rainforest recipes

CEiMB: Broccoli and Cheddar Stuffed Potato Skins w/ Avocado Cream

2010-03-20T11:06:00.000-06:00

Finally I've managed to cook and post this recipe! I apologize to readers who came looking for this post when I was supposed to have posted it waaaay back about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I fully intended to make this on the right day, however, my difficulties began on shopping day when the only avocados to be found were hard as rocks. By the time I had bypassed that hurdle, Unificacion Maya 2009 was upon me, and everything else in my life ... including cooking and blogging ... was completely out of my mind.

Broccoli and Cheddar Stuffed Potato Skins w/ Avocado Cream

Preface:
I followed this recipe pretty much exactly as written ... except that I halved the main part (I still made a full batch of the Avocado Cream ... it sounded excellent and I figured I can eat it with other foods as well.

And, oh yeah, I don't use paper towels to microbake my potatoes.

Ingredients:

8 small Idaho potatoes (about 2.5 pounds) scrubbed and dried

4 tsp canola oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces brocoli florets, coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)

cooking spray

3 pieces Canadian bacon, finely diced (about 3 ounces)

3/4 cup extra sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated (about 3 ounces)

Avocado Cream

2 scallions, thinly sliced, greens reserved

1 medium avocado

2 tablespoons reduced fat sour cream

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Pierce potatoes several times with a fork and wrap in paper towels. Microwave on high for 13 to 15 minutes, until potatoes are cooked through. Remove from microwave and cool until potatoes are easy to handle.

Slice potatoes in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop all but 1/8 inch of the inside of the potato, leaving skin intact. Reserve scooped potato flesh for another use.

Brush both inside and outside of potatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt. Place potatoes, skin-side down, on a baking sheet and bake until skins are crisp and edges are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the filling. Steam the broccoli until crisp-tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and preheat over medium-high heat. Add the Canadian bacon and cook until crisp stirring often, about 3 to 4 minutes. Reserve.

To make avocado cream, combine scallion whites, avocado, sour cream lime juice, cilantro, garlic and salt in the small bowl of a food processor and process on high until smooth. About 30 seconds.

Toss the broccoli with cheese and spoon filling evenly among potatoes. Lower oven to 400 degrees F and return potatoes to oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of the avocado cream on top of broccoli-filled potatoes, then top with scallion greens and 1 teaspoon crisped bacon bits.

Verdict:

For me, there were not enough vegies per serving, something which could be rectified by using a more long and flat potato. Our cheese here is tasteless, and I'm sure the flavor would have been better with a good cheese. Other than that, it was an excellent vegetable dish for a special occasion.

Using Ramon at Unificacion Maya

2009-12-24T03:54:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the Unificacion Maya Ceremonies for another year. It is pretty all-absorbing for the month of December, and I haven't been able to take even a moment for blogging. However, it is over now, and I am determined to get back on my usual schedule.

This Pineapple-Ramon Upside Down Cake was the dessert for our second ceremony.

This cake was invented and baked by Doña Juana, the president of the Ix-canaan Women's Group.

We also had a Ramon Information Day. After the ceremony at the Ixlu Archeological Site on Day 4, we went to the production facility for Nutri-Naturales, where they had prepared a snack of several items made from the ramon flour that they are producing.

They served a hot and a cold ramon beverage with ramon cookies, ramon sweet breads and these excellent ramon rolls (bollitos).

BB: Chicken Chili

2009-11-10T04:20:00.001-07:00

This will be recipe #2 in the Barefoot Bloggers Challenge. It was well after dark before I finished it and served it, so the photography is pretty bad. I was expecting a Chicken Chili to have beans in it, but no, this was something totally different and unexpected.

Chicken Chili
(2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All Rights Reserved)

Preface:

I halved the recipe.
I added an extra clove of garlic ... mosts recipes are written to be "safe" in the garlic range, so can be upped without overdoing it.
I can't buy canned tomatoes here (all for the best, I think) so I peeled a pound of tomatoes, put half of them through the blender and mashed the other half with my potato masher.
For serving, I topped the chili with yogurt and mozzarella cheese

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 onions)
1/8 cup good olive oil, plus extra for chicken
1/8 cup minced garlic (2 cloves)
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and large-diced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for chicken
2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled plum tomatoes in puree, undrained
1/4 cup minced fresh basil leaves
4 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Freshly ground black pepper

For Serving:

Chopped onions, corn chips, grated cheddar, sour cream

Instructions:

Cook the onions in the oil over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne, and salt. Cook for 1 minute.

Crush the tomatoes by hand or in batches in a food processor, fitted with a steel blade (pulse 6 to 8 times).

Add to the pot with the basil.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Rub the chicken breasts with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken for 35 to 40 minutes, until just cooked.

Let cool slightly. Separate the meat from the bones and skin and cut it into 3/4 inch chunks.

Add to the chili and simmer, uncovered, for another 20 minutes.

Serve with the toppings, or refrigerate and reheat gently before serving.

Verdict:

I have already put this recipe on my rotating menu. I hollowed out a mound of rice and poured a large scoop of chili down into the middle ... and it was FANTASTIC!! I topped the chili with some grated cheese and a big dollop of yogurt (my standard sour cream substitution). It was even better the second day.

BB: French String Beans

2009-11-07T05:33:00.004-07:00

I read last week about the Barefoot Bloggers Challenge ... to cook from 1 to 5 Iva Garten recipes (all listed at the "challenge" link) and post them this week. I checked over the recipes that had been chosen for the challenge, and they all sounded fantastic. 'Why not?' I thought, 'we have to eat'. As usual, cooking and eating the recipes is not the difficult part ... blogging them has turned out to be the challenge!! I have had some major uploading problems recently, but with some late night work (when our satelite dish seems to get a stronger signal), I am beginning to catch up

I seldom buy green beans here ... the usual variety that are available in the market have VERY strong threads in them, and are difficult to prepare. And no matter what you do, you end up with little strings stuck between your teeth. Anyway, I must have been meant to make these because they featured stringless green beans in the vegetable section of the Maxi-Bodega this week, really fresh nice ones, so I bought a pound with this recipe in mind.

French String Beans

Preface:

I have no idea if the beans were French, but for sure they were not "string" beans ...
I didn't have yellow bell peppers (although I will soon ... I have a couple of plants of yellow bell peppers grown from some seeds that I took from a yellow pepper when I was visiting Mom in Canada, and there are a couple of ripening peppers already), so used only red.

Ingredients:

1 pound French string beans
Kosher salt
1 red onion, large, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, large diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, large diced
Good olive oil
Freshly grated black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Blanch the string beans in a large pot of boiling salted water for just 4 minutes.

Drain immediately and immerse in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When they are cool, drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss the onion and bell peppers together with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes, tossing with a spatula from time to time to be sure the vegetables roast evenly.

Just before serving, reheat the string beans in a large saute pan drizzled with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and arrange on a platter. Spoon the roasted vegetables over the string beans and serve hot or at room temperature.

Verdict:

Excellent! Simple and fast to make. Delicious!! The oven roasted vegies added an incredible burst of flavour to the crunchy green beans. This recipe has gone into the file to teach to the cook at Gringo Perdido.

CEiMB: Linguini with Shrimp

2009-11-06T16:25:00.004-07:00

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was chosen by Farah of Confessions of a Novice Baker.

I love shrimp. I have been looking forward to splurging on a package of shrimp to make this dish. And it didn't disappoint!

Linguini with Shrimp

Preface:

instead of linguini, I used a Tri-Color Vegetable Pasta
I upped the garlic to 3 cloves ... I love garlic
I used only 3/4 of a pound of shrimp, which I bought peeled, deveined and frozen. I would have bought them with shells, if I could have found them, because I think that, even frozen, they retain more flavor if they are with shells.
the white wine that I used was actually the last part of a bottle of cooking wine ... I can imagine that the dish would have been even better with a decent quality wine.
asparagus is unheard of in Peten, however, I had just made a very tasty green bean recipe the day before, and had half of the beans left over, so decided to use them instead.
I had no parsley, and don't actually like parsley all that much, so I used a mixture of half fresh chopped cilantro, and half fresh chopped basil.
I had no cherry tomatoes, so I chopped up a couple of Roma tomatoes.

Ingredients:

3/4 pound linguini
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup white wine
1 bunch asparagus stalks, trimmed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 container cherry tomatoes, halved

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the linguini and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high flame. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute

Add the shrimp and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the shrimp turn pink. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside.

Add the lemon juice, white wine and the reserved cup of water to the skillet. Let simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half.

Salt and saute the asparagus. cut into 1-inch pieces.

Return the shrimp to the pan

and stir in the parsley.

Add the drained linguini to the shrimp mixture, tossing to combine.

Add asparagus and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Verdict:

Delicious! I never would have chosen to make a pasta with that combination of flavors. However, I have learned that there are a lot of unlikely flavor combinations that are incredibly delicious. This combination of garlic, lemon and wine are a perfect background for the shrimp. The slightly crunchy (stringless) green beans were a perfect foil for the pasta, and also combined well with the lemony flavor. I made one error in that I must have overcooked the shrimp a bit ... it turned out more chewy than I would have liked (or maybe it had been sitting frozen at Maxi-Bodega for way to long, its hard to say with shrimp here). I made an interesting discovery when I didn't reheat the noodles before adding the sauce, and they were so cool that everything cooled right off. E. said that he thought that it was a pasta salad (which would be okay, except that he doesn't really like salads). I found out later, when we had it served hot, that that was not only because it was cold, but because the dressing reminded him of salad dressing. And when I thought about it, I realized that yes, it is a dish that could quite easily be served cold with excellent results.

If I am lucky enough to have some fresh shrimp, I would definitely plan to make this recipe again.

CEiMB: Pumpkin Muffins

2009-10-31T14:55:00.000-06:00

Now that I have a large refrigerated container of roasted squash, it is time to begin to create. And what better place to start than with these mouth-watering Pumpkin Muffins ... another Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe by Ellie Krieger. This week's recipe was chosen by Oddball OvenMitt ... and a timely choice it is as pumpkin fits perfectly with the autumn season.

Pumpkin Muffins

2006, Ellie Krieger
Makes 12 Muffins

Preface:

I cooked a giant squash instead of using canned pumpkin .. it seems that pumpkin is not popular here ... canned pumpkin does not exist in Peten. I did find some small fresh pumpkins at the Maxi-Bodega (Walmart) but they were too expensive. In the end, I bought the giant squash at the market, thinking that the price would be better, and later that day, found the same size of sqash at the Maxi-Bodega for half the price. Live and Learn.
There is only one type of flour here .. white flour. However, a few years ago, when I wanted to start making and selling bran muffins to local hotels, I managed to convince a local store to carry bran ... so when I want a whole wheat flour, I mix the bran back into the white flour, using the concentration I need to create the finished product that I want. For this recipe, I used 1 3/4 cups of white flour, and 1/4 cup of bran.
The brown sugar that I use is "panela". Panela is the direct result of boiling down sugar cane juice until it goes past the molasses stage and actually hardens. In effect, it is molasses that has been taken one step further in the refining process.
I'm pretty sure that the molasses that I used was not unsulphered. Molasses is another ingredient that is not sold in stores here. About 5 years ago, I looked everywhere for molasses to use to make some of Mom's famous molasses cookies, and eventually I found a rich farmer who had brought in a tanker truck FULL of molasses to sell to other farmers in the area ... I discovered that this is one of the ways of providing extra fattening nourishment for cattle, and is not eaten by humans! I explained to him that I was looking for molasses for cooking (he had never heard of such a thing) and asked if I could buy some. He was selling by the barrel, and didn't have any containers for smaller sales, but he poured the last of the Coke out of his 2-liter bottle, washed it out and filled it up from a spigot in the side of the huge tanker truck. He refused to take any money for it insisting that it was so little, that it didn't matter. So, I have had this 2-litre bottle of PURE MOLASSES lying in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator for a long long time (like years). I could never bring myself to use it, not only because I wouldn't not be able to replace it but I also thought that it would be too strong for my recipes. Thanks to this recipe, I have finally opened the bottle and begun using it.
Several comments mentioned that the spicing was nt strong enough so I used a liberal hand when measuring ... not doubling the amounts, but rounding up the measuring spoons.
I used my own home made yogurt instead of buttermilk

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined.

