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Introducing the Franco-Spanish version of crème brulee. Once you’ve seen and smelled the smoke rise with an alchemical hiss and the sugar topping melt to a vitreous shell, once you’ve shattered the crust with a tap of your spoon, well, you’ve witnessed an act of live-fire cooking that’s as primal as barbecue itself.
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Catalan cream is the Spanish cousin of French creme brulee, but instead of caramelizing the
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sugar with a blowtorch, use an iron heated in the fire. Did someone say fire? I give you crema
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catalana, Primal Grill style. Step number one, warm the milk in a saucepan. There are three
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flavorings. First vanilla bean and what you do is cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise
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and as you open it you can see it's filled with thousands of tiny black vanilla seeds
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that's where the flavor comes from so add the vanilla bean next strips of lemon zest
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that is the oil rich outer rind of the lemon and finally a couple of cinnamon sticks
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now return the milk to the fire and bring it to a gentle simmer meanwhile let me show you how to
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make the custard. To 12 egg yolks, add granulated sugar and cornstarch
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Whisk the mixture until smooth. Then a couple of tablespoons of honey
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Once your milk is scalded, add it little by little to the custard mixture
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and whisk this in. This is a process called tempering the eggs
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You don't want to add all the hot milk at once, or you might curdle the egg yolks and break the glass bowl
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Add a few more tablespoons. and finally once the egg yolks are tempered you can pour the remaining hot milk through a sieve
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Whisk well to mix
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Then return the Catalan cream mixture to the saucepan. Now return the pot to the fire bring the Catalan cream mixture to a boil
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whisking steadily and boil it for about three minutes it will thicken
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Let the mixture cool to room temperature
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then chill it for at least three hours. Here's a batch I made earlier
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Ladle the Catalan cream mixture into creme brulee molds or cast-iron skillets
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Meanwhile, lay a third cast-iron skillet in the embers. And what you want to do is sprinkle cinnamon sugar
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over the tops of the Catalan creams. This is turbinado sugar which is a coarse crystallized light brown sugar with a little bit of cinnamon
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And smooth the tops as evenly as you can. And to check the heat of the skillet
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add a few drops of water. They should evaporate instantly. And now the moment of truth
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Take the hot skillet and press it on top of the sugar
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It will melt. And form a hard candy crust. And the easiest way to clean the skillet is simply put it back on the fire
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What you do is you sort of crack the candy crust. Mmm
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That is exquisite. That creamy, lemony custard on the hard, smoky candy
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Creme brulee, eat your heart out
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