The Rural Voice, 2003-10, Page 45pan.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until
wooden pick inserted in the cake
comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire
rack for 25 minutes; invert onto wire
rack to cool completely. Drizzle half
of the glaze over cake; serve with
remaining glaze.
Glaze: Heat 3 tbsp evaporated milk
in small, heavy-duty saucepan over
medium heat just to a boil; remove
from heat. Add 1 cup white chocolate
morsels; stir until smooth. Stir in 1/2
tsp ground cinnamon.
CARAMEL SQUASH FLAN
1 1/4 cup (300 mL)granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 mL) water
a few drops lemon juice
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) cooked,
pureed squash, preferably butternut
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
1/2 tsp (2 mL) each cinnamon and
ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each ground nutmeg
and salt
1 cup(250 mL) each milk and
whipping cream
In small saucepan, stir together 3/4
cup (175 mL) of the sugar, water and
lemon juice; bring to boil over
medium-high heat, stirring
occasionally. Boil without stirring,
until deep amber colour, about 5
minutes, watching carefully because
sugar burns very quickly.
Immediately pour into ungreased 10 -
inch (25 cm) pie plate, tilting to coat
bottom. (Caramel sets very quickly)
In large bowl, whisk together
Squash, remaining 1/2 cup (125 mL)
sugar, eggs, egg yolk, vanilla,
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. In
small saucepan, heat milk with cream
until hot; gradually whisk into squash
mixture. Pour over caramel in pie
plate. Place in large baking pan. Fill
baking pan with enough hot water to
come halfway up sides of pie plate.
Bake in 225°F (160°C) oven until
flan is set but centre jiggles slightly
and knife inserted in custard comes
out clean, about 1 hour. Remove from
water and let cool completely.
Refrigerate, loosely covered, for 4
hours but preferably overnight.
To unmould, run knife around edge
of custard. Invert large flat plate with
shallow sides on pie plate. Holding
tightly against pie plate, carefully
turn over and invert flan onto plate.
Serve in wedges with caramel sauce
spooned over top.
*For this recipe you'll need a
squash weighing 3-3 1/2 Ib (1.5 to
1.75 kg). Pierce squash in several
places, then bake in the oven or
microwave until very tender. Cut in
half and discard seeds. Scrape squash
from peel. Puree in a food processor
fitted with metal blade. Strain in
sieve for 30 minutes to remove
excess water. Measure out 1 1/2 cups
(375 mL). Any remaining squash can
be frozen and used in soup, muffins,
pie or bread.0
Gardening
IPM Integrated Pest Management Common Sense approach to pest control
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Every year Master Gardeners
across Ontario organize and attend
technical workshops to improve their
horticultural skills to aid them in
answering your many questions. This
year's workshop was held at the
Royal Botanical Gardens in
Burlington.
What a fabulous setting. Among
the interesting speakers was Randy
Harden of Woodstream Canada (of
the "Safers Soap Company") who
spoke on environmentally friendly
pesticides. The fact that he
represented a company that promoted
pesticide use caused some cynics in
the audience to grumble.
There is a prevalent attitude
among many Master Gardeners that
gardeners should divorce themselves
from chemical dependency in their
gardens and find more
environmentally benign approaches
to pests. But Randy presented a very
practical, common sense approach
that started right off with integrated
pest management (IPM), a wonderful
strategy for dealing with pests and
diseases in the garden.
I first heard about IPM
through the Ministry of
Agriculture in their
Gardener's Handbook.
Integrated pest
management is a series
of steps that help in
the decision-making
process. Key points
involve (a) planning
and managing
garden eco
systems to
prevent
organisms fiom
becoming pests; (b)
properly identifying
pests; (c) monitoring the
pest population and
beneficial insects, damage and
environmental conditions; (d) using
an injury threshold level; (e) reducing
the pest population to acceptable
levels using a combination of
strategies that involve biological,
physical, and environmental tactics;
and (f) using the least toxic solution
when the injury threshold is too great
for the plant.
The term injury threshold was a
new one to me. This is where you
determine how much damage a plant
can handle before it begins to
suffer — or more likely how
much damage can you
stand looking at before
you opt to do something.
Strange but true, some
plants can withstand quite
a bit of mutilation before
they suffer to the point of
keeling over.
There are safe-
guards in place to warn us
against pesticides that are
detrimental to our environment. With
the easy flow of information between
countries many gardeners believe that
solutions found in the USA will also
be available on our shelves here. Not
OCTOBER 2003 41