Add the other egg and whisk well.

Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in two batches,

alternating with the buttermilk.

Whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Verdict:

Delicious! The molasses really boosted the flavor of the spices and added to the distinctive "pumpkin pie" flavor. The crunch of the pumpkin seeds made for a perfect topping. I must have used smaller muffin cups that was called for, because I ended up with 18 muffins. I'm glad I did or I might not have had enough to photograph!

Cooking with Pumpkin & Squash

2009-10-30T06:44:00.002-06:00

I never cook with pumpkins or squashes. I think this has something to do with the impenetrable nature of this vegetable. I have never been able to figure out how to get into it. What type of tool would one use to smash through to the meat inside? Would an axe work?

After reading through the equivalent of a large book of pumpkin recipes in the last week, I decided I wanted to try a few of them, and since canned pumpkin is unheard of here, it was now necessary to figure out how to crack through this rock-like shell to the golden meat within.

I began by calling in help. I have watched the local men use their razor-sharp machetes for a huge variety of jobs ... from mowing the lawn to cutting down trees ... surely this method would work for a basic squash. Don Pablo was happy to show me how to do this job. I expected him to draw back his "cutlass" and smash it with unerring accuracy into the top of the squash, separating it immediately into two equal parts. However, I was completely wrong. I don't know why I didn't think of it myself. He DID use his machete ...

but WITH a hammer!! He placed the machete in the middle of the squash and with a few light taps of the hammer ... voila! Now why didn't I think of that?

The machete cut down through that squash as if it were butter ...

leaving me with two more or less equal parts and bringing me to the next stage of squash prep ... removing the green slimy stringy mass of seeds.

I scraped and cleaned the seeds out of the middle, gave half of them to Don Pablo for planting in his garden, and saved the other half to plant in my own garden. I couldn't get any more of the green slimy strings out, but I figured that they might be easier to remove once the squash was cooked.

I didn't get any photos of the last stage, but I rubbed olive oil all over the inside, and baked both halves, open side up, at about 350' for about 2 hours. The green strings cooked into the yellow squash, so it was impossible to separate them once cooked ... however ... I discovered that it didn't matter. I used 1 cup of the squash for my first pumpkin recipe, and it was excellent.

I ended up with about 5 cups of squash ... stay tuned as we cook it up in a variety of sweet and savory dishes!

BB: Cheddar Corn Chowder

2009-10-09T11:46:00.003-06:00

There is no way a photo can do justice to the superb flavor of this Cheddar Corn Chowder. This weeks Barefoot Blogger recipe was suggested by Jill of My Next Life. Being from Southern New Brunswick, I've eaten a lot of corn chowder, but this one has them all beat hands down.

Cheddar Corn Chowder

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
10 to 12 servings

I cut way back on this recipe. There are only two of us, and it uses a lot of dairy so I didn't want to freeze it, so I made about 1/3 of this quantity. It turned out to be 4 good servings.

The bacon that I used was really good, but really fatty, so I didn't add much olive oil, and I poured about half of it off before I made the chowder. Then I didn't add extra butter to the pan either.

Instead of half and half cream, I used half home made yogurt, and half whole-milk powder with water.

The closest I could get to a "sharp white cheddar cheese" is this "Taco Mix", that is not sharp, not white and just barely cheddar cheese.

I made my own chicken stock from backs/necks/wings of chicken that I keep frozen for just this purpose.

Ingredients:

8 ounces bacon, chopped
1/4 cup good olive oil
6 cups chopped yellow onions (4 large onions)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
12 cups chicken stock
6 cups medium-diced white boiling potatoes, unpeeled (2 pounds)
10 cups corn kernels, fresh (10 ears) or frozen (3 pounds)
2 cups half-and-half
8 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

Instructions:

In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, cook the bacon and olive oil until the bacon is crisp, about 5 minutes.

Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Reduce the heat to medium,

add the onions and butter to the fat, and cook for 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent.

Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and turmeric and cook for 3 minutes.

Add potatoes,

And chicken stock

bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
If using fresh corn, cut the kernels off the cob and blanch them for 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain. (If using frozen corn you can skip this step.)
Add the corn to the soup,

then add the half-and-half

And the cheddar

Cook for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is melted.
Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Serve hot with a garnish of bacon

Verdict:

This chowder was rich and creamy and full of flavor. The smoky, salty base of bacon made a perfect background to the sweet corn. I'm glad I used the yogurt instead of cream as it gave it a tangier cheese-like flavor that helped make up for the fact that I didn't have any sharp cheddar. I would like to have had a few cobs of New Brunswick peaches and cream corn, but even the canned variety tasted great in this recipe ... next time I would use more. This recipe is definitely my new main recipe for corn chowder.

BB: Beatty's Chocolate Cake

2009-10-04T09:14:00.021-06:00

This cake received the highest recognition that this our home has to offer ... before I could get it frosted, several inches from one end disappeared. And met with vocal approval!

This is the second time this month that the Barefoot Bloggers have chosen to bake cake. Cakes are not my forte. I've been thinking about this a lot (since I've been baking so many cakes lately!) and realizing how much of an art form it is, not only to bring together the perfect ingredients and bake them to perfection, but also to assemble all the perfectly cooked and blended parts to create a beautiful integrated whole. Thanks to Mary of Passionate Perseverance, I get to practice again this week!

It has taken me a lot longer than I was anticipating to get this cake cooked and blogged. I began early enough to have it posted in time, only to discover that my chocolate powder had all gone bad. The only place to buy a new package is in Santa Elena, so it wasn't until grocery day that I was able to restock and prepare again to bake the cake.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved

Preface:

I don't have any round pans, but I figured that the rectangular ones that I have were about the same volume.

The sugar we buy here is not nearly so refined and wouldn't go through the sifter. I sifted the ingredients that would go through, then just added the un-siftables to the bowl as they were.

I used yogurt instead of buttermilk.

I didn't think the coffee in the cake batter was strong enough, so added some extra granules of instant to the mix as well.

I don't have a paddle attachment on my food processor, so I did the mixing of the cake batter by hand. I mixed the frosting in the food processor.

I used semi-sweet chocolate chips in the frosting.

When making the frosting, I thought that it was already very moist and didn't add more water with the instant coffee.

Ingredients:

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Instructions:

(Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans

and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pans for 30 minutes,

then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Instructions:

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla

and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar,

then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended.

Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

I'm embarrassed to publish a picture of the finished cake ... :-(

Verdict:

Don't let appearances fool you. This was a really delicious cake. It was moist and chocolately and I loved the hint of coffee ... I would probably add a bit more if I made it again. It is the first time I had made a buttercream frosting, and it really made the cake. As a matter of fact, in my desire to level out the cake itself, I ended up with almost as much frosting as cake. Fortunately, it was like creamy cool chocolate fudge and highlighted the texture of the cake.

I realized that I am no cake decorator, and this is a huge part of the presentation of the cake. Unfortunately, since I very very seldom eat sweets, and since this was quite expensive to produce, I probably won't be getting enough practice to become fluent in the art of cake decorating. I would, however, make this cake again should a special occasion arise.

Chicken-Broccoli Casserole

2009-10-03T14:47:00.005-06:00

Every once in a while, I come across a recipe from my early years of cooking (when I was cooking for kids) that catches my eye and makes my mouth water to remember. Such was the case when I was visiting with Mom in June. My sister-in-law and I were looking at Mom's cookbooks, which of course, hold many memories, not only because of the foods she made, but for the occasions and people that she made them*. One of the cookbooks was put together by a local community group, and had several of my own early recipes in it, notably my favorite Bacon-Spinach Salad, a recipe for Spanokopita that I remember being given by a friend in Calgary about 35 years ago and which became such a family favorite that my sons continue to make for their families for all special dinners .... and this recipe for Chicken-Broccoli Casserole. I was so excited to have those early recipes again, that my sister-in-law and I drove all the way to the Shoppers in the mall to get photocopies of those particular recipes. I had brought them home and filed them in with my "to make soon" pile (which seems to grow by the day) and then didn't get around to putting them on the menu until this last week. Beginning with this super-easy and super delicious (at least I remembered it that way) dish of baked chicken and broccoli.

Chicken-Broccoli Casserole

Preface:

1. Since there are only two of us, I halved the recipe and it made enough for 4 good sized servings (for us it made 6 perfect servings ... I froze the extra servings for fast meals later)
2. I baked a whole chicken, and used half of the meat for this recipe and saved half for another.
3. I used the drippings from the chicken to make the cream of chicken soup. (As an aside, I can't help but wonder what it says about the diet of a small jungle community and the effectiveness of global advertising, that the only two types of canned soup that you can buy here are Campbell's Chicken Broth and Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup ... both used, as it seems they are all over the world, as ingredients for cooking, and not as soup)

Ingredients:

3 lbs. frying chicken
2 fresh bunches of broccoli
1 cup mayonaise
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. melted butter

Instructions:

1. Cook or boil chicken ... cool ... debone

2. Steam broccoli until desired doneness ... drain

3. Grease 11 X 7 inch casserole dish

4. Place a layer of chicken on bottom of casserole dish.

5. Place the broccoli in a layer over the chicken.

6. Combine mayonaise, soup, curry and lemon juice.

7. Pour sauce mixture over the broccoli layer.

8. Combine crumbs with cheese and melted butter and sprinkle over the top. ( I took a bit of a shortcut here, and just put pats of butter on top of the crumb/cheese mixture).

9. Bake at 350' F for 30 minutes.

Verdict:

It was just as good as I remembered it! As a matter of fact, E. loved it too and has asked that it become one of our regular meals (the highest recommendation!).

Its fast and easy to prepare (even faster and easier if you go the canned soup route), freezes well and tastes even better when re-heated. Its pure homey comfort food!!

* I've been noticing lately how many of my memories are based around food and how often the sight, smell or thought of food will trigger a memory of some long ago event. In fact, its hard to even think of a memory that I have that doesn't revolve in some way around food. I wonder if food is a trigger of memories for all of us?

An Addendum: What are the chances that two bloggers would pick the same recipe from the past to cook/blog in the same week? I just discovered that Drew at How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, has just posted the same dish! Which I also discover is called Chicken Divan (I've heard of Chicken Divan before, but had never realized that it is the same as my Chicken-Broccoli Casserole).

