Vanessa dropped this tiny cardboard package, the size of a matchbook, in my mailbox. I will take it to my Portuguese neighbours, two doors down, for interpretation…Any hints?
(“Creative” suggestions welcome).
Vanessa dropped this tiny cardboard package, the size of a matchbook, in my mailbox. I will take it to my Portuguese neighbours, two doors down, for interpretation…Any hints?
(“Creative” suggestions welcome).
hmmmmm.
It looks suspiciously like creme caramel to me. In which case I have no idea how you would prepare it from packet mix. All I can decipher is vanilla, salt,
mandarin pudding
I’m just wondering how much pudding (or ‘pudim’?) you’re going to get from 4.8g worth of ingredients in a pack the size of a matchbook. Maybe one little creme caramel thing?
Although the finished result in the bowl does also look a bit like his hat.
I’m intrigued that the barcode has the little scissor symbol for cutting it out, as if you could maybe cut out a number of them (perhaps there are different flavours) and send them somewhere (Portugal? China?) to win a prize. Maybe a hat.
Yeah, I reckon it’s Chinese-style creme caramel. I’ve seen asian creme caramel around Cabramatta and it’s denser than the regular types of creme caramel you purchase from the supermarket. They’re baked or something.
The packet seems to contain liquid, but measured in grams. Perhaps it contains all the flavours that would make up the flan?
But yeah, if you’re around Cabramatta and want to give the Chinese version a try, just find a dessert store and ask for flan!
Here’s my fudged guess based on bits of spanish, french and english. I reckon the gaps make it interesting – and you could add random words and end up with a whole yum cha banquet.
Mandarin flavoured pudding
Preparation: Mix contents of one packet with 3 spoons of sugar syrup. Something half a litre of milk is necessary to something this pudding something something a small portion something something to dissolve. Put the rest and when the milk rises something add to mixture until it dissolves, something something mixing always turning for a few minutes. Place aside something something in a mould, already caramelised something something.
Ingredients: flour, something, salt, artificial colours, artificial flavour (vanilla)
something I can’t quite remember leads me to think that ‘mandarin’ actually means orange flavour and not mandarine.
Interesting that there is no actual orange or mandarine in the ingredients though, just those artificial colours and flavours. mmm mmm. And surely one of the ingredients (perhaps ‘mayhems’ “something”) is sugar?! I’m guessing the first or second…
I don’t think it’s creme caramel- I reckon it’s something more like a portugese version of junket, this DISGUSTING dessert my nana loved from the depression. It was made from these kind of pastel-coloured tablets full of synthetic non-foodstuffs, the addition of milk, waiting, turning, and then dismay, as your grandchildren ran out shrieking.
um, I forgot to look at the picture of the pudim itself- I am talking out of my arse, alas.
that’s creme caramel.
Ok folks. Enough blustering about. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that the ‘sham has zero Portuguese readership. That will have to be addressed. In the meantime, here’s the scoop on the Pudim.
I went into the Portuguese deli and asked the nice young lady what it was all about.
The scratchy notes I wrote about how to prepare the “pudim”:
For advanced users: you can make a little caramel syrup by caramelising sugar and putting the resulting gooey stuff in the base of the cups before you pour the mix in to set. That way, when you tip the dessert out for your guests, the nice runny caramel will drool down the silky surface of the Pudim. Impressive!
[ps: the Deli lady said she didn’t know why it was called “Flan Chino” – she said it’s got nothing to do with Chinese cuisine. In fact, she’s wondered about this herself ever since she was a kid. I’m throwing my hat in the ring with the clever David in guessing that the shape of the Pudim looks a bit like the Chinese fellow’s hat, and that’s where the name comes from…]
Did you try to make it? It sounds like a very delicate procedure, like a chemistry experiment, or surgery.
Flan made, folks. And a success it was. Read about it here, and see pix here.