On the silky, savory side

Sometimes a great food idea seems to bubble up from several sources at once -- and why not? Culinary inspiration often comes when chefs are playing in the kitchen. They all have the same toys, after all -- ingredients and techniques. When chefs start putting their spin on a specific technique, invention begins. It seems that lately, chefs around town have been playing with flan, but not for dessert.

Vegetable flans -- yes, they can be as delicious as they sound -- have appeared on several restaurant menus in recent weeks. At La Cachette, a simple leek flan was served with Dover sole. At Bastide, an eggplant flan was part of a three-way version of the vegetable that accompanied trout with almond sauce. And at Chloe, a parsnip flan with wild mushrooms started as a main course but evolved into an appetizer, prettied up with a microgreens salad.

It’s a concept that doesn’t even take getting used to. “People think of flan as the Spanish dessert with caramel, or creme caramel in French,” says Jeff Osaka, co-chef of Chloe, “but flan is simply a slow-cooked custard containing eggs, cream or milk and any kind of flavoring you like. We happened to go with parsnip because of the season, but you could use other vegetables.”

Alain Giraud of Bastide, who has made flans with white or green asparagus, was dreaming up side dishes to serve with trout with an almond-based sauce when he made an eggplant flan.

“I was playing with the idea of trout and almond, and the eggplant provided a bridge between these two things. I love to play with an element and do it several ways, so we did an eggplant caviar or puree, crispy eggplant chips and the flan. The flan is wonderfully silky and very agreeable, not grainy. It’s an interestingly different flavor and consistency in your mouth.”

One reason chefs love to serve vegetable flans rather than savory souffles is that they can be made ahead and kept warm or rewarmed. This is important when something else on the plate requires last-minute attention, as is the case with many fish dishes.

The home cook also can take advantage of the relatively easygoing nature of this delicately flavored, melt-in-your-mouth preparation.

“You can cook them in advance slowly,” says La Cachette’s Jean-Francois Meteigner of his beautiful pale-green leek flans. “Then reheat them in the microwave. Unmold the flans, cover them in Saran wrap and put them in the microwave at the low setting.”

Meteigner says vegetable flans are great dishes for kids, nourishing and fun. “You can do variations. You can use carrots, you can use celery root.”

The parsnip flan at Chloe is served with a generous portion of sauteed wild mushrooms. “The earthiness of the mushrooms and the sweetness of the parsnip pair well,” says Osaka. “It was created to fill a need for a vegetarian item, but it would go well with shellfish too.”

If you’ve made egg custard, you can make vegetable flans. Prepare and puree the vegetables and flavorings such as garlic, shallots and seasonings. Combine with eggs or egg whites, and cream or milk. Bake in a bain marie, or water bath, in a medium oven until set but still tender.

“When you make a vegetable flan,” says Giraud, “you have to be careful to keep the vegetable flavor but not let it be too watery.” The proportions of egg and dairy products and vegetables all affect the outcome, but flans are fairly forgiving, and if you’re the experimental type, play around like the pros do.

For instance, you can riff on Meteigner’s leek flan recipe. Just cook and puree about a pound of another vegetable -- carrots or celery root, as he suggests, or even broccoli or asparagus.

Add a small amount of reserved cooking liquid or milk (depending on the vegetable), if necessary to puree, and substitute that for the pureed leeks.

Your reward will be a rich, smooth custard whose creaminess highlights the natural sweetness of the vegetables, a dish with an elegance all out of proportion (in your favor) to its ease of preparation.

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Parsnip flan with wild mushrooms and shallots

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings: 8

Note: From Jeff Osaka and Christian Shaffer of Chloe

Restaurant.

2 medium parsnips, peeled

and diced

2 cups half-and-half

1/2cup heavy cream

Salt

4 egg yolks

4 tablespoons butter, divided

12 ounces assorted wild

mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, hedgehog, chanterelle, black trumpets), sliced

2 whole shallots, thinly sliced lengthwise

Freshly ground black

pepper

Fresh chervil (optional)

1. Peel and dice the parsnips. Boil in salted water until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain.

2. Pour the half-and-half and heavy cream over the parsnips in the same saucepan. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat and transfer to a blender. Puree until smooth. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add salt to taste.

