It is Sunday morning but I am going to do my best to remember what we accomplished on Friday. The day started normally with breakfast and school. School runs from 10:00-1:00. Today was the day that Francisco was coming over (with his maid) to give Allen a lesson on making Flan. The lesson was to begin at 2:00.
We decided that today would be a nice day to share the smoked salmon that we brought over. The salmon that Allen caught and made at home. We ran into the store to get cream cheese and french bread. Bagels are not available here.Go figure...When Francisco showed up, (Uruguayan time which is at least 1/2 hour late) we ate salmon and drank champagne. They loved it. They really did like it, it wasn't like they were just being polite.
So then the maid showed up. Francisco brought his mama's cook book. Oh my. He said he had to sneak it out of the house so his mama did not see that he was taking the book. I will add some pictures so you can see why. It was falling apart. It was so bad, you could not use the index. One of his past maids had to cover the binding and cover in a strong denim material just to keep that part together.
So, Christina the maid came over to make the top layer of the flan. This is the part that Francisco's mom usually makes for him. Pretty much you put the sugar in the flan pan, (which was a small bunt pan) and put it over the flame on the stove top to carmalize. Then you mix 10 eggs, (7 just yolks and 3 whole eggs), 200 grams of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla , 1/2 liter of whole milk and you stir that up unitl the sugar is absorbed, but do not foam the eggs. Then it goes is a 200 Celsius oven in a water bath. We made this at 3:00 to be cooled and ready to eat at 9:30 dinner, Uruguayan time seems to be 1/2 hour later than is specified. You don't want to look too eager to show up at a party or meeting on time. We eat so late. I dream a lot because I am so full.
Well tonight is the Uruguayan national soccer match against Chile. If i had known that it was here in Uruguay we would have gone to the match, but we watched it on t.v. It was so fun to watch. Mecki and Leo stood up and joined in the national anthem, Leo pulled his shirt off, ran to the cupboard and threw on his light blue soccer jersey. Out came the flag which we waved at every goal. We won 4 to 0! Every time there was a goal scored you could hear car horns honking outside. I also notice that they have the Uruguayans sit one one side of the stands and Chileans on the other. This is to avoid fights. This is such a big part of the Uruguayan culture now.
After awhile we ate a chicken that has been marinated all day. It was very good. Tonight Leo is the cook.
Now it is time for the Flan. Well, due to a couple of factors, the flan did not turn out as it should have. Don't get me wrong, the taste was great, but the consistency was not correct. There are many possible reasons. Christina (the Maid) was the one who was going to have to clean the flan pan. According to Francisco she is a tad lazy and she added water to the sugar to caramelize it. This would make the pan much easier to clean later. His mama uses only sugar to caramelize. 2. The oven was hotter than he usually uses. 3. Maybe the kitchen aide frothed the eggs more than his machine. The end result worked out great for us because it tasted good, but it also led to an invitation for Saturday night's dinner at Francisco's for another flan that his mama would make. More on Saturday later.
Notice that there was not a lot of Spanish studying in this days blog...(and mostly they still seem to concentrate on the food,)
The weather is getting nicer each day and should continue to build up into a hot summer season. Yippee!
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