Rub a Dub Dub

Let’s cook food in a tub! Or bath, a bain-marie. “Ban-Mar-ee” pronounced in English translates from French into “Bath of Maria,” and is simply a cooking term meaning water bath. Basically a ‘bath’ of water is heated and another pot or pan is placed inside the bath in which food is cooked due to a combination of insulation and steam. Usually water is filled halfway up the side of the pan inside the bath and the entire unit is closed off with a lid to keep the heat in. This method of cooking is useful for cheesecake and custard makers to prevent cracks from forming and to keep them moist and silky.

So originally I wanted to make leche flan – a Filipino caramel custard dessert ( in my family made for birthday parties and holidays) – for the local SASE chapter’s 4^th birthday party, to commemorate how we all came together in the first place – looking for our own organization to call “home.” At our university we had the National Society for Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, etc. all established, and yet, there wasn’t an organization for Asian Engineers.

Let our powers combine. Materials! Electricity! Environment! Chemistry! Science! Go SASE! By your powers combined, I am UF SASE! And that’s how it happened…Happy 4^th Birthday Florida SASE Chapter!! ❤

Half-peeled

But really, I went grocery shopping for cream cheese and ended up at the local Asian market. I went on purpose to buy Asian eggplants for my tortang talong, and came home with a large daikon  and a purple sweet potato as well. Okay, okay, I actually went to the market twice to pick up the daikon later after taking an interest in “pseudo-steaming.” My mom always made leche flan in 9 inch loaf pans in a bain-marie, and I thought to myself, “Isn’t it kind of like steaming food?” So what else could I “steam” next?

Actually I didn’t even know I had a purple sweet potato until I cut it open. Look how purple it was! I ended up googling recipes that used them and half of them had to be translated – which I nixed. At this point I wasn’t sure if I made enough flan for the party, so I found another Asian dessert that happened to be steamed and could hopefully use this tuber. Kuih talam – I don’t know exactly what it means, but it looks like a steamed rice cake, a dessert or snack, and it’s a general term for a two-layered rice cake in areas such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and parts of China. It sort of looked like the Filipino sweet sapin-sapin. I tried my luck with the sweet potato and the bain-marie…Eureka!!

Buko Pandan Leche Flan

• 6 eggs
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp buko-pandan extract
• ½ cup of sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place pan (that you plan to bake it in) directly on top of the stove grill. Place the ½ cup of sugar in one layer in the pan so that it is evenly spread out. I used an 8-inch round pan or 12-tin muffin pan. If using a muffin tin, see note.
3. Using oven mitts, turn the stove on high for 1-2 minutes as the sugar caramelizes in the pan. Use a spoon to get rid of the chunks of sugar, and once completely melted, remove from heat and rotate the pan to make sure the bottom of the pan is coated with caramel.

Note: If you are using muffin tins, I would advise you to heat the sugar in a pan separately first to create the caramel coating and pour it into the separate molds. You should quickly move each mold around to coat the bottoms before the sugar hardens! J

4. Let this cool for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.
5. Blend the rest of the ingredients together in a blender until no lumps are present.
6. Pour filling directly into the pan and place pan in another (larger) heat safe pan or container. Fill the outside container with water, about an inch high – this forms the bain-marie. Cover the whole unit with aluminum foil.
7. Place the whole unit inside the oven for 45 minutes to an hour until set.
8. Let it cool to room temperature before serving or placing in the fridge before serving.
9. To serve – use a knife to release the edges from the pan. Turn the pan over onto the serving platter. The flan should come out in one piece!

Purple Sweet Potato Kuih Talam

Special Equipment

• strainer

Purple Layer (A)

• 1 cup mashed purple yam
• ½ cup sugar
• 10 fl oz coconut milk
• ¼ cup rice flour
• ¼ cup tapioca flour

White Layer (B)

• 8 fl oz coconut milk
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• 1 tbsp tapioca flour
• a pinch salt

1. Prepare a bain-marie on the stove top. Find a pot or pan large enough to hold your heat proof molds for your kuih talam.
2. Peel and dice the sweet potato into cubes and place them into a pot of water to boil. Mash them in a bowl when cooked about 15 minutes if chopped into small cubes.
3. Mix all of the purple layer ingredients together in a bowl. Strain the mixture through a strainer before pouring into molds. Fill molds ¾ of the way up with this layer.
4. Place molds in bain-marie and fill the larger pan with water about an inch high. Heat on stove (with lid on) at medium heat for 10-15 minutes or firm to the touch. Remove from heat.
5. Mix all of the ingredients for the white layer in another bowl and strain through a strainer as well before filling up the rest of the molds.
6. Place in bain-marie for 10-15 minutes again or until firm. Follow same directions as step 3.
7. After cooling to room temperature, you can pop the kuih out of their molds and serve. They can be stored at room temperature.

Full steam ahead!

❤ The Food Scientist