Gastronomìa Mexicana 2.0

I just found this great cooking blog for Mexican food, Gastronomìa Mexicana 2.0 written by a Yucatecan named Elizabeth. It doesn't have a lot of recipes in spite of having been around since 2006. It's also written in Spanish which may be a problem for some of you. What makes it worthwhile is that the cooking directions are well done with step by step instructions and clear photos.
There is a recipe for Spaguetti Verde a la Mexicana (Mexican Style Green Spaghetti). When our neighbor's 16 year old son had to cook dinner to pay off a bet, Spaguetti Verde is what he made using chile poblanos. Check it out, it will give you something different to cook when you are in a hurry.
She has a recipe for Jalisco style Pozole which I am planning on trying out soon.
If you have a sweet tooth there is also a recipe for Pastel de Nutela (Nutella Cake). Nutella is big here in Yucatan, you can buy it in any supermarket. Some of the marquesita vendors offer you a choice of Nutella and or cajeta in addition to the cheese filling. Marquesitas are a cheese waffle, the vendors pour a batter onto a hot marquesita iron, they then close the two halves to cook it. What emerges is a giant cookie, similar in taste and texture to a waffle cone. Gouda cheese is sprinkled on and it's rolled up into a tube. If you want to try to make your own, here is a recipe courtesy of Rick Bayless. When I first came to Mèrida, marquesitas were 10 pesos each, the last time I had one, they were 15 pesos. Still they are my favorite street food treat even at that price.

Just what is a Gougère anyway?

The Cook's Enclyclopedia of VEGTABLES by Christine Ingram caught my eye when I was at MEL looking for more reading material. The pictures are eye candy and the recipes are interesting. I made several things including the Cauliflower and Mushroom Gougère , a gougère according to Wikipedia is a savory choux pastry with cheese. This recipe was extremely tasty and I am planning on making it again.
I think Ms Ingram is British or at least she isn't American, because some of her cooking terms confused me or at least amused me a bit. She uses African terms for things like yucca and malanga, but if you already cook with these items they are easily identified.
Unfortunately, I think her proofreader either missed a few things or isn't a cook. The Borscht recipe, for example, she specifies one large onion in the ingredients section but the next time she mentions the onion she tells you to "add the onion, fry for 2-3 minutes". Umm, shouldn't the onion be diced, chopped or sliced before you fry it? Surely, she doesn't want you to fry a whole onion? How would you do that, roll it around in the pan? I've made Borscht before so I chose to grate the onion in the food processor before frying it.
I probably would never buy this book because there aren't enough recipes included, but it is pretty and the recipes that I made were tasty including the Borscht. If you find it in your library you might give it a try, especially if you are trying to add more vegetables to your diet. If you make one of the recipes for loofas, I would be interesting in knowing how they taste.

Cauliflower and Mushroom Gougère

This recipe is from The Cook's Encyclopedia of VEGETABLES by Christine Ingram
There are a bunch of notes, so please read my notes before you make this. I made it without the ham, but I think I would dice it before I added it to the filling.

serves four to six
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups water
4 ounces butter or margarine*( mantequilla)
5 ounces all-purpose flour (harina de trigo)
4 ounces Gruyère or Cheddar cheese, finely diced **
1 teaspoon French mustard***(mostaza Dejon)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE FILLING
14 ounce can tomatoes **** (tomates pelado y picado)
1 tablespoon sunflower oil***** (aceite de girasol)
1/2 ounce butter or margarine* (mantequilla)
1 onion chopped (cebolla)
4 ounces white mushrooms, halved if large (champiñon)
1 small cauliflower, broken into small florets (coliflor)
sprig of thyme****** (tomillo)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) and butter a large oval ovenproof dish******Place the water and butter together in a large saucepan and heat until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add all the flour at once. Beat will with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.
2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating until the mixture is thick and glossy. Stir in the cheese and mustard and season with salt and pepper. Spread the mixture around the sides of the dish, leaving a hollow in the center for the filling.
3. To make the filling, purèe the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and then pour it into a measuring jug. Add enough water to make up to 1 1/4 cups of liquid.
4. Heat the oil and butter in a flameproof casserole and fry the onion for about 3-4 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes until they begin to be flecked with brown. Add the cauliflower florets and stir-fry for 1 minute.
5. Add the tomato liquid, thyme and seasoning. Cook uncovered over low heat for about 5 minutes until the cauliflower is only just tender.
6. Sppon the mixture in the ovenproof dish, adding all the liquid. Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until the outer pastry is well risen and golden brown.

