delete my second and third comments above, too, since they refer to the thing you fixed.
I might have to give flan another chance, if I can find it done properly [and I have no idea how I could tell].
I’m having mashed potatoes and gravy right now, believe it or not, and it’s still comforting.
Ooh, I just remembered when my grandma used to make home-made bread and home-made butter [we lived on a dairy farm, so we had the real stuff]. I’d toast the bread and put grandma’s butter on it.
Oh my gosh. I’d forgotten what a comfort anything Grandma made was!
oh….Doug, you’re still evil, it’s too hot up here to cook, but here we go
Dessert Comfort food–Tapioca
Entree Comfort food–got to be Grandma’s Chicken casserole with biscuits, and a side of Harvard Beets.
Breakfast comfort food–Cream of wheat (made with milk of course) and pumpernickle toast.
Flan, not snot, but creme brulee is much nicer.
Forgot to comment on mucus-like consistency of flan.
The Wells College cafeteria version, circa 1986? Tres snotastic. The stuff served at the local Viva Taqueria? I wouldn’t know, having never worked up to the nerve to try it, but my husband says it’s fine.
Comfort food – smoked oysters and cream cheese on crackers.
Flan – yes, kinda snotty, but in a good way.
Maureen: just like me, eh?
Selah: snotastic? A new word for my ENT lexicon 😉
Beard, what are Harvard beets? Agreed, creme brulee is much better, but it’s also a good deal more work.
Shelbi: yes, homemade bread and butter rocks! No argument from me.
Harvard Beets!!! Grand comfort food there!
Boil Beets, peel and slice, then cover them in a vinegary sauce with a touch of sugar thickened with cornstarch. Basically warm pickled beets in a velvety sweet yet sour sauce. (Sauce to root vegetable ratio must be heavily weighted towards vegetable–just enough sauce to carry the flavor.)
Flan-not snot. (Although I remember being scared of it the first time my grandmother suggested I try it at a restaurant.)
Comfort food–I’ve got one better for the mashed potato crowd. Make homemade noodles, boil them off in the turkey stock left over from Thanksgiving (you did make stock, yes?). The flour from the noodles thickens the broth. Then serve them over warm mashed potatoes. The carbo load is insane.
BUT, my favorite comfort food is probably ice cream. Coffee ice cream. (Homemade bread with butter is insanely good too.)
Suisan has it just about right, here’s Grandma (Eleanor) Dorr’s recipe
2 large cans of sliced beets (drain off the water)(yes, you can do the whole fresh thing…eh, the difference in my expeience wasn’t worth the effort, but they may not have been great beets)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar (white vinegar, don’t fancy this one up, it doesn’t work as well)
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan, add vinegar and water, boil 5 minutes (use a timer) Add beets to the hot sauce, take off heat for at least 30 minutes (over night is even better) before serving bring to a boil and a good 2 tablespoons of real butter. Salt and pepper to taste (I like a lot of pepper in it)
And if you serve it with coleslaw (chopped cabbage and Hellman’s Mayo, nothing else except salt and pepper) they go oddly well together, though the color combo on the plate is a bit…odd.
Suisan, that comfort food…..*le drool* that works for me. Maybe toss in some stewed onions (thinly slice yellow/vidalia onion or two, obscene amount of butter, salt and pepper, and some of the turkey stock simmer until soft) and you’ve got a coma inducing comfort food meal there.
See? Plenty of people acknowlege the grody slimey glop that is flan. And to reiterate: I have had many flans, gourmet and homemade and cheap-version and you name it. I’m not just eating bad flan, okay. All have that same texture. And it is slimey and boogery.
My comfort food is about any kind of baked pasta, loaded with cheese. Also about any form of potato except the scalloped (ick). The happy marriage of both of these results in gnocchi parmigiana (my terminology).
But my absolute ultimate comfort food, in that it’s nice and yummy AND it feels like love on a plate: beans and cornbread. In my family, it’s Great Northern beans, cooked on low all day, loaded with just enough salt. Cornbread (not the sweet kind, though you can add a touch of sugar to the batter) in the bowl, then ladle on some beans,and add chopped fresh vidalia onions. Eat with a big spoon, and serve salted sliced tomatoes on the side.
Holy crap, I need to go make some now.
Okay, Beth, I will admit some people have a problem with flan. Nothing that a bit of therapy wouldn’t cure 😉
If it redeems me even a teensy bit, I love Great Northern beans, too.
Hi Doug–sometimes reader, infrequent commenter. Thanks for having me (something I couldn’t bring myself to write on the cunnilingus/fellatio thread–great post, by the way).
Comfort food: anything out of the recipe book of my grandmother’s southern recipe. Think: garlic grits casserole and fruit crisp made of butter, sugar, and a Jiffy cake mix. Oh yeah, and fruit.
Flan: Undecided. Haven’t had it recently enough and never made it. My brother makes a mean creme brulee and likes to, so I might just be spoiled for flan.
Flan…NOT SNOT! I have not made it in awhile. I will have to dig up my recipe. It calls for a pretty good sized piece of orange zest and a cinnamon stick to be steeped in the hot milk for a few minutes before it is mixed with the eggs. This gives the flan a very subtle flavor that prevents the blandness some folks were complaining of. My recipe also calls for a vanilla bean to be steeped with the other stuff, but I find this makes the vanilla overpower the other flavors. For my tastes a bit of vanilla extract works better for flan.
Hi Ariadne. Thanks for being had 😉 I love apple crisp, too, which is a problem. I’m the only one here who likes it. If I make it, I’m the only one who eats it, and that is Not Good. BTW, creme brulee still rawks over flan, no argument here. And they’re similar enough that you really can’t use the “apples and oranges” argument. Nevertheless, flan is a bit easier to prepare, and I like the caramel flavor.
KariBelle, sounds interesting. Yup, gotta be careful with that vanilla bean. I love vanilla, but it’s hard to build complexity if you start with a walloping dose of vanilla bean.
One of my favorite creme brulees was made with bay leaf. I don’t think Karen cared for it, but it woke up my tastebuds.