custard the culinary challenge

So the point of this blog is to challenge myself to learn about cooking and wine. I want to cook intuitively, you know... from the gut or from the heart, whichever. I have been thinking the I need to toss myself culinary throw downs on a regular basis. Here is the first one: make something I am apprehensive to make without referring to the recipe. This isn't like the turkey chili that I can just make by following my craving, but something a tad more technical.

On Thanksgiving, dessert will be individual pumpkin-shaped gingerbread that will rest on a pillow of English cream. Sounds yummy doesn't it? the English cream recipe I have is custard folded into whipped cream. I made the custard tonight and it was my culinary throw down.

When I said "without referring to a recipe", I meant during the process. I read it first and committed it to memory and then proceeded to make the custard. I prepared a bain Marie, got out all my tools and ingredients. Things turned out pretty good. I put a cup of whole milk in a small pot and brought it to a simmer.
Look how mysterious this yolk looks close up, like a happy sun rising over sugarhill.

Combined two yokes and a 1/4 cup of sugar and whisk. When the milk reaches a simmer, pour it in a slow stream into the egg and sugar while whisking to combine. Slow pour and whisking is a must because you do not want the heat of the milk to cook the egg yokes.

Pour it back into the pot and return to a low heat. Stir consistently with a wooded spoon till the mixture thickens. Do not let it go over 175 degrees. You can see here that my pause for a photo is causing my custard to get dangerously close the no-no zone. If it is not thickening pull the pot off the heat, dangle it above the flame to keep the temp down but giving it a bit more cook time.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl in the bain Marie (ice bath). Mix in 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla and there it is! Custard!

So, I did it, I meet my culinary throw down and and pleased with the results. During the process though, I was very distracted by the photography that I pulled the custard before it was thick enough and I had it on ice before I decide to go back to the stove with it, but that decision to go back to the heat is the intuitively that I am trying to develop. Isn't it?