Saturday, February 27, 2021

Easy Monkey Bread with Doughnuts.







An easy dessert that I would say everyone would love. Really sugar and cinammon is a winner mix. So many recipes out there but they seemed, boy, complex. So i found this one somewhere but thought oh great idea, so I gave it a go today. I have no idea where the recipe is, but this my version of reading over 4 or 5.

INGREDIENTS:

-12 sugar doughnuts (like coated with sugar).
-6 tablespoons of brown sugar, like american brown sugar,
or coconut sugar, or muscovado sugar or cane sugar or panela sugar.
-2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

-125 grams of melted butter.

STEPS:

1. Cut up the doughnuts in bits with scissors. I cut mine like in 8 pieces each.
2. Place them in a plastic bag and add 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and the cinnamon.  Shake well until it is all well coated. Remember that there is a ton of sugar already in the doughnuts! So you do not need that much.
3. In the meantime melt the butter in a pot and add the rest of the sugar to create this great syrup.
4. Now put back the coated doughnuts pieces into a bowl and pour half this super hot syrup and stir well until it is all well coated. Stir and stir quick so that the syrup is distributed evenly.
5. Now put baking paper on the container you are going to bake it in. Now place all the doughnut balls and pour the rest of the mix over the surface. Pack it down with a spoon a little so that is more compact.
6. Now place in oven for 30 minutes, fire only below, not top for about 20 or 30 minutes.

That's it. Let it cool off there for a while and you then tip it over! it is so easy to make it come out with the baking paper. It's pretty yummy I'd say. My nephews really liked it. I did too, although tonight I definitely need to run to burn it! haha but worth it.
Man my photos are not very good, sorry.




Thursday, February 25, 2021

Banana and Chocolate Bread (totally dessert)



A few days ago I saw this recipe in Instagram that looked like.....sheer drooling chocolately and juicy banana flavors wet together. It was hard! I had not idea what to eat to contain my lust for this dessert. So I planned for it, and yeah it was awesome. It wasn't hard but it needed sour cream. 

And before you give up on the recipe cause I said sour cream, remember: sour cream is simply cream fermented 24 hours with lemon, that's it. So you can make sour cream, check out my recipe.  Also I cut the sugar of this recipe in half, it called for 200 grams but it is just an insane amount of sugar, I mean come on, the one thing that american recipes just never get right....

INGREDIENTS:

Dry ingredients:

-158 grams of flour or 1/3 cup.
-23 grams of cocoa powder or 1/4 cup.
-1/4 teaspoon of salt.
-1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.
-1 teaspoon of grounded coffee.
-1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Wet ingredients:
-123 grams or 1/2 cup of unmelter butter.
-121 grams or 1/2 cup of sour cream.
-100 grams or 1/2 cup of granulated sugar.
-2 large eggs.
-3 medium smashed bananas.
-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
-1/3 cup of chocolate chips.

STEPS:

1. Mix in a bowl the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and coffee powder. Stir and blend all well. Now set apart.
2. Now to the wet ingredients list: beat the butter with a electric whisker until becomes creamy and fluffy. Now add the sugar to it and beat again with the electric whisker. Now add the 2 eggs, and beat again. Now add the 3 banana previously mashed and stir with fork. Now add the vanilla, stir it all well with fork and mix evenly. It doesn't have to be perfectly creamy and smooth.
3. Now add the flour mixture slowly in like 3 parts progressively, combining with the sour cream. So put some flour mixture, add some sour cream and mix. Do this 3 times until it is all blended. 
4. Now pour mixture into a lined banana bread container. I lined it up with baking paper cause it is so easy to undo later. Pout the whole mix that is simply ridiculously yummy and now on top place the chocolate chips. Mine were just pieces of dark chocolate I broke with a hammer.
5. Bake for an hour to 180-175 degrees in second rack of oven, so closer to the bottom but not too close. 

That's it. Keep an eye on it and when the toothpick comes out clean your cake is done! Let's be honest this is not bread, it is sheer dessert. 