CEiMB: New York Breakfast

2009-10-03T09:13:00.015-06:00

Once again, I am late posting the Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe this week, which was for "New York Breakfast", and was chosen by Nick & Sara of imafoodblog.com. You will notice that my version is most definitely not the "New York Breakfast" that Ellie wrote the recipe for. Since smoked salmon is the basis of her sandwich, and you probably can't find a smoked salmon within thousands (well, hundreds) of miles of here, I at first thought to just skip this week. However, part of my mandate here in the jungle is not to let the lack of ingredients hold me back from creating any recipe that I want to create, so I started thinking how I could produce something along the same general lines. I wanted to retain the "seafoody" nature of Ellie's recipe, along with the cream cheese on thin crisp toast base. I still had one more can of the good tuna that I had brought back from Canada on my last visit, so decided that this was the recipe that I had been saving it for.

New York Breakfast

Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

Preface:

1. Pumpernickel bread is about as rare here as smoked salmon, so I used my own home made whole wheat bread.
2. I used a good quality of canned tuna instead of the smoked salmon.
3. I used normal yellow onion.
4. I skipped the cucumber ... it didn't seem like it would blend or add to the modified ingredients.
5. I added some strips of grilled, peeled red pepper which I think always adds to cream cheese based sandwiches.
5. The only tomatoes we can buy right now are roma tomatoes that are red outside and still green (always green) inside ... I presume it is from the tons of herbicides and pesticides combined with early picking. I can hardly wait until I have some organic tomatoes from my own garden.
6. Given that I was using tuna, I decided that I would prefer cilantro to the chives.
7. I decided to make a dressing of mayonaise combined with some balsamic vinegar to drizzle over the top of the completed sandwich

Ingredients:

8 pieces packaged, thin pumpernickel bread (3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches))
1/4 cup whipped cream cheese
8 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 English cucumber, thinly sliced
2 medium tomatoes, core, seeded and diced
2 teaspoons chopped, fresh chives
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Toast the bread and spread 1 1/2 teaspoons of cream cheese on top of each piece.

(At this point, I added the strips of grilled, peeled sweet red pepper)

Put a slice of smoked salmon (or tuna, as the case may be),

a couple of slices of onion, (or more if you like onion)

one or 2 slices of cucumber (if you want), and about 1 tablespoon of chopped (or very thinly sliced) tomato on top of that.

Sprinkle with chives (or cilantro) and season with salt and pepper.

AND ... for an extra jolt of flavor, mix together a couple of tablespoons of good mayonaise with a few dashes of balsamic vinegar ...

And drizzle over all ...

Verdict:

Delicious! The thing I really like about sandwiches like this is that there are surprise bursts of flavor with each bite ... the smoothness of the cream cheese is a perfect match for the grilled red peppers. The cilantro and tuna were meant for each other. The onion adds its own crunchy zing. And the balsamic mayonaise marries all the elements into a balanced whole.

I will definitely be making them again. And if I can get my hands on some smoked salmon, I will gladly make a REAL New York Breakfast Sandwich!!

BB: Virgin Mango Banana Daquiris

2009-09-29T08:01:00.007-06:00

This was a featured recipe of Barefoot Bloggers way back in August just as I was beginning with the group, and when I saw it, I knew that I would make it before mango season was over.

Mango Banana Daiquiris

Source: Ina Garten, Back to Basics on page 47
Chosen by Veronica of Supermarket Serenade
Serves 4

Preface:

I didn't use any rum in our drinks.
I used some fresh mint from the garden as garnish

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped ripe mango (1 to 2 mangos, peeled and seeded)
1 ripe banana, chopped
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (4 limes)
1/4 cup sugar syrup* (I used 2-3 tablespoons of agave nectar)
1 1/4 cups dark rum, such as Mount Gay

Mango slices, for serving

Instructions:

Place the mango, banana, lime juice, sugar syrup, and rum in a blender and process until smooth. Add 2 cups of ice and process again until smooth and thick. Serve ice-cold in highball glasses with the mango slices.

*To make simple syrup, heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Chill.Type rest of the post here

Verdict:

Incredibly refreshing! Delicious mango flavor built upon the distinctive sweetness of banana. The big surprise was the subtle minty aroma and top note ... I would definitely keep the mint garnish when making it again, which, given the abundance of cheap mangos in season, I undoubtedly will. (I bet it would have been excellent with the rum!)

Rambutan

2009-09-19T11:53:00.005-06:00

I love finding fruits in the market that I have never tried before. This past week, I discovered these soft-spined beauties and bought a bag of 12 (only Q5 for the bag ... which is about $ .70 ... can't beat the price!)

I thought they might be Lychee Nuts, but the man who was selling them told me that they were called Rambutans ... and that he brought them in from Izabal ... the province that is just south of Petén. As soon as I returned home, I headed for the computer and google to find out about them.

Rambutan in Indonesian, Filipino and Malay literally means hairy caused by the 'hair' that covers this fruit, which I discovered is related to the lychee nut, as well as Longan and Mamoncillo. It is native to Indonesia and South East Asia. The outer skin is peeled exposing the fleshy fruit inside which is then eaten. It is sweet and sour to the taste.

We ate around the seed for the first one we tasted, then discovered that the seed has its own crunchy almondy taste/texture that really added to the flavor of the fruit itself. Later, I read that it is bitter and inedible (I'm glad I didn't read that first or I might have been influenced not to try eating them).

CEiMB: Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

2009-09-10T23:24:00.005-06:00

Right off the start I will admit that I didn't go into this recipe with an open mind. I've probably mentioned before that I am not really a fan of tomato sauce-y kind of dishes ... and with chicken, even less. I actually made up the chicken mixture a day earlier than we ate it, because I just didn't feel like serving it that night. However, I've never been disappointed with an "Ellie" recipe yet ... so I threw caution to the winds and we had them for lunch today.

Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
2008, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

Serves: 6 servings, serving size: 1 sandwich

Preface:

Ellie uses a rotisserie chicken, but they are quite a bit more expensive, so I baked my own chicken.

Since there would be only two of us eating, I halved the recipe, and I halved the chicken, saving the other half for a delicious Chicken / Broccoli Casserole from my youth (I found the recipe amongst Mom's recipe books when I was home) that I will definitely be making again next week and will take photos of then.

I didn't have any tomato sauce, so I finely diced one tomato instead.

You can't buy regular molasses here ... all that I have been able to find is sold by the barrel from huge tanker trucks as cattle feed enhancer. I used panela instead ... which is kinda like molasses taken one step further in the process and dried into a sticky cube.

I just left out the liquid smoke ... I didn't know what I could substitute, but it seemed like it would add another level of flavor.

I used my own home made hamburger / sandwich buns from a recipe that I stumbled across last week and loved and haven't posted yet ... its coming real soon.

I didn't bother buying lettuce because I have an incredible patch of a perennial, small leaved spinach that seems to grow faster the more I cut it. It is mild, even with its dark green color, so is excellent as a lettuce substitute.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14-ounce) can low-sodium tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 whole rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat shredded into thin strips (about 4 to 4 1/2 cups)
6 whole-wheat hamburger rolls
6 large green lettuce leaves

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, vinegar, molasses, pepper and liquid smoke and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add chopped chicken, return to a simmer, and cook an additional 10 minutes.

Split rolls. Place a leaf of lettuce on each roll, then pile on 3/4 cup of the chicken mixture onto the roll.

Verdict:

I was pleasantly surprised. At first, I thought the chicken was a bit too sweet, but the vinegar seemed to keep it in hand. There is no way I could have eked out three sandwiches from this half of the recipe ... I think my chicken may have been a bit smaller and for sure my home made buns were larger. However, one sandwich piled with almost half of the chicken mixture and served with cole slaw (a dill pickle would have been much better!) made an excellent lunch.

BB: Birthday Sheet Cake

2009-09-10T21:37:00.012-06:00

The Barefoot Bloggers selection this month, chosen by Susy of Everyday Gourmet, is Birthday Sheet Cake. We don't eat a lot of dessert-type foods, and I'm not a cake fan at the best of times, but I decided to make it just for the fun of it, and tomorrow I will share some with the kids meeting in the afternoons for a class across the road at the Ix-canaan Library. Even sharing with the kids, it seemed like a lot of cake, (and a lot of chocolate) so I halved the recipe.

Birthday Sheet Cake
Barefoot Contessa Family Style, All Rights Reserved

Serves: 1 (12x18-inch) cake

Preface:

I didn't have a single stick of unsalted butter in the refrigerator ... as a matter of fact I didn't have a single stick of butter at all. What I did have, was a bowl of butter mixed 50/50 with olive oil, which is what I use on bread and potatoes so we get the taste of butter with the health benefits of olive oil.

I had about half as much cream as I needed, so I completed filling the measure with home made yogurt.

I don't have either an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, so I did all the mixing by hand.

Instead of corn syrup in the frosting, I used some of my special doncella honey, figuring that the drop of lemony flavor would marry nicely with the bits of lemon zest in the cake itself

I don't own a 12" X 18" baking pan ... so I did some measuring and calculating, and discovered that two of my usual baking pans have the same basic "square footage" as half of the larger pan ... perfect.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 lemon, zested
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the frosting:

24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Chocolate candies for decorating (recommended: M&M's)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12 by 18 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time,

then the sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix well.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until smooth. Finish mixing by hand to be sure the batter is well mixed.

Pour evenly into the pan, smooth the top with a spatula,

and bake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pan to room temperature.

For the frosting, place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chips are completely melted.

Off the heat, add the corn syrup and vanilla and allow the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the chocolate mixture and softened butter on medium speed for a few minutes, until it's thickened.

Spread the frosting evenly on the cake, and decorate.

Verdict:

The chocolate frosting was superb, and I thought as I was putting it together that it would make a great topping for ice cream. It was much better than the cake itself, which I found heavy and dry. I doubt that I would make it again ... especially since I seldom make cakes anyway.

*** UPDATE*** This cake is MUCH BETTER served cold ... right out of the refrigerator, with a big hot steamy mug of tea, coffee or chocolate. For some reason, the refrigerated cake doesn't seem so dry, especially when combined with the creamy chocolatey frosting. And the flavors meld as well.

CEiMB: Waldorf Chicken Wraps

2009-09-04T04:36:00.009-06:00

This weeks Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was chosen by Jessica at Johnstone's Vin Blanc. I realized as I read through the recipe that although I have heard often of Waldorf Salads, I have never actually made or eaten one! I'm not sure how that came to be ... I suppose it is not the kind of meal that I would order in a restaurant, and I seldom make meat based salads at home ... so it was a great opportunity to try something new.

Waldorf Chicken Wraps
2006, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

Serves: 5 servings

Preface:

I used my own home made yogurt, which didn't need much draining.

I can't buy Dijon mustard here, so I substituted regular mustard.

I used dried thyme instead of fresh.

I forgot to order grapes to be brought into my local tienda when I ordered the wraps, so I substituted raisins at the last minute.

Walnuts are another food item that is difficult to find here, and outrageously expensive when you do find it .. so I substituted toasted peanuts.

