Flan de Calabaza - Wow

I'd seen the calabaza in the supermercado but was not impressed. I was only impressed by the size of the ones I've grown - little did I know of the creamy goodness these hideous blobs could produce! I've never been a pumpkin fan - hate pumpkin pie and can barely eat pumpkin bread. I am telling you that these pumpkins are not like pumpkins. First off, look at this. I boiled chunks for 20 minutes and drained them and put them in the blender. No fibers. Bright orange. Very aromatic! My neighbor told me of another neighbor who makes the best calabaza flan (but she is in Fajardo for a few weeks). So I took it upon myself to make a flan even though a pumpkin one sounded kind of disgusting and I'd never made a flan before. For one thing I am not an egg fan and some recipes use 8 or 9 eggs. Yuck. I found a recipe that sounded still marginal but used fewer eggs. I also didn't trust the gas stove to properly regulate the temperature enough to do it on the stove top so I did it in the oven and here it is coming out. Doesn't look like much.

It kind of cracked when it cooled but here it is when I flipped it out...

Here is a little slice of something delightful! Not overly sweet, not super eggy but very very yummy and something I will make many times I am sure.

First the caramelized sugar for the bottom of the pan - 1/2 cup sugar. Just sprinkle in a frying pan and move it around with a spoon until it is golden and pour it into your 8-inch pan. Boil: cut and boil the calabaza (you want to end up with around 3 cups of puree) Puree: put drained calabaza in blender and whirrrrr until you have a nice puree Beat: 4 eggs in a bowl Add: 1 12 ounce can of evaporated milk, 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and cinnamon and cloves Pour mixture into the pan over the carmelized sugar (which should be hard already) and place the pan in another bigger pan filled with an inch or so of water.Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or so at 350. Cool on counter and then for a few hours in the refrigerator before flipping onto a plate. Cut it and pour the sugar syrup back over it. Yum!

Supposedly you can do this in a double boiler on the stovetop but it sounded iffy to me. The ingredients are things I never have cooked with (evaporated and sweetened condensed milk) but things I will reconsider and keep on hand. The sweetened condensed milk had around 23 grams of sugar (less than I thought) so a slice of flan has about as much as a coke (29 grams in 8 oz and what glass is only 8 ounces?). I am telling you that this is really really good. I have heard of breadfruit flan but can't quite visualize doing that yet. It just sounds wrong! Another note on calabaza - it supposedly doesn't freeze well in chunks (I am experimenting). You can freeze it as cooked puree or mashed stuff and that might work for muffins or breads or something - I'll try that too. But for now, flan makes it to the "favorites" list up there with Mango Chicken Curry (#1) and Best Ever Banana Cake. Flan - try some today, easy to make.