My mom said it was DELICIOUS. I might add one more banana cut in chunky pieces next time to see what happens....it really has such great balance of chocolate and bananas.





Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Peruvian Ceviche



The secret of ceviche is using fresh fish. That's it and using the right ceviche fish which can be something like,  mero which in english is grouper fish or corbina which is called corvina fish.
Ceviche isn't hard. Just need a few ingredients and it is so refreshing and acidic. I love it. 

A simple ceviche recipe for you all for 2 people.

INGREDIENTS:

-400 grams of mero or corvina.
-3-4 limes.
-1 lemon.
-a big bunch of cilantro.
-1 red onion.
-1 lemon.
-a few pieces of fresh ginger.
-1 teaspoon of salt.
-3 stalks of celery.
-a teaspoon of aji.
-a few shrimps to enhance the flavour.

STEPS:

1. Slice onion pretty pretty thin and place in bowl. Now squeeze 2 limes and let them macerate.
2. Cut up a good bunch of cilantro and add to bowl. Same with the ginger, add the little pieces.
3. Now slice up the fish in cubes. Remember to buy the fish with no skin or it will be a bit harder.
3. Place in big bowl and immediately and squeeze the third lime and the lemon juice on top. Stir well.
Muchos pescadores en Battery Park, New York
4. Now cut up the celery in slices and add as well. Continue stirring. Add salt and a little pepper and let it "cook" or ferment with the lemon for about 30 minutes. I find 30 is a good time, cause it cooks the fish all the way through but it is not crazy soft.
5. For my ceviche I like to have the sweet potato and fry up some corn to accompany it also I add some shrimp that I peel and that just elevates it to the next level.

Try it. So good.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Fried Rice that is not mushy



So here it is, fried rice. Fried rice seems very easy but it is not.
The secret of fried rice is to not let it be mushy, and for that you need to keep ingredients separate, because if you add everything together in your wok it will all get mushy and one- flavored and disgusting. You want your eggs to taste like eggs, your rice to be toasted, your peas to taste like peas etc.

So here is the original recipe from the one and only Jaden from Steamy Kitchen.



INGREDIENTS:
-400-500 grams of leftover rice.
-2 or 3 stems of green onions.
-3-4 eggs.
-500 grams of chicken or pork. 
-200 grams of peas. 
-canola oil or sesame oil or some neutral oil.
-fish sauce.
-oyster sauce. 

Marinate of meat: 
-1 tablespoon of soysauce.
-1 teaspoon of cornstarch.
-2 tablespoons of chinese wine.
-1 tablespoon of sesame oil or canola oil.

STEPS:

1. Fist marinate the meat with the soysauce, cornstarch, chinese wine and canola oil and let it sit for an hour or even longer, or really 10 minutes. I also use oyster sauce to make it sweeter, but you want it on the sour end, the meat. Now set it apart.
2. Now  put canola oil in a wok. Now slice your green onions and fry for 2 minutes. 
3. Now beat the eggs and cook them in wok, on top of eggs. Now listen to this: leave the eggs alone. Do not start stirring them around but let it settle into a big omelette for 3 minutes and then fold and pass on to plate and set apart. You want the eggs to be slightly undone because they will finish cooking at the last moment when you add everything together.
4. Now stir fry the meat in a high fire. Put the chicken or pork and let it brow. You probably have to do it in 2 batches. If you cook all of it at once you will not fry it, you will steam it, and water will start coming out. For browning you cannot crowd meat because you it will boil instead.
5. Once it browns from one side, flip and repeat with second batch and reserve. You want to cook meat like 80% so that later it doesn't go hard.
6. Now fry rice. First you need to separate rice from the container where it has been, like break it up with your hands, like the photo. 
7. Now add some oil in the wok and make it really hot. Now add all of the rice and let it sit there for 5 minutes. Resist the temptation to move it around because otherwise you will break the rice and more starch will come out which will make it mushy. You are trying to dry rice when you are frying it. For that you need to let it sit there and actually fry it.
8. After 5 minutes toss it and let the rice get toasted on another rice. Make sure you don't burn it also. Now continue frying it until it gets toasted. 
9. Okay now time to bring everything together. First add eggs, then meat, then frozen meats. 
10. Give it all a good toss quick and let it sit for a few minutes in high fire. Give it another toss and let it sit for 2 more minutes. Now don't stir it constantly or it will get mushy. Now your ingredients will taste like what they are separately.