COOK'S TIP
For a variation, ham or bacon can be added. Use about 4-5 ounces thickly sliced roast ham and add to the sauce at the end of step 5.

MY NOTES:

*I used butter, yuck, I don't use margarine, who are they kidding? If you want to use margarine you can look up the translation for yourself, but don't blame me if it doesn't work out., or tastes like plastic.

**I used Costco grated Mexican cheese blend because it has Cheddar. You can find Gruyère at Costco and most Supermarkets in Mèrida.

*** The recipe didn't specify prepared or powdered mustard, but since it said French, I assumed it was prepared mustard used Maile brand Dejon which I bought here.

**** The next time I make this I am going to just use tomato puree,I don't remember if tomato sauce is thinner NOB or not.

*****I have never seen sunflower oil here, I used canola.

******I didn't have any fresh thyme so I used a dash of ground thyme.

*******The photo shows a knife alongside a square baking dish with rounded corners, so I used a 8inch baking dish with rounded corners, next time I am using smaller dish.

Fahrenheit and Celsius Temperature Chart

I have this posted on my refrigerator.

Fahrenheit Celsius

• 155------------70
• 165------------75
• 185------------85
• 200-----------95
• 275-----------135
• 300-----------150
• 325-----------160
• 350-----------175
• 375-----------190
• 400----------205
• 450----------230
  

Pizza day

Actually today isn't pizza day, but I am feeling nostalgic. When I was doing Renaissance Faire, well actually, Heart of the Forest Faire in Novato, Husband started Pizza Day. My friend, Harry and I ran the Monger's guild and we used to ride to Faire together, along with our sons and occasionally other participants. Since we were in charge, we were the first to arrive and the last to leave, which when you factored in commute time made for a long day, even if it is supposed to be a hobby.
So getting back to the pizza, even after Faire ended for the season we continued the Pizza Day tradition, infact, Harry was inspired to learn to make pizza too, so I have to assume that Pizza Day lives on.
So you can start your own pizza day tradition here is the recipe for pizza dough and to start you off, I also wrote out the plain cheese pizza recipe.
Usually we topped one pizza with pesto, either store bought or homemade, and another with tomato sauce. The easiest thing to used is canned spaghetti sauce. One of the tricks to really good home made pizza is a hot oven, as hot as it will go, at least 400º, and make sure you preheat it.

yummmmm.....Pizza Day!

Pizza recipe

CHEESE PIZZA

1 recipe pizza dough (or frozen bread dough defrosted)
2 cups mixed Italian Cheeses (or plain Mozzarella or Queso Oaxaca) shredded
1 recipe pizza sauce or 8 oz prepared spaghetti sauce or Pesto

1. Prepare Pizza dough. Press it out into a 14 inch greased pizza pan.
   
2. preheat oven to 400º ( 205º C).
3. Spread the sauce evenly over the pizza dough
   
4. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the pizza sauce.
5. Bake pizza in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until pizza dough is brown and the cheese has melted and is also browned.
6. Let pizza cool. Remove pizza from pan and cut into wedges.

PIZZA DOUGH

1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon dry yeast (levadura)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon olive oil (aceite olivio)
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour (harina)

1. Put water in mixing bowl of heavy duty mixer. Dissolve yeast in water. Let it stand until stand a few minutes until it becomes foamy.
   
2. As salt and oil. Mix on low speed with dough hook.
3. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour and knead with dough hook until the dough clings to the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if necessary.
4. Place dough in lightly greased bowl and let it rise until double in size.
   
5. Punch down the dough. Press it out into a greased 14 inch pizza pan.

Variations and notes:
Replace one cup of the flour with whole wheat flour (harina integral) for a whole wheat pizza.
You can also add some Italian herbs, such as oregano and basil to the flour if you want.
You can easily double or triple this recipe. If you triple it don't triple the yeast.
I use the canned spray to grease things, for this recipe I use Olive oil spray.


PIZZA SAUCE

8 oz tomato sauce (1 small box puree de tomate )
3 teaspoons Italian herbs*
2 cloves garlic minced


Combine the ingredients in small pan. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. Cool.

* you can combine oregano, basil, cumin and cilantro instead. I use more oregano than the other herbs.

