A French Movie Night

I have been taking French lessons for a few months now. It's going not well. My "R" sounds are still very German. I am also hopeless in remembering the different verb tenses. Buggers. My quirky friends and I from French class decided to plan a French movie night to improve our learning and appreciation for the language. With a copy of "Bon Cop Bad Cop" in hand, let the evening start!

For the evening, the hosts (Mr. L and I) have also came up with a delicious dinner plan for our guests. Unfortunately, one of the hosts (slowly rising my hand while no one is looking) forgot to inform one of the guests that the evening included dinner along with the movie. Nevertheless, I think everyone had a good time.

We had some goose rillette on crackers, French "chinoise" fondue with wine, followed by creme caramel with a side of meringues and fresh fruits. Taking traditions to heart, we all ate the fondue under the penalty of doing the dishes if we dropped a piece in the pot. We all survived the penalty (the dishwasher got the bitter end of the stick), though most of us did some "fishing" once in a while. Especially for those pesky but delicious mushrooms that slid off the forks. I don't remember much of the evening's conversation other than the boiled peanuts from the south (southern US not Canada). After dinner, we watched the movie (well half the movie as we took our time with dinner) while chewing on some colourful Twizzlers from one of those variety packs! There were also bowls of m&ms and chips being passed around. It was a fantastic evening! Another evening just like this is on the horizon complete with a wine an cheese theme and a Disney movie in French.

Creme Caramel (AKA Flan)
My friend made the most wonderful homemade creme caramel that I have had. She was nice enough to share her recipe with me. However, I semi-!@#$%^ up while making it. I am sharing it here for a future reattempt and for someone else to salvage this recipe. The only redeeming feature of the entire dessert was the side of meringues made from the recipe from Joy of Baking. It offered great contrasting texture to the creamy creme caramel.

Recipe makes 8 three inch-wide creme caramels
100g sugar
60ml hot water
8 egg yolks
4 egg whites (use 3 if you prefer less springy flan)
500ml whipping creme
500ml milk
half a stick of vanilla

1. To prepare the caramel base, heat up the sugar in a small pot. Stirring constantly until the sugar turns amber brown (goldenish colour). Quickly add in the hot water and stir like crazy. Once the caramel is ready, divide them into individual ramekins or oven-safe cups. Set aside. Preheat oven to 390F.

You will need to be very careful when you add the water because it will boil rapidly due to the temperature of the sugar. My friend suggested to prepare the caramel and make sure you have gotten it right. It may take a several tries. If you let the sugar turn too dark a colour the dessert will turn very bitter. I have had better luck making caramel using another method than described here. If you have a caramel recipe that works for you stick with that and then continue with the rest of the recipe.

2. Slice the vanilla stick in half along its length and remove all the seeds. Heat up the milk in a pot to an almost boil with the vanilla stick in it. Let it cool down.
3. Whisk the egg yolks and whites. Add in the whipping cream and the cooled milk.
4. Run the mixture through a sieve for a smooth texture. Pour equal volume of the mixture in the prepared cups.
5. Take a large oven-safe container with raised sides and a flat base. Place the cups inside. Add water to 1/2 the height of the container. Place container into the oven and turn the temperature down to 350F. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Baking time will depends on the bakeware and the temperature of the oven.
6. Run a knife around the side of the cups to release the creme caramel. To serve, invert on to a plate.