Crème Caramel

200ml milk

200ml cream

3 eggs

40g sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

For caramel

110g caster sugar

4 tbsp water

Fill a large bowl with water. Keep aside for later. Warm a soufflé (oven-proof bowl) dish in the oven at 150C.Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.

Combine milk and cream in saucepan and heat till steaming hot, but not boiling. Pour into the mix and stir gently until well combined.

Put caster sugar and water in another saucepan over gentle heat and stir gently until sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to medium until the mixture turns golden brown. Remove from heat and dunk the bottom of this saucepan in the large bowl filled with water. This prevents the caramel from continuing to cook as it can burn fairly quickly.

Remove the heating dish from the oven and spoon caramel into it. Caramel starts to solidify quickly so heat the saucepan gently to soften remaining caramel and add it to the bowl.

Pour the liquefied mixture into the bowl on top of the caramel liquid. Place this bowl in a roasting tin and add water, upto 2/3rd of the depth of the contents, into the tin, taking care that none falls into the caramel bowl. Place the roasting tin in the oven for 45min at 180C. After 20 minutes, check to ensure that the top of the mix is not getting browned. Remove roasting tin with bowl from oven and leave to cool, then place only the bowl of the mix in the fridge to cool until chilled. Your crème caramel is ready. To serve, carefully run a palette knife around the edge of the bowl to release the pudding. Place large dinner plate upside down on the bowl. Holding the bowl with the covering plate, turn both upside down in one steady, quick movement (I do this over the kitchen sink!)

Remove the bowl to reveal the crème caramel covered with its golden brown sauce sitting on the plate. Serves 6.

A recent count of shows on eight of the main TV channels during primetime in a single week showed that over 10% of peak viewing time between 6-9pm is devoted to food programmes. But there are a variety of shows filmed in all parts of the world ranging from farming on small-holdings and raising cute, healthy animals and birds destined as produce, to the art of entertaining with family and guests having a real jolly time of it and, of course, chefs in kitchens doing their thing. What’s next, where do producers go from here as they try to leverage every bit of audience from this genre? Cooking in outer space, on Everest or even underwater may be on the cards, for our entertainment.

There is no doubt that all this interest has raised the awareness in all aspects of what we eat and how things grow. And that is not a bad thing. Yet obesity rates only seem to be on the rise in our society. A look at newsagents’ racks shows a proliferation of magazines on cooking and food, while the internet is awash with blogs, sites and YouTube demonstrations of recipes. It’s almost as if there is a huge industry at many levels, and participants have been able to cash in on the coat-tails of this interest in food. But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that there are only so many people and they can only eat so much. It’s not as if more food is being cooked, or is it?

To get an answer to the question above I decided to take a look at some government numbers. They revealed a fascinating picture. They showed that in 2009-2010 expenditure on supermarkets and groceries rose by 2% over the previous year, but well below the long-term trend. The conclusion is that relative to previous years, people must be cooking less or using cheaper ingredients. And would you believe it, the next set of numbers showed that the growth in expenditure on takeaway foods, cafes and restaurants had skyrocketed and more or less doubled its long-term trend. This tells us at least two things. Of course, the more prosperous the economy, the more people will eat out. To me this ties in with a vision of people sitting around in cafes and restaurants with their smart phones and iPads, and this is more or less what one can see most times of the day. But what sticks out like a sore thumb if one believes the numbers, is that people must be cooking a lot less than they used to, contrary to what one might expect from this apparent mushrooming of interest in cooking.

Sharing a meal with friends is undoubtedly one of the real pleasures of life. When all the food has been cooked and enjoyed, good-byes said and the guests have gone, you sit at the table and drain that last sip of wine that remains in your glass. It’s peaceful now and you sit in quiet contemplation of the evening and then reality strikes –yikes, these endless piles of dirty plates and glasses. Yes, clearing-up is next. Ever an integral part of cooking and entertaining, will we see a show on this part of the process? I don’t think so!

Who is to really say what people are getting up to in their kitchens and with their eating habits. For my part, I am grateful to have a nice, square meal every day. A while back I had a hankering for crème caramel. Do you think I could find it anywhere – no, not on your life! It surprises me that most restaurants do not serve this heavenly dessert. I had no choice. I picked up a recipe book, put on an apron and after some hesitation and a little tension, I made something which still had to be turned upside down. Plop, out it came. Much to my delight it looked just as a crème caramel should, the taste was divine and since then my popularity amongst my family has increased no end. Cooking – I’m beginning to like it!