Romaine lettuce is sometimes available in the market, but it wasn't this week. Besides, I have that tender small-leafed spinach growing in my garden, and some fresh basil left in the refrigerator to use ... so I chopped them and mixed them together.

I tried to get larger wraps, to no avail. I'm not a big fan of store-bought breads, but have never learned to make my own wraps, so I seldom eat them.

Ingredients:

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt or 3/4 cups nonfat Greek-style yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon minced thyme
1 pound cooked, skinless chicken breast cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup seedless grapes, sliced in 1/2
1/4 cup toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts
1 medium apple, cored and diced (about 3/4 cup)
Freshly ground black pepper
5 large leaves Romaine lettuce, rinsed and patted dry
5 whole-wheat wraps, about 8 inches in diameter

Instructions:

If using regular yogurt place the yogurt in a strainer lined with a paper towel. Put the strainer over a bowl and place in the refrigerator to drain and thicken for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the thickened or Greek-style yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt and thyme until smooth. Fold in chicken, grapes, walnuts and apples. Season with pepper.

Place 1 lettuce leaf on a wrap.

Spoon about 3/4 cup of the chicken filling onto wrap ...

and roll wrap around filling.

Verdict:

The flavor of the salad itself was excellent, although it was different than the original recipe, mostly because of the basil, which I thought was an excellent addition. I served it with avocado slices on the side ... not only is avocado great with sandwiches of any type, but we are smack in the middle of avocado season, and I am taking full advantage of its delicious inexpensive availability

One of the things I have grown to love about Ellie's recipes is the layering of the flavors and textures ... it seems that new exciting bursts of taste explode in my mouth at each bite. The peanuts for walnuts substitution worked perfectly ... the crunchy flavor of peanuts leaping in between the sweet apple and peppery chicken added an ideal contrast. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the grapes more than the raisins, but the raisins certainly didn't detract. I would have enjoyed it served more as a salad, mostly because I find the store-bought wraps kinda doughy and flat tasting. Also, the small sized wrap was not large enough to pile on a good amount of filling and still wrap it closed to eat in your hands. In short, I would serve it again, and I would use the same combination of greens, but I would serve it as a salad instead of a wrap.

CEiMB: Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

2009-08-28T14:55:00.017-06:00

I seem to be preparing and eating a lot of dishes with peanut butter based sauces these days .... and I don't mind at all! Trends seem to go in waves in the blogging world. I was thrilled to see that our Craving Ellie in My Belly event this week, chosen by The Tortefeasor, was this fantastic sounding Chicken Sate with a Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce.

Chicken Saté with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce
2006 Ellie Krieger, All Rights Reserved

Preface:

I halved the recipe since there are only two of us to eat it.

I used home made chicken stock and home made peanut butter.

The coconut milk was not "lite"

The soy sauce was not "low sodium"

I actually had "Thai fish sauce"!! I saw it while shopping in Canada, and bought a bottle to bring back with me. Until now, when a recipe called for fish sauce, I had been using dried small fish that I had found in the market, figuring that would give the right bit of flavor.

I don't have a "grilling pan", so I dug out our barbecue.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup lite coconut milk
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 shallot, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons Thai fish sauce (or 2 additional teaspoons low sodium soy sauce)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast pounded slightly and cut into 1-inch strips

Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon red curry paste
1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Sauce can be made 1 day ahead of time, and will keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.

Instructions:

8 (8-inch) bamboo skewers, soaked for 20 minutes

(I just threw them in the pila)

3/4 cup Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce, recipe above
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or cilantro leaves
1/4 cup chopped toasted peanuts

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the chicken stock, coconut milk, soy sauce, shallot, garlic, fish sauce, brown sugar, lime zest, and ginger.

Add the chicken strips and marinate for 1 hour. (Be sure not to leave too long).

Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.

Spray a nonstick grill pan with cooking spray and preheat over a medium-high flame. (I used our barbecue).

While pan is heating, thread chicken onto skewers.

Grill 2 to 3 minutes per side, until meat is cooked through and has light grill marks.

Serve chicken skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce, and garnish with basil or cilantro and chopped peanuts.

Yield: 4 servings (2 skewers and 2 tablespoons peanut sauce per serving)

Verdict:

Delicious. The sauce made the dish.

BB: BBD: White Pizzas with Arugula

2009-08-28T12:40:00.009-06:00

This will be my first post for Barefoot Bloggers, a twice monthly event that features recipes by Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa). The recipe for this period was supposed to be posted yesterday, but a typical pounding jungle storm cut our satelite service for the day, so I'm a bit late. The recipe was chosen by Andrea of Nummy Kitchen. Not only have I never made pizza from scratch, but I am not really a big pizza fan, and I wouldn't in a million years have ever thought of making a pizza with a "greens" topping. It sounded great, though ... kinda like a salad with the croutons on the bottom ... and I have been looking forward to it all week.

AND I also want to submit this to Bread Baking Day, a once monthly event that is hosted this month by Nick and Sara of I'm a Food Blog. The topic is "Something New", and although I have eaten lots of pizza over the years, the availability of great, inexpensive pizzas for ordering out, combined with a family full of cheese intolerances, and my own idea that making a pizza crust was too difficult, has kept me from making my own pizzas. So this is a "first" for me.

White Pizzas with Arugula

Preface:

Arugula does not exist in Petén, and I have still not grown any, so once again I turned to my garden to see what would work instead of arugula. I happily decided on some cilantro and pretty well my entire crop of Swiss Chard,

and added some of the basil leaves that I had left in the refrigerator.

I buy my yeast in 1 lb packages, and have no idea how much is in one of those little envelopes, so I used 1 TB.

I used some of my doncella honey, figuring that its lemon-y sweetness would back up the flavors of the greens.

No fresh thyme anywhere ... so I used a couple of dried bunches to flavor the oil, then removed them.

Cheese here is limited in range, expensive and, for the most part, tasteless. I bought two bags of cheese blends, and for a bit of flavor, mixed a chopped roasted red pepper into a small container of cream cheese for the base. In the end, I used much less cheese than the recipe called for.

I was happy to see that this recipe uses lemon ... and we are in lemon season ....

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110) water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
Good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
Kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, sliced
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

For the topping:

3 cups grated Italian fontina cheese (8 ounces)
1 1/2 cups grated fresh mozzarella cheese (7 ounces)
11 ounces creamy goat cheese, such as montrachet, crumbled

For the vinaigrette:

1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces baby arugula
1 lemon, sliced

Instructions:

Mix the dough.

Combine the water, yeast, honey and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.

When the yeast is dissolved, add 3 cups of flour, then 2 teaspoons salt, and mix on medium-low speed.

While mixing, add up to 1 more cup of flour, or just enough to make a soft dough.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with the flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

Knead by hand.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic.

Let it rise.

Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Make garlic oil.

Place 1/2 cup of olive oil, the garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn't burn.

Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. (Be sure your oven is clean!)

Portion the dough.

Dump the dough onto a board and divide it into 6 equal pieces.

Place the doughs on sheet pans lined with parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Stretch the dough.

Press and stretch each ball into an 8-inch circle and place 2 circles on each sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature.)

Top the dough.

Brush the pizzas with the garlic oil, and sprinkle each one liberally with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with fontina, mozzarella and goat cheese.

Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon more of the garlic oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crusts are crisp and the cheeses begin to brown.

Make the vinaigrette.

Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Add the greens.

When the pizzas are done, place the arugula in a large bowl and toss with just enough lemon vinaigrette to moisten. Place a large bunch of arugula on each pizza and a slice of lemon and serve immediately.

Verdict:

Excellent! Delicious!! I will make these again ... and I will use this pizza dough recipe to make other types of pizzas. The next time, I will make the crusts thinner, and I will use Greek yogurt with the cream cheese to make a thicker base of creamy cheese at the bottom (rather than using more cheese, which isn't really good for me). I'm glad I blended the roasted red pepper into the cream cheese ... it added another subtle layer of flavor. I was more than satisfied with this blend of greens ... the flavors really accent each other ... and it was a great feeling to be eating greens that I grew myself.

Kitchen Toys

2009-08-20T12:16:00.005-06:00

Can anyone guess what this is?

Hint: its really old and yes, it belongs in the kitchen.

Did you guess before you looked?

Its a hand meat grinder.

And this one is special to me because it has been handed down from my grandmother Carroll ... to my mother ... and now to me. My Mom gifted me with it when I was home visiting with her in June.

This type of meat grinder was manufactured by James Osborne Spong, who started a small family business in 1856 in London, England to make economic household utensils. Apparently his line of grinders for coffee and meat were of excellent quality, since a quick google search shows that lots of people are still using the original ones. This one is very small .... only a few inches high ... but works perfectly.

I have wanted a good hand meat grinder for ages. The only ground meat I can buy here is ground beef ... and I would often prefer to cook with other ground meats. I hope to use it in these next days for a dish I am ready to prepare.

CEiMB: Grilled Thai Beef Salad

2009-08-20T04:52:00.022-06:00

We don't eat salads nearly often enough. Salads are not at all popular in the jungle. Soups are, surprisingly for this hot climate, almost universally served instead of salads. When salads are served here, they are usually salads that aren't based on any type of lettuce or greens ... salads like carrot salads, beet salads, cucumber salads, tomato salads ... you get the idea. Lettuces aren't generally available here to buy, and those that are, are often small, soft and wilting heads of iceberg lettuce, that even on their best day, don't inspire a salad.

I love green salads. A big bowl of fresh green leaves makes such a perfect palette for a changing variety of toppings and tasty dressings. To this end, I am learning to grow green things in my garden. And fortunately, a few of those things, notably the cilantro and the "jungle spinach"* were ready to harvest. What better way to use them than in this special salad, chosen this week for the Craving Ellie in My Belly event by Jenn of Jenn B's Cooking Carveout.

I left it up to the universe as to what kind of lettuce I would find in the market, and luck was with me ... I found a head of not-too-rusty, curly, loose leaf lettuce AND a big handful of fresh basil!!

Grilled Thai Beef Salad
2007 Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

4 servings (1 serving is about 2 1/2 cups salad)

Preface:

For a variety of reasons, beef here is not that great ... and the chances of anyone knowing what the Spanish equivalent of a "top-round London broil" is, is pretty slim, so I decided to substitute another meat for the beef. I had decided on chicken, but remembered that I had a pork loin in the freezer that needed to be cycled, and I thought that it would work just fine.

The recipe calls for limes ... but I had a lemon just ready to fall off of the lemon tree (and I don't even have a lime tree), so I figured that it would substitute without changing the overall effect too much.

I once again used panela instead of brown sugar.

Red curry paste is not available here either. I checked for a recipe online and have decided to make some and keep it stored in the freezer for recipes like this ... but for today, I decided to use a few drops of Marie Sharp's Habanero Sauce to give a hint of hot.

Ingredients: Meat Step:

1 pound top-round London broil or flank steak, about 1 to 1 1/2-inches thick
3 tablespoons lime juice, divided
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons red curry paste or chili-garlic sauce

Ingredients: Salad Step:

1/2 head red-leaf lettuce, torn (about 6 cups)
3 shallots, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup), divided, for garnish
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, rinsed and dried
1 cup basil leaves, sliced into ribbons

Instructions:

Rinse and pat the meat dry. Place in a sealable plastic bag or small glass dish. In a medium bowl combine 1 tablespoon of the lime juice, soy sauce, canola oil, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and red curry paste. Pour half the mixture into the bag with the meat.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons lime juice to the bag.

