Recipes Suck

[andysocial]

Originally published at BunkBlog. You can comment here or there.

Jose Andres writes recipes that only he can make. Not only are there ingredients that nobody has heard of, but his instructions are just plain wrong. I’m making flan, and I tried to follow his instructions for the caramel sauce but eventually I fell asleep.  OK, not really, but he seems to have a vastly different stove than I’ve ever seen. He says you can melt sugar on low in five minutes. On low?  HAH! After changing the temperature frequently, it still took me twenty minutes for a cup of sugar to melt in a small pan. Low? Bite me, Jose.

We’ll see how the custard turns out tonight.

Comments

[kylakae.livejournal.com]

Mmm...flan. Do you have a gas or an electric stove?

[andysocial]

Sadly, I have an electric range. I hate electrics for cooking, but I'm not gonna run a gas line around the house and buy a new stove, so...*sigh*

[kylakae.livejournal.com]

I'm stuck with electric, too, since we don't get gas here. Our newer neighbors a block or so over do so I'm hopeful that we can some day. I hate electric stoves, they're no goof for those of us who really cook.

I was just thinking that electric seems to behave differently than gas and maybe a gas flame would melt it more quickly. I dunno, just a thought.

[andysocial]

My oven betrayed me as well - since I've never made flan before (and Jose's recipe doesn't give a DESCRIPTION of doneness, just a time) I believed the time listed. OK, not completely - I baked them about 8 minutes longer than it said (45), just because it seemed they weren't done enough. Yeah, 53 minutes wasn't enough - they're puddles of goo. Fortunately they do taste good. I'm definitely trying a different recipe next time - Jose is pissing me off.

[kylakae.livejournal.com]

Well bummer! Did his recipe use a water bath?

[andysocial]

Yep, I had a 9x13 pan with water, and four ramekins inside it. I'll try a completely different recipe another time. Need to buy more eggs. :-)