Garbanzos cooked with chiles and tomatoes

This is a middle eastern dish that I have adapted. In the photo I have added some more liquid because I didn't cook the garbanzos enough and they were a little hard. It should be a dry dish. The original doesn't use bacon. If you don't eat meat, leave it out and cook the vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil instead. I started with a cup of dry garbanzos and cooked them in plain water, you can use canned garbanzos instead, just rinse them first. If you are looking for garbanzos in Mèrida, they are in canned vegetable section not the canned bean section, I have noticed that some brands have sugar, so you might want to check the labels first. I buy bacon in chunks for cooking. Ask for un trozo de tosino , rebanado means sliced.

100 grams diced bacon
2 cups of cooked garbanzos
6 roma tomatoes diced
1 white onion diced
2 jalapeños diced (I also seed and devein them)
4-6 cloves garlic diced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground cilantro seeds
salt to taste
pepper to taste


In a large frying pan, cook the bacon until it's done, but not crispy. Add the onions, garlic, jalapeños, ground cumino and cilantro seeds to the pan. Fry until the onion is limp but not browned. Add the remaining ingredients. Turn heat down to simmer and cook uncovered until the pan is dry.

Check out the links menu!

I received a request for a Spanish English list of cooking and food terms. Which made me realize that maybe some of you haven't checked out or (maybe even know that it exists) the links list on the right side of the blog. The heading says Websites and blogs of interest to people who cook. I have a link to Rolly Brooks amazing list called The Mexican Spanish-English Food Lexicon which has more words and terms than you can imagine. I also have a link to Barry Farms How many cups in a pound of which I think is pretty helpful. I discovered the Cook's Thesaurus when I wanted to know when to pick eggplants off the plant, and I have found it an handy resource ever since. There are also some links to a few good cooking blogs .
If you have a website or other cooking link you think I should add please let me know.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 I just added a new link! It's a website with a calculator that converts from metric to imperial (and of course from imperial to metric!) .

Making yogurt

I made yogurt last night. It came out really good, we had some over our cereal this morning. Making yogurt is something that I haven't done for quite awhile, but we like plain yogurt, and there only seems to be one brand here that actually has plain. Several brands say plain but those usually have sugar and the ones which say no sugar have things with chemical names to sweeten them. One thing about living in a tropical climate, making yogurt is as simple as it gets.

1 tablespoon or more of yogurt
1 liter or quart of milk

Scald the milk.
Cool the milk to about 100º or less. (I just pretend it's formula and put some on my wrist, remember those days?).
Blend the yogurt with a cup of the warm milk.
Add the blended yogurt and milk to the rest of the milk.
Place in a sterilized jar of the appropriate size. (I have a crock with a lid that is perfect).
Seal the jar and set out in a warm place overnight. Or until it becomes yogurt.

You can make more or less yogurt, if you don't want an entire liter or need more. I like whole milk because it's creamier, but you can use whatever milk you normally use. Some people thicken their yogurt with extra powdered milk, but I don't. When we had goats and made yogurt pretty regularly we lived in a much colder place, so I would put the yogurt/milk mixture in a wide mouth thermos but eventually I bought a yogurt maker at a yard sale. Actually, I bought 2 one worked and the other provided me with extra containers, I think I spent like five bucks total.

You actually don't even need the tablespoon of yogurt, anyone who has left out a glass of milk overnight in a warm climate can attest to that. Oh don't get discouraged if it doesn't come out the first time, yogurt is like that, just use the thinner yogurt in a smoothie or feed it to the chickens.

Cooking and posting

I am having major problems with my internet connection. I can't seem to post to Blogger when I use my Internet Explorer. I can't even make comments on other people's blogs! It started yesterday, today it seemed repaired but that was just a momentary thing.The spell check no longer works either. I guess the universe is forcing me to slowly but surely switch to Firefox. One nifty thing about Firefox is that has a built in spell check so I don't have to depend upon Blogger and Husband for that anymore.
I posted two Panamanian recipes today, I haven't made either one yet, but the recipes seemed straight forward. I have eaten both things so I at least know how they are supposed to taste.
They are fried bread or hojaldre and stuffed yucca fritters or carimañolas.

Carimañolas (stuffed yucca fritters)

This a dish we ate in Panamà which I couldn't remember the name of. This recipe is also from Cocina Panameña. I changed the recipe a little for clarity (the filling instructions used to be in the middle of the fritter instuctions) but the original was translated into English from Spanish so some of the wording is still awkward. Please read the notes before you make this for the first time.