Seal tightly, and marinate meat in refrigerator at least 4 hours or overnight, turning occasionally. Reserve the rest of the mixture refrigerated, to dress the salad.

Spray grill or grill pan with cooking spray and preheat. Grill steak until medium-rare, about 5 minutes per side, depending on desired doneness. (I pan-fried the pork tenderloin)

Let rest until room temperature

Combine lettuce, sliced shallot, cilantro and basil (and the spinach leaves) in a salad bowl, reserving a few shallots for garnish.

Add the reserved dressing and toss to coat.
Cut meat across the grain

And place over salad in large bowl ...

Or, arrange salad on 4 plates and garnish with reserved sliced shallots.

Verdict:

I was enchanted with the flavors of the various greens (particularly the basil ... I never thought to add basil leaves to my salads before) melded with the asian taste of the dressing. I served the salad with avocado, which we have right now in great glorious abundance, and it accompanied perfectly. I am not a big fan of meat unless it is very soft and practically melts in your mouth ... and although the pork tenderloin that I used was incredibly well flavored, it was just a bit too chewy for my tastes. E. is not a salad eater at all ... yet he finished his entire salad! Now that really says something! I will definitely be making this again, except with chicken breast instead of the pork (or beef).

Thanks to Jenn of Jen B's Cooking Carveout for an excellent pick this week! This recipe will definitely provide an excellent improvement to our diet by enabling me to serve more leafy green vegetables.

CEiMB: Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2009-08-06T17:20:00.014-06:00

About 30 years ago I developed a recipe for bran muffins and for carrot cake that were so great that I have not only made them unchanged ever since, but I've made them and sold them here in my little jungle community. However, I've never tried the carrot cake as muffins, and this recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes sounds like an interesting cross between my muffins and my carrot cake. Thanks to Leanne at Enjoying My Favorite Things, who was the hostess this week and chose them, I get to try them for this weeks Craving Ellie in My Belly event.

Like Leanne, I too have had a bit of a problem with electricity that I hoped would have resolved itself before I had to start cooking. However, it was not to be. This all started 13 days ago when the electric company sent around a couple of workers to cut the branches around the electric wires. I realized later, after the neighborhood sprang into electronic life, that I had no power. I phoned the electric company, but all they could do was put in a report. Two reports and 5 days later, I had a call from a man from the electric company who said he would be over by 4 p.m. He never showed. He finally arrived 2 days later. I was willing to overlook his tardiness in the excitement of finally getting electricity again, when I discovered that he wasn't going to repair it ... he was just going to inspect it ... and write a report! Well, that was 6 days and another phoned-in report ago ... and still no one from the electric company has shown up to reconnect my line!

Anyway, it is possible to cook without electricity ... its just not easy. It's not about doing everything by hand, its about engineering a complicated network of extension cords (hooked into the neighbor's electricity) that can be unplugged here and plugged in there, giving me off-and-on connectivity for the refrigerator, the laptop, one table lamp, the microwave, the toaster, the food processor, the mini-blender, the immersion blender ... fortunately, I have a propane stove!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (optional Cream Cheese Frosting)
2005, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

Preface:

I decided to treat these as muffins ... no frosting ... not only was I unable to buy cream cheese, but I figured I could do without the added dairy products and sugar.

The recipe asks for finely grated carrots ... I chopped them into cubes and tossed them into my mini-blender/chopper ... fast and perfect.

Apples aren't a jungle fruit, and are usually imported and very expensive here, but by luck, I found Guatemalan Highlands cooking apples in the market this week and they made a delicious natural apple sauce.

Whole wheat flour is non-existent in Peten, so I buy bran and mix it with the regular white flour.

I used an extra half cup of grated carrots (they were already grated ... and I always add extra to my carrot cake with sensational results).

I used grated panela (which is sugar cane molasses boiled down to hard bricks) instead of light brown sugar. I use panela for most of my baking because it is more natural than white sugar, and its purchase helps the campesino people.

I didn't sift the dry ingredients because of the bran, which would have been sifted right out of the mixture.

Walnuts are another rare/expensive item so I substituted crushed pepitoria (squash seeds).

Serves: 10 cupcakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup natural applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
4 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese (recommended: Neufchatel)
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the first 6 ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs until well combined.

Whisk in the applesauce, vanilla and carrots.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

(For topping)
With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. The cupcakes should be stored in the refrigerator.

Verdict:

Delicious! Light, fluffy, moist and flavorful.
It was too dark to take a photo when we ate them ... I'll take one tomorrow when I don't need indoor lights.

Friday: So far we've eaten these muffins with butter, with yogurt, with ice cream, and just straight up ... and they are superior in every situation. The underlying hint of freshness from the apple sauce is like a surprise in your mouth ... I think that the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting would be the final perfect touch. I highly recommend these.

BBD: Accidental Mango Coffee Bread

2009-07-31T13:57:00.008-06:00

Bread Baking Day is hosted this week by Hefe und mehr.

It has been an interesting process preparing a post for Bread Baking Day this month. After a busy month getting back into the "flow", I began the process late. Then, as I discovered later, I had been reading outdated information, and thinking that this month was for "small breads", so I went through the recipes I have been saving to find the one for Hot Dog / Hamburger Buns that I had been wanting to try. I laid out all the ingredients that were listed in the recipe, and began the preparation. I mixed together all the wet ingredients and yeast in one bowl, and as I began adding the dry ingredients, I realized that the recipe's ingredients had left out the 3 cups of whole wheat flour that was needed in the recipe. I didn't have any more white flour, and I would normally use a mixture of white flour and bran to make the required amount of whole wheat flour. I could have set everything aside and gone to the local store for a couple of pounds of flour, but then I remembered a bag of special flour that a friend, who owns a cookie baking business, had brought for me. I did note on the label that the floury mixture was made up of several different biodynamic ingredients, but since whole wheat flour seemed to be at the head of the list, I didn't put too much attention to exactly what was in it. As I reached the point where the "dough" should be forming up, it was still a "batter" ... so I tasted it. It was delicious ... and SWEET!! Very sweet! I realized immediately that this mixture was not destined to become sandwich buns

Accidental Mango Coffee Bread

So, I re-read the list of ingredients in the bag of "flour" and sat down to figure out what I could possibly do with a "sweet bread batter" ... and it came to me ... A COFFEE CAKE!! I remembered that I had 4 fresh mangoes in the refrigerator that I wanted to use up ... so I diced them up to use as a filling. I greased the pan well ... spread a layer of the "bread batter" over the bottom of the pan, put a good thick layer of diced mangoes over the batter, sprinkled a mixture of grated panela (real brown sugar in a block) and cinnamon over the diced mangoes, then added spoonfuls of batter over the top of the mixture.

I decided to let it rise for about an hour (it did have yeast in it, after all) and then I baked it at 350' for about 45 minutes ...

WOW ... it was really tasty! Its too bad that I could never duplicate the recipe.

Meanwhile, I didn't realize yet that Bread Baking Day this month calls for "Sweet Breads" and went ahead and blogged the OTHER bread that I made after this one made its unexpected "transition" (I went out to buy more flour) ... then when I went looking for today's Bread Baking Day event, I discovered my error BUT ... I could hardly believe my good luck ... all was not lost .. I still had this incredible Mango Coffee Bread to post.

As I began trying to upload the first picture I noticed that the process wasn't completing and that none of my webpages were loading ... I did a quick check and ... sure enough ... someone in our library in the morning had downloaded over the Hughesnet restrictions and our internet connection is now 90% shut down for 24 hours.
So, after all, I am not going to be able to finish my post before the end of July. However, all of the pictures that you would normally be seeing in this spot will be posted tomorrow after our penalty has been lifted.

(Saturday Note .... our restrictions have been lifted and I am now able to upload the photos for this blog entry).

Easy, Perfect Homemade Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns

2009-07-31T05:02:00.012-06:00

I wanted to participate in Bread Baking Day (BBD) this month and a week ago I checked online to find the topic and somehow I got the idea that it was "small breads" (now that I look closer, I see that "small breads" was on the menu for August 2008!). So, I made small breads. That is not necessarily a bad thing ... I have wanted to find a great bun recipe that I could use for sandwiches (or hot dogs or hamburgers, but we don't eat them often) for quite some time. One of the Craving Ellie recipes that I missed is for Lobster Roll, and I wanted to use my own home made rolls for it, so this gave me the incentive to read through a pile of recipes for the "perfect" hamburger/hot dog bun ... and try out this one that, yes, could possibly be the most perfect sandwich bun of all!

I found what I consider (albeit with somewhat limited experience) to be the perfect recipe (after all, that is what the blog title said) at Baking Delights by Marye Audet.

Easy, Perfect Homemade Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 1/2 cups flour (unbleached, whole wheat, or a mix)
1 package instant yeast
1 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, room temperature

Instructions:

Heat the milk, water, honey and butter until butter is melted. Check temperature. Depending on the temperature, let cool to 120F. Carefully beat in egg.
Mix 2 cups of the flour, yeast, and salt. Mix into the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition.
When the dough pulls together, (it will form a soft ball) turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes.
Divide dough into 12 -16 equal pieces. This will depend on the size you want for the finished bun. Shape into smooth balls, flatten slightly, and place on a silpat covered baking sheet.

If you are making hot dog buns, the author found it easiest to roll the dough out into a large rectangle and cut into smaller rectangles. Let rise with sides touching.
You can brush the tops with egg wash

and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse sea salt, or whatever you like. You can add dry onion soup mix for onion rolls. These are very versatile!

Let rise for 30 to 35 minutes. When buns have almost doubled bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes 12-16

I made 6 hamburg style sandwich buns and we almost immediately heated a couple up for sandwiches of turkey ham, tomatoes and cheese ... and they were perfect ... not heavy and hard to chew with the ingredients of the sandwich.

And I made 6 hot dog buns, so I would have some to make the Lobster Roll recipe.

Verdict:

These were definitely the best home made hot dog and hamburg buns that I have tried so far ... so good that my search has ended and I will now be using this recipe for all my sandwich buns needs. I found them light enough to eat with heavy meat fillings. They had a fine grained texture and an excellent "background" flavor to enhance any sandwich filling.

CEiMB: Oven Baked Onion Rings

2009-07-23T14:42:00.014-06:00

I began participating in the "Craving Ellie in My Belly" event so that I would be motivated to create and blog at least one new recipe each week ... and now I am making these recipes because they are so incredibly delicious! Every one I have tried so far has been a taste sensation at the table. The recipes that I've missed making for the weekly event, are lined up to try as soon as I am able. Today's choice of Oven Baked Onion Rings by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen was another winner.

I made some substitutions in the ingredients ...

I used home-made yogurt instead of buttermilk.
I used regular potato chips instead of "baked" potato chips.
and I used regular onions instead of vidalia onions (I only wish I could get vidalia onions!!)
Just as a note, I don't usually own "cooking spray" ... that is one of the additions to my larder (along with balsamic vinegar) that was made possible by the opening of a local Walmart. At the rate that I use it, this one can will last me for a few years yet.

