Crema Fritta alla Siciliana -- Fried Cream Sicilian Style

From Cosa Bolle in Pentola, my free newsletter:
Elise instead writes,

Kyle: I receive your newsletter every month and I truly enjoy reading it through. I'm looking for a recipe that my grandmother (Sicilian) used to fix when I was a little girl. Unfortunately, I'm the only one left in the family and I've lost the recipe! It was a custard that was poured into a square casserole after it was cooked, chilled in the refrigerator then cut in squares or diamond shapes dipped in egg and then coated with finely chopped nuts or bread crumbs, fried in butter and then set a-flame with brandy. Could you help? Thanks...Elise

First of all, flattery will get you everywhere ;-)

Next, I haven't quite found this, though I've come close with a couple of fried cream recipes from Maria Adele Di Leo's I Dolci Siciliani. She doesn't light either off before serving, and calls for bread crumbs in both cases, which lead me to wonder if the brandy might have been your grandmother's addition.

In any case, for plain crema fritta:

• 2 cups (200 g) flour
• 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups (500 ml) milk
• The grated zest of an organically grown lemon
• Bread crumbs (you could use chopped nuts instead)
• Oil for frying

Sift the flour into a pot and add the milk in a thin stream, stirring with a spoon to keep lumps from forming.

Beat the four egg yolks with the sugar until they turn pail yellow, add the grated lemon zest, and combine the mixture with the milk. Mix well and set the pot to cook over a gentle flame, stirring steadily until it thickens and begins to pull away from side of the pot if you scrape the spoon along it.

Turn the cream out onto a moistened marble countertop to cool, and when it has cut it into small diamonds. Beat the whites to fairly firm peaks. Dredge the diamonds in the whites, then in breadcrumbs, and fry them until golden. Let them drain on absorbent paper, dust them with sugar, and serve.

Something slightly more elaborate: Crema fritta all'Arancia, Orange-flavored fried cream

• 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
• 3/4 cup (75 g) potato starch (you may find this in the Jewish part of your supermarket's ethnic foods section)
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• The grated zest of an organically grown lemon
• 2 ounces (50 g) candied orange peel, finely diced
• A dash of vanilla
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs
• Oil for frying

Beat the yolks and sugar until the mixture is pale yellow, then slowly beat in the flour, milk, vanilla, grated orange zest, and candied orange peel. Transfer the mixture to a pot and heat it over a very low flame and stir it until it thickens. Turn it out onto a moistened marble slab, and use a spatula to spread it to the thickness of a thick sheet of pastry dough. As soon as it has cooled, cut it into squares. Beat the whites to soft peaks. Dredge the squares in the flour, then in the whites, and finally in the breadcrumbs. Fry them, drain them on absorbent paper, and serve them.

To flambé the crema fritta, you'll want to have the squares warmed. Set them in a heat-proof dish, sprinkle them with a little granulated sugar, and dribble some liqueur of choice, either brandy or something orange-based (for the orange crema) over the cream, and ignite it using a long match and igniting one edge of the liquid. You should also warm the liqueur, by putting what you plan to light into a bottle and setting it in hot water -- do NOT heat it to the boiling point, and especially not over a naked flame!

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