Puerto Rico

We have been prrrrretty lazy with the blogs lately… And we’re about to get even lazier.  We didn’t even cook this week.  But, hey, we write this blog, so we make the rules.  Did we actually say we were going to cook our way around the world?  Eating our way around the world will just have to suffice this time!  This edition we went to Rincon Criollo to get delicious Puerto Rican food.  

 

First we ordered jibarito.  Rincon Criollo is la casa del jibarito, after all.  Says so right on the front window!  It’s a sandwich with meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce, and mayo between two pieces of plantains instead of bread.

Next we had mofongo (mashed fried plantains) with shrimp and garlic sauce.

We also ordered a giant combination plate.  Our eyes were too big for our stomachs… We’ll take this guy home for later.

If we can get our acts together, we will try to recreate these dishes at home next time… If not, we’ll just have to make another trip to the west side to get our fill of these Puerto Rican inspired dishes.

Thailand

Wow it's been a while! Sorry!  We're losing steam.

This time, we have a Thai inspired meal… Lap Mu (pork and chili), Thai iced tea, and coconut ice cream.   For the main attraction: the lap.  Well, our version, anyway.  To make it semi-traditional, mix together some cooked ground pork, diced onions, red chilies, mint leaves, fish sauce, and lime juice. 

 

Thai iced tea is soooo good. We got our tea from the Asian market and were sure that we knew what we were doing… I mean, it’s tea, sugar, and milk. It seems so easy, but ours didn’t turn out like we remember from Thai restaurants (what a surprise!). Post tea making, we discovered that the trick may be evaporated milk. Give it a try! Or just go get it from someone who knows what they’re doing.

And for dessert, coconut ice cream. Of course we didn’t have an ice cream machine, so we went with a machine-less version. It was pretty simple. Sugar, eggs, whipping cream, coconut milk, and shaved coconut.



France

There’s something about a long, cold winter that makes you want to eat warm, rich food. Nothing fits the bill quite like France...  Coursssseee by course! One by one! Until we shout, “Enough I’m done!”

First, we had smoked salmon canapés.  A canapé is a small appetizer with some kind of toasted bread that holds a savory element on top.  We used croissant dough cut into small squares and topped with smoked salmon, dill cream cheese, and a caper.

We also had an amuse-bouche (mouth amuser) of vichyssoise, a cold leak and potato purée soup.

 



Then a little spinach soufflé.  We got a picture of it right out of the oven since it was losing its puff pretty quickly.  What makes a soufflé deflate?  Most likely not whipping the egg whites properly… or opening the oven 7 times.  You could probably implement a better technique and get better results.  Or you could do what we’ll try next time and add a little cream of tater to stabilize.

For the main event: Chicken cordon bleu.  We’re not entirely sure it originated in France, but it was definitely based on French cooking.  Close enough.  Pound out the chicken, place prosciutto and cheese on it, roll it up, bread, cook, ta da.  We had ours with sautéed spinach and white wine cream sauce …

…With a side of croissants. 

 

To make them, roll the dough thin.

Cut into triangles and roll up.  Let them sit for a while to rise before putting them in the oven.

 

Finally, it was time for the sweet stuff so we had pain au chocolat.  Again, we used the croissant dough and wrapped it around a piece of chocolate. 

 

We also had mini chocolate cream puffs.  When making the dough, make sure to beat in the eggs one by one.  That’s what gives them the air to puff. 

 

 

We used a mini scooper to drop tiny balls onto a greased pan.

 

Let them cool, then they are ready to be cut in half, dilled with cream, drizzled with chocolate, and eaten.

They turned out beautifully…initially (we didn’t have the foresight to take a picture until much later).  Word to the wise: Fill them and put on the drizzle right before you serve.  Like our soufflés, they lose their puff too.

 

 





El Salvador

It has taken over a month for Henwietta to process her most recent trip to El Salvador.  We’ll call it… wonderfully hellacious??? Or something.  Chalk it up to experience, I guess.  The wonderful part of the trip?  Papusas!  If you ever make it to Olocuilta, make sure to hit up Papusaria Rina.  And if you’re as lucky as little Henwietta, maybe a local will teach you how to make these delicious little gems too!

