Paw Paw Cream caramel Flan

Two days ago I bought 4 pawpaws for 300 Naira. In other parts of the country this might not be news worthy but in Lagos this was a real bargain! There were two large ones and two small ones and it was very delicious. 

The deal with bargains or discounted deals such as with my pawpaws ("with my pawpaws" did I just type that:)) is that you end up buying want you don't really need. I just wanted to buy pawpaws that we would eat later in the day, but two days later I still had two more overripe pawpaws.

 So I decided to cook with them or rather bake with them. I made flans with the pawpaws and it turned out a beautiful shade of pinkish orange the photos couldn't capture the vibrant colour. Another interesting and welcomed effect of the pawpaws was that it helped to eliminate the 'eggy' taste and smell which is so synonymous with flans. This recipe is a keeper for me!

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

250 g of pawpaw, peeled

1 can condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

• Pour the sugar into a heavy bottom pan set atop a very low heat and allow to slowly dissolve. 

• It can take between 10 to 15 minutes for it to turn a nice golden brown colour. 

• Once dissolved quickly pour into ramekins or moi moi plates(I don't have ramekins). 

•  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes

• Set aside 4 cubes of the pawpaw pour the rest into a blender add the condensed and evaporated milk, followed by the vanilla extract and blend. Next add the eggs one by one into the blender and mix all in. Once they are all mixed in well put the pawpaw that was set aside. I decided to do because I want visible bits of the pawpaw in the caramel.(pardon me I forgot to take a photo of this stage)

• Pour the egg and milk blend into the moi moi plates, set on a baking tray add boiling water and bake in a 350 degrees oven for about forty minutes.

• After 40 minutes the center will wriggle a bit if you touch it, Set aside to cool then turn over on your serving platter.

• Garnish with paw paw slices.

Simple Chinese Egg Fried Rice.

Chinese egg fried rice is a super-duper easy meal to make. There are some evenings when am at a loss for what to prepare for dinner. I guess it happens to you too..... or am I alone?

Well when this happens I look through my fridge for leftovers that I can whip up and serve. In comes my simple Chinese fried rice!

The ingredients are a staple at my house as a baker am never out of eggs and I almost always have leftover boiled rice. This my version is devoid of lots of veggies but you can add any veggies you like e.g carrots, capsicum, peas, spring onions, garlic etc. 


Ingredients

2 cups boiled rice (day old rice are the best so boil your rice a night before)
1 onion
3 tbsp oil

4 eggs

2 tsp honey

2 tsp soy sauce

Salt

1. Slice the onions and fry in a tbsp of oil in a non stick pan.
2. Crack the eggs and whisk, add to the onions and fry until done.
3. Turn the eggs unto a plate, pour in the remaining oil into the pan heat it up and add the rice
4. Add the honey and soy sauce and fry
5. Taste for salt and add a little salt, make sure you taste because the soy sauce is salty.
6. Add the eggs back in with the rice give them a good stir.
7. Your meal is ready!