That's it. Now season it with some fish sauce! slight sprinkles or soy sauce, but very sparingly or it will overpower the whole dish. Also you can season with oyster sauce, pepper and salt. 

A photo of Hong Kong market. 

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

West African Peanut Stew


Once in Brussels my friend Christel taught me this recipe, which is an African recipe. I had NO IDEA what to cook today and thought it was the day. A winner recipe, with all African ingredients. Not hard either, about 1 hour long. I followed this recipe basically.

INGREDIENTS:

-1 kg chicken thighs.
-250 grams of peanut butter.
-150 grams of peanuts.
-3 leeks.
-400 grams of sweet potatoes.
-600 grams of canned tomatoes.
-250 ml of chicken stock.
-1 onion.
-20 grams of ginger.
-3 cloves of garlic.
-1/2 tablespoon of koriander.
-1/3 cayenne pepper in powder.
-some cilantro.
-salt, pepper.

STEPS:

1. Fry chicken and season with salt in high fire in saucepan until it turns gold on both sides. Set apart. 
2. Slice onion, ginger and garlic and sautee until it is all gold.
3. Now slice leeks and dice sweet potatoes and add to the saucepan for 5 minutes and stir. (I soften the sweet potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes before).
4. Now add the canned tomatoes, the chicken stock and the peanut butter, the koriander and the cayenne pepper and let it all come to a boil.
5. Now add the chicken and the peanuts let it all simmer in low fire for 30 minutes. 
6. Serve with rice, and garnish with salt, pepper and cilantro.

 
YUM, cannot get more African: leeks, peanut butter and koriander.

Monday, February 8, 2021

Aguadito de Pollo or Cilantro Chicken Soup



A wonderful soup from Peru with lots and lots of cilantro. SO GOOD. Also you don't totally need chicken, you can just do it with chicken stock. But better with chicken yes. I tried it in a Peruvian restaurant and life was never the same...

 INGREDIENTS:


-3 slices of jalapeño peppers. 
-1/2 onion.
-1 or 2 small cloves of garlic.
-a good bunch of cilantro.
-2 liters of chicken stock.
-4 chicken thighs.
-some oregano.
-some black pepper.
-1 piece of ginger sliced in 3 parts.
-some cumin.
-1 big potato.
-1 cup of rice.
-4 celery sticks.
-1 cup of peas.
-2 sliced carrots.
-1/2 teaspoon of aji molido.

STEPS:

1. Dice up onion and garlic and saute with oil. Now add the 3 slices of jalapeños. 
2. Set apart and add the bunch of cilantro to a long cup in which you can liquify it with the hand mixer with a tiny bit of water. Liquify it, it will look like a green paste. Set apart. 
3. Now prepare the chicken. In the same pot you were doing the onion and garlic now fry your chicken with some oregano. Make it golden and add oregano to it and a tiny bit of salt. Cook till brown.
4. Now add the chicken stock, the cumin, the aji molido, the carrots, the celery cut in slices, the aji molido, the potato cut in cubes and the rice and bring to a boil. When it boils turn heat down. 
5. In the meantime get the chicken out and when it cools off, shred the meat with a fork and knife and put back in pot. Add the frozen peas here too.
 6. Now add the green cilantro paste you created to the soup, automatically it will turn green. 
7. After 5 minutes of all mixing together it should be done! Try the potato and rice to make sure it is all soft.
8. Now garnish with cilantro and you will knock the ball out of the park!!!!!!!!!!

Photo of Gran Canaria which will make you feel like you are in Latin America.