 

We had Salvadorian horchata to whet our whistles.  It was probably the least authentic traditional Salvadorian horchata known to man.  Horchata is made all over Latin America and Spain.  Each country has their little twist, and El Salvador is no acceptation.  Apparently it is pretty different from the rest; however, we took some liberties with ours.  Mostly because we had to translate blogs from Spanish, adjust the measurements, and then we couldn’t procure all of the ingredients (especially those we couldn’t translate).  I’m sure you can imagine our predicament.  But here’s what we came up with:

 

Toast 1 cup of rice, 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds, 2 tablespoons of peanuts, 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds.  And 2 tablespoons of semilla de morro…Morro seed?  Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?  Bueller?  This is really one of the main ingredients that shouldn’t be left out, as horchata salvadoreña is also known as horchata de morro.  Details, details.

 

It also calls for 2 tablespoons of cocoa beans.  We didn’t have that, so we used cocoa powder.  Then 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of nutmeg. 

 

Take your toasted mixture and blend it with about 5 cups of water.  Let it sit for a while… The longer the better.   An hour, two, three.  Then strain.  Mix in a cup each of milk and sugar.  Maybe a little less than authentic, but it kind of tasted like a peanut butter chocolate shake.  And what could be wrong with that?

 

Now to the magical moment: Papusas!!! Deceptively easy considering they are so delicious.  They can be made from rice or corn flour.  Mix the flour and water in a bowl to make dough.  Flatten out a round of the dough.  Put a little meat (in this case pulled pork) and cheese (ooey gooey queso blanco would be a great choice) in the middle and wrap up the edges. 

 

Flatten the little packet of goodness back out.

 

Toss on a flattop.

 

And eat!  Buen provecho, amigos!

 

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Japan

We’re going to Japan!

 

 

First, it’s time to take a little sip of Umeshu.  It’s liqueur made with unripen plums. Even those who don’t typically like alcohol would enjoy this.  We drank ours out of a sake set.  Traditional? Probably not.  Cute?  No doubt.

 

We also made some edamame to snack on before we got to the hard work.  It’s totally foolproof… Take soy beans, throw them in boiling water, take out, and salt.

 

Annnnd some sesame crusted tuna.

 

Now for the main event! Sushi!  If you haven’t figured this out yet, we’ll let you in on a little secret.  Neither of us really know what we’re doing…Ever.  We’ve never made sushi before, but we’ve eaten it a lot.  And those sushi chefs make it look so easy!  They take the seaweed, rice, and all the other deliciousness and roll it up, right?

 

And if you’re like us, you can put the ugly seam face down too.

 

We had unagi (eel with sauce on rice balls), spicy kani maki (spicy crab), ebi tempura maki (shrimp tempura), and spicy tuna with mango maki.

 

 

And some of that fruit on the bottom of the bottle for dessert.

 

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Challenge Accepted!

Since the Churro Debacle of 2013 has been weighing heavily on our hearts and minds, it is time to face our nemesis.  For those of you who can’t remember… our first try at dessert was an epic disaster.   I know, I know, pretty hard to believe.  Us? Fail? But alas, it is true.  This time they turned out great!

The first, and most essential, step: the recipe.  This time we did a little research, and it goes a little something like this:

1 cup hot water

½ cup melted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

3 eggs

 

Then take the mixture and put it into a piping bag with a star tip.  Pipe it into hot oil (using a pan with lower sides). Brown on all sides, sugar and cinnamon it, and eat!

 

Nailed it!

Our Guest from Germany!

Did we mention we were going to have guest bloggers???  Here's the very first! Please give her a warm welcome all the way from Germany!

Before I had ever set foot in Germany, my first thoughts of my new home were: the land of harsh language, brutal efficiency and beer, sausages and potatoes. Now that I’ve been living here for over three years, I can attest that those things are true, but much more!

Most of what North Americans envision as German is actually Bavarian; so while there are actually people running around in leather pants and milkmaid dresses, serving foods that go well with beer (ie. Bread, pretzels, sausages, potatoes, sauerkraut, roasted pork knuckle etc.), there are whole cultures within Germany that don’t. Many traditional German restaurants do serve a lot of pork and potatoes, but there are cream-sauced schnitzels in the southwest, cheesy noodle casseroles in the southeast, onion cake served with late-season wine in central wine regions and delicious fish dishes and kale on the northern coast, to name a few. Even the varieties of potato salad change; the more north one goes, the creamier the consistency!