3. Whisk one egg yolk at a time into the parsnip-cream mixture.

4. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease 8 (4-ounce) ramekins. Divide the parsnip mixture evenly among the ramekins. Place them in a 13-by-11-inch baking pan. Pour hot water into the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the entire baking pan with foil and bake until the flans are set, about 40 to 45 minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the oven. Uncover the entire pan, but leave the ramekins in the water for about 15 minutes to set completely. Invert each ramekin onto an individual plate, tapping lightly to unmold. If the flans are stubborn, run a knife around the edges to remove.

6. Saute the mushrooms and shallots in the remaining butter until soft and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. To serve, spoon the mushrooms and shallots over the flans and garnish with fresh chervil.

Each serving: 262 calories; 6 grams protein; 13 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 20 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 172 mg. cholesterol; 57 mg. sodium.

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Eggplant flan with eggplant caviar and chips

Total time: 3 hours, 15 minutes, largely unattended

Servings: 6

Note: From Alain Giraud of

Bastide.

2 Japanese eggplants

2 medium globe eggplants

6 garlic cloves, cut in half

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Using a mandoline, slice the Japanese eggplants lengthwise into paper-thin slices. Plunge the slices in boiling water for 20 to 30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel.

2. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment. Place the eggplant slices one by one on the mat and flatten out . Bake until crisp and dry, about 60 to 75 minutes. Store in a closed container for as long as several hours before serving.

3. Raise the oven heat to 350 degrees. Wash the globe eggplants and use a small knife to cut six slits in each. Insert the garlic halves into the slits. Drizzle with olive oil and one-fourth teaspoon salt. Wrap each eggplant tightly in aluminum foil. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until fork tender. Cool enough to handle.

4. Cut the eggplants in half, scrape out the insides and discard the garlic cloves. Puree the pulp in a food processor until smooth.

5. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the puree. Reserve for the flan. Use the rest for making caviar: stir in one-fourth teaspoon salt, one-fourth teaspoon nutmeg and one-eighth teaspoon black pepper. Set aside.

6. In a blender, combine the 1 1/2 cups puree, the heavy cream, eggs and egg yolks, one-fourth teaspoon nutmeg, one-half teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon black pepper. Blend until smooth.

7. Grease 6 (4-ounce) ramekins with the butter. Divide the eggplant-cream mixture among the ramekins. Put the ramekins in a large baking pan. Fill the pan with hot water until it comes halfway up the sides of ramekins. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and poke a dozen holes in it so that steam can escape. Bake until the mixture rises a little bit and barely jiggles when you shake it, about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the pan from oven and let the ramekins cool in the water for 10 minutes.

8. To serve, run a clean knife around the edge of each ramekin and invert the flans onto individual serving plates. Warm a tablespoon and scoop out an egg-shaped portion of the eggplant caviar to place next to each flan. Arrange two eggplant chips standing in the eggplant caviar on each plate.

Each serving: 234 calories; 6 grams protein; 13 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 18 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 209 mg. cholesterol; 434 mg. sodium.

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Leek flan

Total time: 55 minutes

Servings: 6

Note: From Jean-Francois

Meteigner at La Cachette.

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 1/2tablespoons olive oil

1 pound (about 12) chopped leeks, white and light green parts only

1 1/2shallots, chopped fine, rinsed and patted dry

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons

whipping cream

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons

half-and-half

3 egg whites

Chives

1. Butter 6 (4-ounce) ramekins and place in the refrigerator. When the butter hardens, add a second coating of butter to the ramekins. Set aside. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over low heat. Add the leeks, shallots and salt and cook until the leeks are translucent but still retain a bite, about 10 minutes. Drain.

3. Place the whipping cream and half-and-half in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and cool.

4. Put the leek mixture in the blender along with the cream mixture and the egg whites. Blend until smooth, about 30 seconds.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins. Place the ramekins in a large baking pan. Pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Place the pan in the oven. Bake until the flans are set, about 35 to 40 minutes.

6. To serve, unmold the flans and garnish with 2 (3-inch) pieces of chives crossed over the top.

Each serving: 222 calories;

4 grams protein; 13 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber;

17 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 52 mg. cholesterol; 259 mg. sodium