DULCE DE LECHE

I follow a blog by David Leibovitz:  http://www.davidlebovitz.com.  Mr. L. used to live in Berkeley and made desserts for Chez Panisse.  We've eaten there twice and I'm a great admirer of Alice Waters and her contribution to the American food revolution.

Mr. L. now lives in Paris and writes about France and food.  What could be better?  I bought his latest cookbook when we were in Portland.  The dessert section is at the end and when I arrived there I saw several recipes using dulce de leche.  Dulce de leche is sweetened condensed milk that has been reduced, either by boiling the can (hoping it doesn't explode) or, as Mr. L. advised, baking the milk in the oven.  He said you could buy dulce de leche, already made, in Mexican markets.  Hmmmm. . . .

I've never in my long life bought a can of sweetened condensed milk.  Why, you might wonder.  Well, the idea of sweetened milk in a can is not very appealing to me.  Also, it's probably made by Nestlé, a company I've boycotted for 50 years for encouraging new mothers in non-compulsively consuming countries to use their, Nestlé's, baby formula instead of breast feeding.  Result: formula mixed with dirty water and dead babies.

But. . . Mr. L. and those recipes.  So the next time I went to the store where I buy flour I looked around and, sure enough, there was a whole shelf of dulce de leche.

I stuck my finger in and it was delicious.  Caramel tasting.

 I made one of his dessert recipes with chocolate, eggs and dulce de leche:

And I had to buy ramekins to do it.  So much for downsizing.

Speaking of boycotting, we watched the movie about Cesar Chavez and the CA grape boycott.  Very moving.  The good old days.