Smoked red pepper custards

I had fun making these Smoked Red Pepper Custards. Their creamy, light texture was heavenly. I served them with a delicious side salad for some crunch.

I recently visited Spain. On my “To Eat List’ whilst there, I hunted down the best Crema Catalana in Barcelona “near me”. I decided I wanted to experience the home of this amazing dessert. Google maps gave me a whole lot of options and I chose Escriba. The ratings and reviews were consistently good and there were a lot of them. It was a short distance walk from our apartment and we were ready for an afternoon treat. Christian Escriba’s photo was plastered all over the walls with nearly every imaginable celebrity possible. The man is an icon and his country men and women know it. He’s like the Heston Blumenthal of Britian. We ordered our crema catalana’s and cortado’s and took a walk around the bakery to enjoy Christian’s talent and work whilst waiting for our order to be prepared.

This post is not about the crema catalana, however but the inspiration for my Smoked Red Pepper Custard. We enjoyed the crema catalana, don’t get me wrong. It was a bit lemony and I didn’t expect that, but it was delicious nonetheless. Christian Escriba shares his recipe here about 33 seconds into this video. There are English subtitles for the ingredients if you are interested in making his version.

I just absolutely loved the little Spanish dishes the crema catalana were served in. I asked our server if I could buy them, she wasn’t sure so went away to ask. “Unfortunately not,” she said upon her return, “but I can give you one,ONLY one!” oh my goodness I was so happy. You see I have a thing for little dishes and containers when I travel. Brian and I love to visit the supermarkets in every European city or any city or town we visit when we travel abroad. We are curious to see what’s on their shelves and we love to compare similar products and their prices with our South African grocery stores. I’m fascinated with little pots of yogurt that come in glass containers or little pots of puddings that come in earthenware. We usually always buy those brands because I get to bring home the little containers. I now had one very precious little crema catalana dish to add to my collection. I needed more so I got onto google and did the search “near me” for these little dishes. Well what do you know, there was a kitchen equipment place around the corner from our apartment. If you are a foodie this might be something you do when on holiday, I am, so I did! Gadgets & Cuina were open the next day, so off we went in search of my little dishes. I wanted 6, but I already had one , so I only needed 5. There was a kit that came with the recipe and the sugar burner gadget along with 6 dishes for €21.90 which converted to over R400. I did NOT want to spend that kind of money on 6 little dishes when they practically give them away in the supermarkets. I searched around to find they sell individual pots for €1.90. Oh, the Gods were with me that day, as they are most days because this converted to R38 per pot. I also only needed 5, which meant I would pay €9.50 (R190 converted). You are not going to believe me when I tell you they only had 5 IN STOCK! So you see, I was meant to go to Escriba to enjoy my crema catalana, I was meant to get ONLY ONE little dish for free so that I could fill my hearts desire of owning 6 little perfectly glazed Spanish crema catalana dishes. Thank you Escriba for your generosity, I think of you every time I use my little pots. Here I have hero’ed them with my Smoked Red Pepper Custard.

As I mentioned in my post for making the Smoked Red Pepper Purée, red peppers landed in my basket fortuitously. They were the spark I needed to make the custard I wanted to make. Rather than a traditional sweet one, I wanted to make a savoury one. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Ingredients

• 100 g of smoked red pepper purée or Smoked Salmon
• 40 g of grated cheddar
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp smoked paprika
• 150 ml of full fat milk
• 150 ml cream
• 4 extra large eggs

Instructions

• Add the purée to a blender and the garlic, salt, paprika, full fat, milk, and cream and blitz at medium speed for a minute
• Add the eggs and pulse blitz until properly combined
• Pour custard into ramekins
• Place ramekins into water bath and place in the oven, bake at 150°C for 25 minutes. The custard is done when there is a slight jiggle.
• Using a spatula remove the ramekins and place on a wire rack to cool
• Serve warm with a basil, olive oil, Oregon, and tomato salad sprinkled with pinenuts as an optional extra add goat cheese

Notes

See here for my Smoked red pepper Purée 

Serve with chilled chardonnay and salad

A great pairing is a mix of rocket, spinach, origanum, thyme and mint leaves along with a few slices of goats cheese and chrorizo.  Crusty bread or croutons also give a nice crunch to balance the smooth velvety texture of the custard. 

  

Tip 

Substitute smoked salmon for the red pepper purée just to be fancy 

Course: Light Meal, Lunch, Salad

Keyword: custard, red pepper