3 pounds yucca

3 teaspoons* oil (aceite)

1 tablespoon salt (sal)

oil for deep frying

• Peel yucca, cut into pieces and cook in water until slightly soft. Do not over cook.
  
• Grind while warm and knead with oil and salt until the batter is soft but firm.
  
• Form balls with the yucca, flatten it, add one tablespoon of the filling and close it, giving it an elongated form (cylinder shape).
  
• Heat the oil and fry the fritters until brown.
  
• Remove from oil and drain excess oil by placing them on a paper towel
  

Filling
1/4 cup oil (aceite)
1/2 cup finely chopped onions (cebollas)
2 finely chopped garlic cloves (dientes de ajo)
1 chopped bell pepper (pementòn or aji)
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped hot pepper**
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (cumino molido)
1 pound ground beef (carne res molido)
2 tablespoons tomato paste*** (pasta de tomate)
1 teaspoon salt (sal)

• Heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic and bell pepper.
  
• Add the hot pepper, cumin and meat.
  
• Mix the mixture with a fork until the meat is loosened.
  
• Add the tomato paste and salt.
  
• remove from stove

notes:

*the Spanish says teaspoons the English says tablespoons, I'm betting the Spanish is correct

** probably serrano or jalepeño, I only saw those and poblanos in the supermarket in Panamà, the food is not hot at all there.

*** I have never found tomato paste in Merida, the tomato paste that I have came from NOB.

Hojaldres, Panamanian Fried Bread

From Cocina Panameña edited and distributed exclusively by Distribuidora Lewis, S.A.

2 1-2 cups flour ( harina)
2/3 cup milk (leche)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (aceite vegital)
1 teaspoon salt (sal)
1 tablespoon sugar (azucar)
1 teaspoon baking powder (polvo de hornear)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Combine the milk and oil and with a fork mix well into the dry mix. Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic. Cover and let sit for an hour. Cut in to pieces (2" - 3") and stretch them with you hands and then fry in hot oil until brown. Sprinkle sugar on top and serve hot.


This recipe is in Spanish and English in the cookbook, the English translation leaves a bit to be desired. The hojaldres that I was served were about the thickness of pita bread and the same general shape but about half the size. I am assuming that you test the hot oil by dropping a small piece of dough in it, if it rises and browns the oil is hot enough.

Let's drown our sandwiches!

Mari (pronounce Mar E) who runs the beer store with her husband Luis is rumoured to be quite a cook. I had some of her red sauce one day, and it was perfect. She told me her recipe for tortas ahogadas before we left for our trip. Tortas ahogadas means drowned sandwiches. I didn't write anything down, so I thought that I would see if I could find a written recipe. While I was researching , I found this lovely article called Savouring Guadelajara which also includes some other interesting recipes (I'll pass on the sardine sopes, thank you).
What my surfing revealed was that generally tortas ahogadas are made from a "salty" bolillo (french roll) and are stuffed with either beef or pork then either served with the sauce already drowning them or with a choice of sauces so you can drown your own. All the sources seemed to agree that you have to go to Guadelajara for the real deal.
None of these discriptions matched Mari's mouth watering version. While she also started with a roll, she didn't specify what kind. If the roll isn't already sliced, open it half way (like a hot dog bun). Fill it with beans or meat or both.Now here is where her version is different, take the sealed roll and dip it in an egg batter, like if you were making chiles rellenos. Fry the torta, again just like in chile rellenos. The battered torta is now placed on a plate and covered in a red sauce.
I'm thinking this might be a fun dish for lunch on Friday as La Muchacha is observing meatless Fridays during Lent.

Cookbook rescue

I have an old, worn copy of Sunset's Chinese Cooking. I especially like it because it is from the era when exotic ingredients weren't as readily available in the USA as they are now. Unfortunately, the softcover cookbook, while still a good source for recipes and ideas, is falling apart. I've even lost the cover and some of the pages.
I concidered taking it to the local copy shop and having it rebound in a spiral binding, but I thought that might make difficult to read some of the printing. When I was NOB, I looked for a copy in the used book stores, but didn't find one.
Yesterday, when I was looking for my errant recipe, I had a moment of inspiration. I have a binder of recipes either photocopied from library cookbooks or torn from the pages of magazines and put into a binder. Before I place them in the binder, I put them into a plastic sleeve, a page protector. Then if I use the recipe and spill something on it, I can wipe the cover clean. It's a great system, I really should use it more.
My idea was, to separate the remaining pages and place them in plastic page protectors. It took about half and hour. Now I need a better binder for them, I used a clear notebook with a clamp but the plastic is slippery and the pages are escaping, so I need to buy a ring binder when I am out and about again.
But over all I am still happy because I saved my cookbook. Now for some steamed pork buns to celebrate!