Oven Baked Onion Rings
2007, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

4 side-dish servings

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
4 cups baked potato chips
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 to 2 large Vidalia onions, peeled

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Spray a baking sheet slightly with oil and set aside.

Place potato chips in the bowl of a food processor and process into crumbs, about 20 seconds.

Transfer to a shallow bowl, add cayenne, and set aside.

In another bowl, combine buttermilk (or yogurt), 2 tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper and set aside.

Slice onions into 1/2-inch circles and separate into rings, keeping only large, whole rings (reserve rest of onions for other uses). You should come out with about 12 to 14 rings.

Place the remaining flour in a sealable plastic bag, then add onions, and shake to coat.

Dip onions 1 at a time into the buttermilk mixture, then dip into potato chip crumbs and place on baking sheet.

Spray canola oil evenly over rings and bake for 20 minutes, or until coating is crisp.

Season with salt, to taste, and serve immediately.

Verdict:

I had company here for lunch, and served the Onion Rings with Linguini w/ Cilantro Pesto and ... well ... we ate them all! They were excellent. The only thing they lacked was a good dip ... we all agreed that a ranch style dip would have finished off the flavor of the dish perfectly. In the absence of that, I served mayonaise with the Onion Rings and we were all quite satisfied with the result. I would like to experiment a bit with the coating ... I'm sold on the yogurt part of it ... it gave a fantastic flavor. But I'm thinking to TRY with bread crumbs (maybe that excellent coating that was on the fish sticks) or with cracker crumbs. I liked the bite of the cayenne.

CEiMB: Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce

2009-07-16T13:54:00.003-06:00

I was really looking forward to getting back into my weekly "Ellie" recipe, since I have fallen so far behind these last weeks, what with visiting in Canada, followed up by running a Solar Oven Workshop right after returning to the jungle. However, between the complications of changing from an old PC desktop to a new Mac Book Pro ... combined with an ongoing problem uploading photos since we put in a wireless internet system for all of Project Ix-canaan, my best intentions have been thwarted again, and my posting is really late.

Today's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was chosen by Supplicious. I knew just by reading the ingredients, which sounded kinda "Thai" to me, that it would be a flavor that I would love. I changed a few things from the original recipe ... well, maybe more than a FEW things ...

I used regular linguini, since that is all I had.
I used guisquil, carrot and red pepper with the brocoli, since it is almost impossible to find snow peas or snap peas here.
I used my own home made peanut butter.
I used panela in place of brown sugar (real raw sugar that the sugar can producers make here and sell in blocks)
And at the last minute (after the photos were taken) I decided to add a cubed chicken breast to the recipe as well, since Enrique prefers meat in his meals and I knew I was already pushing the envelope with the "Thai" flavorings.

Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce
2005, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved

6 Servings

Ingredients:

3/4 pound spinach linguine or whole-wheat spaghetti
2 cups (about 9 ounces) broccoli florets
2 cups (about 6 ounces) snow peas, trimmed
2 cups (about 6 ounces) sugar snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 scallion, cut into pieces
3/4 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup shelled unsalted peanuts ... toasted in a dry pan until fragrant

Instructions:

I took some liberties with the instructions as well as the ingredients ... so I will write mine here ... you can check with the online recipe to see how Ellie made this dish.

First I made the sauce by pureeing the peanut butter, soy sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, scallion, ginger, sugar and red pepper flakes in my mini-blender.

until smooth....

I decided to stir-fry the vegies instead of steaming them ... guisquil and red pepper first ...

then I added the broccoli ...

the carrot shavings ...

and the cubes of chicken breast ...

I mixed the chicken in with the vegies ..

and added a few spoonfuls of the peanut sauce ...

and covered to steam to desired done-ness (in my case, a bit beyond desired doneness).

Ladle the vegetables over the cooked pasta.
Top with the sauce.
Coarsely chop the peanuts, sprinkle them on top and serve.

Verdict:

I will steam the vegies less the next time I make this dish ... however, the flavor was superb. I particularly liked the crunch of the toasted peanuts. I will very happily make this again.

Read more about the Craving Ellie in My Belly weekly event, and see what the other adventurous cooks have produced.

Marg's Dilled Haddock

2009-06-20T03:26:00.009-06:00

with Savory Polenta and Balsamic Baked Peppers on a Bed of Fresh Cilantro.

Doesn't that sound like a dish you would order in a high end restaurant? It not only sounded like it ... it tasted like it as well!

Last weekend I was invited to dinner by a long-time (over 30 years!) friend. Marg had recently finished a course in "Hotel and Restaurant Management" and if the meal was any indication, the course was a huge success! This meal was so delicious, yet easy to prepare that I immediately decided I had to make it again for Mom and I at home.

Dilled Haddock

Ingredients:

1 haddock fillet, cut in portion sizes
chopped fresh dill (to taste)
salt and pepper
butter for sauteeing the fish
sour cream (not shown in picture)
Greek yogurt (not shown in picture)

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat. Place haddock fillets in the melted butter and sprinkle with fresh chopped dill and salt and pepper.

2. Saute the haddock fillets for a few minutes each side until fish flakes easily with a fork.

3. Remove fillets from pan and set aside. Add a mixture of half sour cream and half Greek yogurt to pan with the warm butter/dill mixture, and stir while heating gently.

4. Add fillets back to pan and continue heating gently.

5. Serve with Savory Polenta and Baked Balsamic Peppers on a Bed of Fresh Cilantro (recipes tomorrow)

Verdict:

The flavor of the haddock with fresh dill in sour cream was superb, and combined perfectly with the polenta and peppers. I loved it so much that I am planning to make it one more time before I leave New Brunswick (the land of fresh fish). I think it would be delicious using only the yogurt, but since I still have sour cream left, I will make it the same way.

CEiMB: Double Chocolate Pudding Pie

2009-06-12T04:50:00.005-06:00

I'm a bit behind on my posting of my Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe this week ... the small amount of computer time I can eke out while visiting family and old friends goes rapidly just by checking and answering the most important e-mails.

This week's recipe, picked by Tessa of Handle the Heat, is not only a dessert recipe, but one that just might make a great new addition to the Gringo Perdido menu ... so I was looking forward to making it and trying it. I read other comments saying that there weren't enough graham crackers in the recipe, so I upped them from 14 to 20. Then, I missed the instruction to bake the crust for 10 minutes :>( which resulted in a slightly gummy crust, but it was still very edible. I also used 2% milk since that is what Mom had in the refrigerator, and besides, I'm not convinced that cutting back so far on fats is necessary for good health or weight loss.

Double Chocolate Pudding Pie
From The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:

14 graham cracker squares (7 full sheets)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup sugar, plus 1/2 teaspoon
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups 1 percent low-fat milk
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.

In a food processor, process the graham crackers until finely ground. Add butter and water and process until the crumbs clump together. Press the crumb mixture into bottom of pie plate and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, then let cool.

In the meantime, make the pudding. Put the gelatin in a small bowl, add the boiling water and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan mix the 2/3 cup of sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt.

Gradually add half of the milk, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the rest of the milk. Turn the heat on to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Stir in the vanilla and reserved gelatin.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust and let set for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Whip the cream and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Before serving, garnish the pie with the whipped cream.

Verdict:

It was excellent ... a rich creamy chocolate pudding flavor! I think that I could actually cut down a bit further on the sugar and use coconut milk in place of at least part of the regular milk ... an experiment I plan to try when I return to Guatemala. And the next time, I will remember to bake the crust first!

For more information about Craving Ellie in My Belly or to see the other Double Chocolate Pudding Pie creations, go here.

BBD: Whole Grain Bread with Ramon

2009-05-31T03:01:00.011-06:00

I've just discovered "Bread Baking Day" and since I use only home baked breads instead of store-bought (Guatemala is tortilla country), I thought this would be a great incentive for me to play around with different breads instead of cooking the same tried and true recipe week after week. For the month of May, the theme of breadbakingday is Multi-grain Breads. When I arrived in New Brunswick last week, one of my first purchases was a multi-grain cereal, and I figured this would make an exceptionally great tasting bread. When I began rounding up the ingredients, I discovered, in Mom's pantry, a bag of Ramon flour that I had brought up with me last year, and I decided to include it for extra flavor and nutrition.

It took ages for me to find a recipe that I thought would be adaptable to the combination of whole grains with Ramon flour ... but I eventually found one that used bran (which I substituted for the whole grain cereal) and wheat germ (which I substituted for the Ramon flour) in The Bread Machine Cookbook". The description of the recipe says "Full of fibre yet moist and lush. Very good for breakfast". This sounded perfect.

Whole Grain Bread with Ramon

Ingredients:

PLUS the Ramon flour that I forgot to put in the photo above ...

Ingredients:

1 c milk
3 Tbsp. veg oil
2 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup ramon flour
3/4 cup multi-grain cereal
2 c white flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1. Combine yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water and the honey and set aside to proof.

2. Combine all dry ingredients.

3. Combine milk and vegetable oil

4. Add proofed yeast mixture to milk mixture, then add both to the flour mixture.

5. Mix well. Turn out on floured surface and knead well.

6. Leave in loosely covered bowl in warm place to rise.

7. When it has risen approximately double in size, punch down and leave to rise again.

8. When risen again, punch down, knead and shape into a loaf. Place in loaf pan and let rise again.

9. When ready, put in preheated 350 degree F. oven and bake for 45 minutes.

The Verdict:

I was called out during the last rising, and I think it could have risen more if allowed ... so it was a bit flatter than I would have liked ... however, that didn't affect the taste which was superb! The multi-grain cereal gave it a nice crunchy texture and the ramon flour added a subtle but unique flavor. As the recipe promised, it was moist and lush fresh from the oven ... we ate it with baked beans for dinner ...

and toasted with home made red currant jelly for breakfast ...

(and that was the best!!)

Fiddleheads

2009-05-30T06:58:00.001-06:00

Fiddleheads are a local delicacy that appears fresh on the market for only a short time each year. They are a type of fern that grows in the shady bogs and marshes in the spring when the water levels of the rivers and creeks goes down. My mother is from the Miramichi River area of New Brunswick, which is one of the most famous locations for finding fiddleheads, and during my younger years, we always made a special trip "over" in the spring to pick as many as we could find. What we couldn't eat fresh over the next few days, Mom would parboil and freeze, to pull out for special meals (and to make meals special) throughout the summer, fall and winter.

I've heard it said that fiddleheads taste something like asparagus, but with a pat of butter and a few drops of vinegar, I find they have a taste all their own. They are cooked like most other vegetables ... you clean off the bits of brown fern frond, soak them in cold water for an hour or so, then steam or boil in a small amount of water for 10 to 15 minutes until tender. They are a perfect accompaniment to seafood, particularly baked haddock with mashed potatoes which are also New Brunswick delicacies. I've been fortunate in arriving this year at peak fiddlehead time and although it has been many years since I have actually gone "fiddleheading", we have been able to buy as many as we can eat and freeze from local roadside vendors.