There is also a large Turkish influence on the food culture here because of the large waves of Turkish immigrants that started arriving to help rebuild the nation after WWII. “Dönerladen” are found on most street corners in larger cities and at least in every neighbourhood in smaller villages. The famous “Döner”, also known as “Kebap”, is essentially shaved meat on a bun, but is a national dish in itself. It is arguably more favoured than even the German-discovered “Currywurst”, which is a sausage covered in curry ketchup and curry powder. Also, curry ketchup on fries? Yum!

Some of the things that have surprised me the most about the eating culture here include eating an entire pizza by one’s self (with a knife and fork, of course!) and massive ice cream platters that can be a foot tall! Especially being familiar with the very German idea of moderation (where lunch can be just half a bun with a slice of smoked meat on top), this seems like a jarring discrepancy. But with their almost obsessive fascination with nature, trekking through various woods seems to keep their weights down.

One thing I would advise anyone hoping to befriend a German is this: do not start a conversation about bread! Germans are fiercely proud of their more than 400 varieties of bread, a lot of which is affectionately called “black bread”. A whole lot more chewing than what the typical North American is used to, the Germans find the tough texture most appealing, and ridicule our ‘toast bread’ as mooshy and unhealthy. Ignore and move on.

Enjoy!

Germany

We were trying to figure out where to go next.  From all this talk of the Superbowl, I had football on the brain.  And football made me think of European football.  And soccer made me think of Mrs. Doubtfire.  And Mrs. Doubtfire made me think of England… So we’re going to Germany!  I actually went last summer.  I was invited by a friend of mine who’s living there.  To be honest, Germany wasn’t exactly calling my name, but I’ll try anything once.  After going, though, I loved it!  The people, the culture, the food, and the beer were great!

This week, no drink.  I know, I know, not our style, but it’s mid-week and we didn’t have it together.  I’d suggest some apfelwein or bier.  We do have a nice little menu, however.  Schnitzel and spaetzle and strudel, oh my!

 

Spaetzle is German dumplings.  Check out our awesome setup.  Unfortunately, the whole apparatus was in the pot of hot water moments later.  Never fear, you can always cut the dough off the edge of a plate.   

 

Next we made some wienerschnitzel. Take some thinly sliced veal and tenderize the heck out of it.

 

Dredge it in some seasoned flour, egg, and some seasoned bread crumbs.  The trick is not to press the crumbs into it.  Just let ‘em sit on there and do their thing.

 

Finally… Hallo Strudel!  We read that we should roll out the dough onto a floured towel.  This took us a while to understand… Why a towel? What kind of towel? Would it work on plastic wrap?  How about parchment paper?  Let us take the mystery out of it for you… Take a regular old kitchen towel, and put a bunch of flour on it.

 

 

Then roll your dough out onto the towel.

Now take your apple mixture and put it in the middle of the dough leaving some around the edge to wrap.

Bring the edges together.  Now… Here’s where the towel thing started to click.You flip the strudel onto a pan so the seams end up being face down. Ohhhhhh…

You can tell we didn’t like this at all, huh?

 

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New Orleans

Superbowl Sunday. A “holiday” great enough to make us take a trip within our own country and pay homage to New Orleans. A city situated in Louisiana, best known for its music and tasty bites…French Creole and Cajun, anyone? Yes, please!

 

First, the drink (are we noticing a pattern here?). For whatever reason, we were both feeling a little tense and needed a local beverage to take the edge off. What makes you forget your troubles better than a nice glass of milk punch (or two…or three)?

 

Hush Puppies were first on the list. We tried to make ours more traditional using almost entirely corn meal instead of flour. We’ve heard that making sauces for Hush Puppies is blasphemous in the south, but luckily for us, we’re a bunch of Yankees. We made an aioli with Cajun spices and gumbo filé .   

 

 

We also nommed on shrimp and grits. Shrimp, stock, veggies, and spices served over grits.

 

Finally, for dessert: Bananas Foster. Check out our flambé action…Just like a pro! The only thing we’d do differently is cut the banana lengthwise instead of rounds...And not pour booze over an open flame.
 

Admittedly we had several takes (to benefit our readers, not our taste buds of course!), so our banana sauce was extra rummy… But we ain’t complaining.

Cheers!!!

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