Raw Carrot and Beet salad

Have you ever bought the ingredients for a dish and then couldn't find the recipe? I remember making and eating a tasty raw carrot and beet salad. The beets looked good when I went grocery shopping so I bought several, some for soup and some for the salad.
Today, I searched through my cookbooks and could not find the recipe! I think it had vinegar, but I can't remember.
What's a girl to do? In my case, I adapted my usual carrot and raisen salad recipe forgoing the raisens and using sour orange instead of lemon. Yeah, I use sugar, you can use less but honey doesn't taste the same, and I don't use artificial sweeteners. I think you can use a mix of lemon and sweet orange juice if you don't have sour oranges laying all over your yard like we do.

2 small beets (betabel)
4 carrots (zanahoria)
3 tablespoons sugar (azuacar standard)
the juice of two sour oranges (naranja agrida)

Peel the beets and carrots.
Shred them (I used the food processor).
Mix the shredded vegetables with the sugar and pour the sour orange juice over them.
Refrigerate.
Serve cold.
Serves 4

ps. if your sour oranges are really juicy you may want to drain the salad before serving it.

Sourdough bread starter and other bubbling thoughts

After my post the other day about food differences, I had some after thoughts, which I wrote about in this post on my regular blog. I also have been thinking about diet alot, primary our diet. Since I seem to have assumed the responsibility for what we eat, I am trying to be more conscious about what gets put in our mouths.
One of the additions to our diet I am making is fermented foods and living foods, but that will require more research.
Happily for me, Husband is an early riser, he generally makes the coffee and prepares breakfast. Sometimes, he brings me my coffee in bed (just wanted to make you all jealous). Our normal breakfast when we are home is fruit and yogurt. I buy unflavoured yogurt, nothing added, not even sugar. The plan is to start making our own yogurt again. I used to do it when we had dairy goats, so it isn't anything new. If you don't know how to make yogurt and are interested, I'll post the recipe.
I miss sourdough bread so I made sourdough bread starter Thursday night. Sourdough is another type of fermented food, I think. Anyway, I want to have bread that is a food,not just empty calories.
For such a simple thing like the starter there are so many different recipes, including potato starter. I used to have a thick paperback that had an entire chapter of starter recipes, but it is long gone now. After looking at various variations, I settled on the one using yeast, the simplist sourdough starter recipes use just water and flour and depend upon catching wild yeast to make the starter, but I opted for the certainy of yeast, even if it isn't as "pure".
So accordingly I mixed 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and enough warm water to make a thin batter, in my case enough water was almost 2 cups, but my measuring wasn't exact. All this was done in a plastic container, I left it open to the air until I noticed some little insects flying about, so I covered it with a papertowel that I clipped to one end of the container to keep it from flying off in the breeze from the overhead fan.
The hardest part for me is waiting, periodically I checked on the starter and stirred it as the liquid has a tendency to separate out.
Last night I poured 1 1/2 cups of the starter into another plastic bowl (it's important to use a non-reactive container and utensils when making sourdough), added 1 1/2cups of flour and 1 1/4 cups of warm water to this starter, covered it with a papertowel and set it aside.
The remaining original starter went into a quart size crock (I found the crock in Megabalcones, it was being sold in the salt aisle) from which I removed the plastic seal, as I am not fond of stuff exploding in my refrigerator, to this starter I added another 1 1/2 of flour and 1 1/2 cups of warm water.
Both of this batches of starter immediately bubbled up in a very gratifying manner. At least I know that my yeast is still alive!
The crock of starter is in the refrigerator between my sundried tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts and the "primary batter" is happily bubbling away on the kitchen counter. Now the real work begins, I have to decide what to make, since this is really an experiment, I think I am going to opt for a simple white bread. I am going to add some sugar and oil to the primary batter and enough flour to make a stiff dough then knead it and let it rise.
Hopefully lunch will consist of bread and left over chilli!