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

2009-05-30T03:59:00.009-06:00

A journey to southern New Brunswick would not be complete without a feast of scallops ... and although they are sweet and delicious when freshly shucked and raw (the way we used to eat them on the boat when my Uncle John had scuba dived for them) or just sauteed in butter, one of my favorite ways to eat them is wrapped in bacon and baked. My cousin Greg is visiting from "out west", and was missing seafood as much as I was, so he brought over enough to treat us all for dinner and even did the cooking!

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Ingredients:

Bacon (strips cut in half)
Scallops
"Peaches and Cream" Corn as side dish (optional)

Instructions:

Cook bacon until it is about 2/3 cooked

Wrap bacon around rinsed raw scallops and fasten with a toothpick.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes and serve with fresh steamed "Peaches and Cream" Corn and mashed or baked potatoes.

Verdict:

SUPERB! The partly cooked bacon ensured that the scallops didn't dry while cooking (one of the challenges of cooking scallops) and the flavor of the bacon enhances the taste of the scallops. The corn was a perfect accompaniment. I wouldn't change anything.

Scallop Eyes

The distinctive shaped scallop shell

CEiMB: Crispy Fish Fingers

2009-05-27T19:06:00.010-06:00

This is my week to choose the recipe for "Craving Ellie in My Belly" and since I am visiting Mom in New Brunswick, Canada, I decided to make something that would be native to this area and not easily obtainable in the jungles of Guatemala. Something that involved seafood seemed like a natural, so I perused Ellie's recipes with that in mind. I thought first of making something with shrimp or clams, but Mom isn't crazy about shellfish unless its lobster ... and I didn't know how easily other chefs could get lobster. (I, myself, will most definitely be eating at least one or two lobster rolls here before I go back). In the end, I decided on a favorite from my childhood, Crispy Fish Fingers, although in those days my "fish fingers" were called "fish sticks" and came frozen in a box.

On my way through Boston to get here, my sister-in-law gave me a couple of boxes of Panko Bread Crumbs to try (we can't get them in Guatemala), so I decided to do an experiment and coat half of the "Fingers" with Panko Bread Crumbs (I used the Pecan Panko Breading) and the other half with the home made crumbs that Ellie suggests.

I also substituted regular mustard for the Dijon which Mom didn't have in the house ... and haddock for the flounder.

Crispy Fish Fingers

2008, Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:

4 slices whole-wheat bread (1-ounce each)
Cooking spray
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound flounder fillets
2 eggs, beaten to mix
1/3 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
Pinch cayenne pepper, optional
Directions
Put the bread in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until bread crumbs form.

Toast the crumbs in a large, dry nonstick skillet over a medium-high heat, stirring frequently and breaking up the crumbs with a spoon if they begin to stick together, until crisp and golden, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray. On a plate, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Cut the fillets into 4 by 1-inch strips. A few pieces at a time, dip the fish into the flour mixture, dusting off the excess. Dip the fish in the egg and then the bread crumbs. Arrange on the baking sheet and continue until all of the fish is breaded.

Bake until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chives and cayenne, if using.

Season, to taste, with freshly ground black pepper and set aside until the fish is cooked.

Serving size: 6 pieces and 2 tablespoons sauce

Verdict:

I served them with mashed potatoes and cole slaw ... basicly a meal right out of my childhood.

After the 10 minute suggested cooking time, I didn't think they were cooked enough and put the back for another couple of minutes ... BIG MISTAKE. Ten minutes was obviously enough. They were somewhat dried out. Fortunately, the dipping sauce was excellent and went a long way to moistening them up.

Both types of crumbs were crispy and as near as Mom and I could tell, an unnoticable difference in flavor.

I will definitely make them again ... and the only difference I would make is to take them out of the oven after 10 minutes.

CEiMB: Thai-Style Halibut with Coconut-Curry Broth

2009-05-24T18:56:00.003-06:00

I was travelling from Guatemala to Canada last week and wasn't able to cook this recipe for publication on Thursday, but the recipe looked so interesting and received so many great comments (plus I love fish and am now in the land of fresh fish)that I decided to make it for Mom and I after I arrived. I picked up a couple of haddock filets and just before I began to cook, one of my brothers called and said he had bought some fish (also haddock) and fiddleheads to welcome me home, and was on his way with some of his family, to spend the day with us, so I decided to give this recipe the ultimate test and serve it to them all.

The recipe calls for both shallots and scallions, but in the local superstore all I could find were "green onions" which I think could also be called chives (I'm not really sure), so I cut them up and sauteed them for the sauce... and didn't add anything to the sauce at the end where Ellie calls for scallions.

I also decided to use red swiss chard instead of the spinach ... I like it better than most spinach and it was also cheaper!

Also, as I mentioned above, I substituted haddock for the halibut ... haddock has always been my favorite fish since I was a child and spent my summers fishing with Dad so Mom would have lots of haddock to freeze for our large family for the winter months.

Thai-Style Halibut with Coconut-Curry Broth

2006, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved
4 Servings

Ingredients :

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 shallots, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
2 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste*, or 2 teaspoons curry powder
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon, plus more for seasoning
4 (6-ounce) pieces halibut fillet, skin removed
Steamed spinach**
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice, for serving
Directions
*Available in the Asian section of most supermarkets

**Steam or microwave 5 cups of washed baby spinach for 2 minutes

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer until reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes.

Season the halibut with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Arrange the fish in the pan and gently shake the pan so the fish is coated with the sauce. Cover and cook until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 7 minutes.

Arrange a pile of steamed spinach in the bottom of 4 soup plates. Top with the fish fillets. Stir the cilantro, scallions, and lime juice into the sauce and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Ladle the sauce over the fish and serve with rice.

Verdict:

This dish was superb! Everybody cleaned their plates. The curry flavor wasn't strong at all, and the flavor perfectly suited the swiss chard.
Even Landon loved it when my niece, Chavah, mashed some up with his fiddleheads!

CEiMB: Chicken with Jerk Sauce and Cool Pineapple Salsa

2009-05-14T10:54:00.013-06:00

I probably would not have chosen to make this recipe myself ... mostly because E. doesn't like his food too hot and finds fruit with meat a little weird. However, I was glad to see it come up as the weekly Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe so I would have the excuse to try it for myself. This weeks pick was by Jenn from Notes From the Table.

I was also happy to note that the recipe contains THREE ingredients that I have growing in my garden ... hierba buena, which is not EXACTLY the "mint" that is called for in the recipe, but is more like a "spearmint" which a lot of of the local housewives grow in their "garden"; chives, which are also not exactly the "scallions" that are called for in the recipe, but I love to use things I have grown myself if absolutely possible (it makes me feel like a "pioneer") and I figured in this case it was close enough; and lemons, which are not EXACTLY the "limes" that are called for, but these lemons are green and I have still to find the difference between a green lemon and a lime.

I also thought this was the perfect opportunity to try the light, lemony Doncella Honey that I had bought recently from a travelling honey saleswoman.

One of the great things about Ellie's recipes is that they are so fast and easy to make. Taking the photos is sometimes more time consuming than producing the actual recipe!

Chicken with Jerk Sauce and Cool Pineapple Salsa

Recipe By: 2007, Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved
Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

For the salsa:
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 cup finely diced pineapple
1/3 cup finely diced ; seeded English cucumber
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

For the chicken:
4 teaspoons olive oil ; divided
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves ; about 5 ounces each, pounded to 1/2-inch thick
1 cup chopped scallions ; (about 6 scallions)
1/2 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile pepper ; seeded and finely minced (wear gloves when handling)
1 clove garlic ; minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger ; or 1/4 teaspoon ground
1 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice

Instructions

For the salsa:

In a small bowl whisk together the honey and the lime juice.

Combine the pineapple, cucumber and mint in a medium bowl, pour the dressing over and toss to combine.

Set aside.

For the chicken:

Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for about 4 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through.

Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil to the pan. Stir in the scallions, pepper, garlic, ginger, allspice, and thyme.

Cook for 30 seconds over a medium heat. Add the chicken broth and soy sauce and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lime juice.

(I somehow missed getting a photo of this step)

Put the chicken back in the pan and coat well with the sauce. (Since I forgot to flatten the breasts a bit before cooking them, I decided to actually put them back into the sauce and let them simmer for a few minutes).

Serve with the pineapple salsa.

Verdict:

I loved it! Shortly after starting to cook the chicken, I realized that I had forgotten to flatten out the breasts, and I was sorry that I hadn't. In the end, it probably didn't make a lot of difference, and it might have been the reason that the chicken was so juicy and moist. I served it with fluffy white rice which seemed to be the perfect backdrop for the exciting blend of flavors ... the coolness of the salsa with the spicy heat of the jerk sauce. But what is more surprising is that E. liked it as well ... he ate it all and said that yes, he would be happy to have it again!

To see how other bloggers are preparing this dish go to the Craving Ellie Blogroll.

Its Mango Season!!

2009-04-24T18:03:00.005-06:00

Once I start seeing the signs of the jungle summer, I know that mangoes are on their way. And when mango season hits the jungle, there is no mistaking it!!

Mangoes suddenly appear everywhere. There are mangoes in stall after stall in the market ...

Mangoes are sold from the backs of trucks parked all over town.

Housewives buy up cartons of them and set them up for sale on tables in every available spot ...

There are mangoes of every size, shape and color, like the golden Mango de Brea, recognizable by the stickiness of its skin (you can tell from the picture). The de Brea has juice like ambrosia, but its meat is full of fibres that make it almost impossible to cut and eat. Instead, we squeeze them all over with our hands until they are really mushy inside, then wash them and cut off a tip and suck the juice out. Wow ... what a refreshing snack!

Then there is the fat juicy Mango Mamey ... one of the more popular local brands. These are the ones I just bought a huge bag of.

There seem to be zillions of these small Mango de Coche (Pig Mangos, since they practically grow wild everywhere and are very common) around ... they are amongst the first to arrive in the marketplace and the last to finish.

And there are other mangoes that I still don't even know the names of ...

Needless to say, I am now looking for mango recipes.

Solar Cooking: The Oven

2009-04-23T11:21:00.010-06:00

In December of this past year, volunteer Dana Machovek of Alberta, Canada, donated a Sun Oven to Project Ix-canaan with the understanding that we would be able to use it to demonstrate solar cooking and run workshops in the village to build-your-own solar oven. Since we are now in the hot season, and we are finally getting some sunny days, I dug out the oven to get familiar with it.

The Sun Oven is fully portable ... it folds up into a light, small suitcase size which makes it easier to move in and out when in use.

The metal wings are really easy to flip open (and to close again after use) ... and the oven has a leg at the back to prop it up to get the best angle on the sun ... mostly for morning and evening. I don't really need it because the sun seems to be almost right overhead by the time it clears the trees in front of its location.

Inside, the unit is painted matte black and has a swinging shelf (easily removable for larger pots or bottles) to adjust the angle of the cooking pot if the leg is being used to angle toward the sun.

The temperature guage has been really handy for me while learning to use the Sun Oven. By experimenting, I am learning not only where is the best location in my yard to achieve higher temperatures, but how long it takes to achieve various temperatures at different times of the day. So far, on a hot jungle day (lets say easily 110'F.) in an unobstructed location, and paying attention to move the unit with the sun, I can keep a pretty steady 350'F from about 11 a.m. to about 2 p.m. I moved the oven to another location (closer to the kitchen), and we have been getting a lot of overcast skies the last couple of days from the smoke from the huge fires that are burning down the jungles, so my most recent experiments have been showing about 250'F throughout those hottest hours.

