Carrot Flan – by Michele Debczak

The weather is getting nicer in New York, which means it’s officially Street Treat Season. The items people discard on the curb can be hit or miss. In March alone, I passed an old dollhouse, a beat-up Herman Miller chair, and a box of pots and pans while walking around my neighborhood. Even when I’m not in the market for secondhand goods, I always take a peek at what my neighbors are trying to get rid of—if for no other reason than to satisfy my nosiness. Most of the time it’s junk, but occasionally I find something that’s so specific to my current needs it feels like a gift from the universe. Recently, my curiosity led me to the subject of this week’s post.

This copy of Cooking for Compliments may have looked like trash to most passersby, but it’s a treasure to someone who just launched a newsletter of vintage recipes. Ruth Morgan, the book’s author and editor of the UK-based magazine Woman, described it as “a complete guide to kitchen know-how and successful entertaining.” The cover image immediately told me what kind of publication I was dealing with. Any recipe developer that uses fussy, herb-dredged orange slices and potato chips as garnish on the same plate is one I can get behind. The book is filled with similarly kitschy dishes developed for the kinds of 1960s dinner parties that don’t exist anymore.

In keeping with the theme of rolling with fate, I chose this week’s dish by opening to a random page. The first recipe I saw also happened to be a perfect fit for an Easter/early spring menu. When you read “carrot flan”, do you also picture a carrot cake-adjacent dessert like I did? That’s not what we have here. Flavored with one whole onion, this flan is decidedly savory. Instead of having you chop up the onion and add it to the custard, the recipe asks you to steep an onion studded with cloves in milk and discard it. I love this technique and I think we should bring it back.

This could be a side dish, but I also see it as an indulgent vegetarian main, especially for an Easter breakfast or brunch. The concept is slightly strange, but I can’t imagine anything made with this much milk, egg, and butter tasting bad. So if you’re planning a menu for a spring feast, take this as a sign to go the retro route. The universe clearly wants you to.

8 oz. shortcrust pastry

FILLING:
1 lb. carrots
boiling salted water
1 oz. melted butter
1/2 pint milk
1 small onion
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
3 eggs
salt and pepper

TO GARNISH:
sprig of parsley

Roll out the pastry and use to line an 11-inch flan ring. Place a 12-inch round of grease-proof paper in flan and fill with baking beans. Bake in hot oven (400 deg. F) 5-10 minutes. Remove paper and beans, return to oven and cook 5 minutes or until pastry is cooked. Peel and slice the carrots, cook in boiling salted water for 8 minutes. Drain well, toss in the melted butter, cool slightly. Arrange in over-lapping circles in the flan. Heat the milk with onion studded with cloves, add bay leaf, cool, and strain. Beat eggs with strained milk and seasoning. Pour into the flan. Bake above centre in hot oven (400 deg. F) 25 minutes till egg is set. Serve hot or cold garnished with parsley.