Crema Catalana, also just known as Crema or Crema de San Josep – I have no idea if Mary’s husband had a penchant for thick custard with a burnt sugar top – but it is a dish that Catalans eat regularly while other Spaniards make it to celebrate the Patron Saint of Fathers (and quite possibly, cuckolds, as they don’t have an official saint).
It is related to Scottish Burnt Cream (known as Cambridge burnt cream after a Scotsman brought it to Cambridge) and I confess to once stupidly going round Barcelona shops buying industrial quantities of the awful UHT cartons they had that passed for cream to make F.Marian McNeil’s Burnt Cream as a great Scottish desert. It wasn’t until halfway through I realised that I was essentially making a creamier Crema Catalana and, if I wanted to impress, the Weightwatchers carrot cake recipe, cut out from a Woman’s Own, was a far better choice.
The recipe below is the the recipe from the official catering school in Barcelona, Escola de restauració and has been very popular at the supperclub and the Calcotada. As you will see it is not difficult and it does give you a really beautiful crema. It serves 4 greedy people or 6 slightly less generous portions
Photo Courtesy of Su-Lin
1 litre milk
250g sugar
8 egg yolks
90g of cornflour
1 cinamon stick
One lemon peel
extra sugar for burning
Put 3/4 litre of milk half the sugar the broken up cinnamon stick and the lemon peel on to heat
Meanwhile in a separate bowl mix in the egg yolk, the cornflour and the rest of the sugar
Add the rest of the milk to the egg yolk mixture and keep stirring so that it doesn’t get lumpy
When the milk in the pan boils strain it into a jug
Then strain the egg yolk mix into another bowl and stirring vigorously so that it doesn’t curdle, add the hot milk in little by little.
Pour into ramekins, leave to set in the fridge for 2-3 hours and then sprinkle the sugar on top and burn.
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