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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