Here is the oven lined up with the morning sun ... about 9 a.m. ... as it comes through the trees that have all lost their leaves for the hot season. About every 1 to 1 1/2 hours I find it necessary to adjust the oven, rotating it to the right (south), for the movement of the sun.

I've been taking advantage of almost every sunny day for the last couple of weeks to do various experiments with different foods and recipes so that I know what will work, given all the local variables, to teach to the village women. Needless to say, I'll be running it all past the blogging community as I figure it out. Stay tuned ...

P.S I'm open to input from those with experience

Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach

2009-04-22T17:38:00.010-06:00

This is the first time I have participated in a "Craving Ellie in My Belly" event. I'm not sure how I heard about it, and I have never heard of Ellie Krieger or her cookbook before, but I really like the idea of creating one of her recipes each week along with several other food bloggers. If all of the recipes are as delicious as this first one was, we are going to be looking forward to it a lot each week! This weeks recipe was chosen by Marthe of Culinary Delights.

My very first entry is this yummy looking Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach dish. Of course, I had to make a couple of minor substitutions for things that aren't available here, but regardless, the end result was superb.

Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach

Recipe By: Ellie Krieger
Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic ; chopped (I added a bit more)
2 (8-ounce) boneless ; skinless chicken breasts, halved (I partially thawed two of the chicken breasts from my freezer before cutting in half)
8 ounces baby spinach (I substituted a local wild herb called "verdolaga")
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth (I used broth from my last baked chicken)
1 cup low-sodium canned chopped tomatoes with juice (We can't buy canned tomatoes here, which is great because I like cooking with fresh ... I peeled and chopped two rosy red tomatoes)
2 cups whole wheat couscous ; cooked (I have never seen couscous in Peten, so substituted white rice cooked with chopped onion and sweet red pepper)

Instructions:

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the chicken and cook about 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through and juices run clear.

Remove the chicken and set aside. To the same pan, add the spinach and cook just until wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from the pan and set aside. Lower the heat to medium and add the balsamic vinegar and chicken broth to the pan and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits.

Add the tomatoes,

bring to a simmer and cook 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the couscous (or rice) on plates.

Top with the spinach, (or verdolaga)

chicken

and balsamic-tomato sauce.

and ... TA-DA ...

The Verdict:

It was SUPERB! I was worried that the flavor of the balsamic vinegar wouldn't be strong enough for my tastes, but I found the more subtle back-flavor with the tomato much more appealing, and didn't add any extra at the table. The only change I might make is to add a bit more verdolaga (or whatever green one is using). I will most definitely be putting this on my "do again" list!

Check out "Craving Ellie in My Belly" for the list of other participants who have created this dish today, or to enroll to participate yourself.

Banana Chips

2009-04-19T15:23:00.006-06:00

I've bought banana chips many times when living in North America, but have never tried drying them out myself. Since I had such a huge volume of excellent bananas, I decided to give it a try.

I read somewhere that the banana pieces should be dipped in lemon juice to prevent browning, and I had luckily just picked up a giant lemon that had fallen out of the tree that hovers over my back door. I squeezed the juice from a couple of segments into a small bowl, and proceeded to dip, turn and dip each piece of banana.

Then, I turned on the dehydrator and started drying ....

After about 24 hours, it seemed like they were about half as dry as they should be, so I turned them over and continuted drying ...

and drying ...

and drying ....

Altogether, they were there for 4 days ... although I turned the dehydrator off for the last night, then in the morning thought they were still too moistly rubbery, so turned it back on again for several more hours.

Verdict: Once dried, the dozen bananas that I started out with nicely fit into a small container that I keep in the refrigerator. Even after all those hours of drying, they still seemed a little rubbery-moist to me, and I didn't want to take the chance that they would rot on these hot moist days.

The flavor is incredibly great ... a bit of a lemony tang to the compacted sweetness of a great banana! I'm still not sure how I will use them ... maybe to add to my cooked cereal ... I'll let you know.

Chico Zapote

2009-04-12T05:25:00.005-06:00

Summertime in the jungle is the time for fruit. They are all delicious and exotic, like the Chico Zapote fruit, which has always been one of my favorites.

The Chico Zapote is also known as the sapodilla.

According to Wikipedia ...

"The flavor of Chico Zapote is exceptionally sweet and very tasty, with what can be described as a malty flavor. The unripe fruit is hard to the touch and contains high amounts of saponin, which has astringent properties similar to tannin, drying out the mouth.

The Chico Zapote is a large ellipsoid berry, 4-8 cm in diameter, very much resembling a smooth-skinned potato and containing 2-5 seeds. Inside, its flesh ranges from a pale yellow to an earthy brown color with a grainy texture akin to that of a well-ripened pear. The seeds are black and resemble beans, with a hook at one end that can catch in the throat if swallowed."

The Chico Zapote tree produces a sap that is known as "chicle" and was the inspiration for Adams and the basis for the American chewing gum industry. You can feel the stickiness in the texture of the fruit as you eat it.

Banoffee Pie

2009-03-22T09:05:00.007-06:00

The first thing I wanted to do with these incredibly perfect bananas was to try a new dessert. There must be a zillion dessert recipes that you can make with bananas, but a couple of months ago a recipe for Banoffee Pie caught my attention. I had never heard of it before, so had to google it to get some background.

(from Wikipedia)
Banoffee pie (also spelled banoffi, or banoffy) is an English dessert made from bananas, cream and boiled condensed milk (or dulce de leche), either on a pastry base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Its name is a portmanteau constructed from the words "banana" and "toffee".

Credit for the pie's invention is popularly claimed by Ian Dowding and Nigel Mackenzie of The Hungry Monk restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex. They claim to have invented the pie in 1972, and the restaurant's exterior bears a blue plaque to that effect. The dish, with various stories of its source, spread, and in 1994 a number of supermarkets began selling it as an American pie, leading Dowding and Mackenzie to offer a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim.[1]

The recipe was originally revealed in 'The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk' in 1974 (now out of print). The recipe was reprinted in the Hungry Monk's later cookbook 'In Heaven with the Hungry Monk' (1997). Ian Dowding has since put his original recipe online because he is "pedantic about the correct version", and stated that his "pet hates are biscuit crumb bases and that horrible cream in aerosols".

My version is not exactly like the original version because I have used a crumb crust instead of a pastry crust.

Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 prepared pie crust
1.5 to 2 pounds of bananas
3/4 pint of heavy cream
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant coffee

Instructions

1. Make the toffee by boiling the unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in water to cover the can. (the best instructions I have found for doing this are copied below from the Ian Dowding website).

2. Whip the cream with 1 tsp. of sugar and 1/2 tsp. instant coffee.

3. Spread "toffee-ized" can of sweetened condensed milk over the base of the pie.

4. Cut bananas in half lengthwise and place over the toffee layer.

5. Spread whipped cream over the banana layer and sprinkle with coffee granules and sugar.

6. Refrigerate until ready to enjoy with a cup of herbal tea.

From the Ian Dowding website About Boiling the Cans of Milk:
Over the years I have become increasingly concerned about the danger of boiling cans of condensed milk. There is no danger of them exploding unless the water in the saucepan boils dry. If this does happen the result is terrifying and can scald anyone close to it. It has happened to me once and that was enough. Because I now teach and demonstrate a lot I like to make sure my instructions are safe so I have devised this method.

Find a deep saucepan or casserole that will go in the oven.
Put into it as many tins as will fit. (THE TINS MUST BE UNOPENED). It worth doing several at a time to save on power.
Cover the tins with water and bring to the boil.
Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven set to gas mark 1 / 140 C (less for fan assisted).
Cook for 3 ½ hours.
This way there is no danger of the water boiling dry and being in a more controlled temperature you get a more consistent result.
Lift the cans from the water, cool and store.
An unusual bonus comes from storing these tins over a period. After some months sugar crystals begin to form in the toffee and you get crunchy banoffi - mmmmm.

(at http://www.iandowding.co.uk/recipes/files/a96b1884215e21687c47e5889c6243ce-6.html)

Banana Season

2009-03-21T19:31:00.004-06:00

It seems like just yesterday that we harvested our first racim of bananas from the palm tree in our back yard, and here already is the second. We cut the racim just as the first of the bottom bananas were ripening, and hung it in our dining area. Before I knew it, I was hearing the "thump, thump, thump" of ripe bananas hitting the floor and I was not even barely prepared to use them up. We gave away the first few dozens as the penkos ripened, and by then, I had given the whole banana thing some thought and was ready to start cooking.

Meanwhile, growing my own bananas has brought questions to mind. For example, how many bananas are there in a penko? (A penko is what the local people call one group of bananas on the stem). How many penkos are there on a stem? Does that type of banana always have that same number of penkos and bananas?

This stem had 9 penkos (you can note from this photo that the 9th penko of bananas was stunted and green ... they never did develop) and exactly 17 bananas in EVERY penko. I asked around, but nobody could tell me if this type of banana palm would aways produce stems of 9 penkos with 17 bananas in each. There was a general consensus that other types of bananas (like manzanitas or majunches) would have a different number of both penkos and bananas per penko ... I will now be paying a lot of attention when I have the opportunity to observe a cut banana stem.

Chicken & Red Pepper Fettucini

2009-03-21T16:45:00.005-06:00

I've always loved a good fettucini with white clam sauce, but I've never been able to find clams here in Peten, so decided the other day to make a similar dish with chicken and sweet red peppers.

Chicken and Red Pepper Fettucini

Ingredients

2 tbs. butter
1 large garlic clove ; minced
1 tsp. salt
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 pint cream
2 chicken breasts
1 8oz. pkg. fettucini
1 sweet red bell pepper ; chopped
1 small onion ; chopped

Instructions

Cook noodles as directed on package.
Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and add the chopped onions and sweet pepper. Saute until vegies are wilting.

Slice chicken into small strips, and add to pan. Continue to saute until chicken is cooked through. Set aside.

For sauce, melt butter, add garlic clove, then add cream and parmesan. Blend well and cook till thickened.

Add chicken mixture to sauce.

Mix fettucini well with the chicken sauce mixture, top with a few chopped leaves of cilantro, and serve:

Verdict

Superb!! We both completely cleaned our plates.

Multi-Grain Cereal with Yogurt and Jungle Honey

2009-03-21T14:32:00.003-06:00

One of the foods that I have missed a lot since living here in the jungle is a good whole grain cereal to eat for breakfast. Since the closest thing I can find in the local stores is oatmeal or cream of wheat, I decided long ago that the only way to solve this lack was to figure out how to make it myself.

I began a few years ago looking and asking about the grains and seeds that are available in the market.

Over the years I tried various blends and ways of cooking, but it wasn't until recently, when I bought a Crock Pot, that I finally hit on a blend of grains and seeds and a procedure that would produce an excellent Multi-Grain Cereal.

Multi-Grain Cereal with Yogurt and Jungle Honey

Ingredients:

Wheat Berries
Barley
Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Flax Seeds
Corn Meal
Sesame Seeds
Cinamon
Almond slices
Raisins

Procedure:
N.B. Start this at night to have cereal ready for breakfast in the morning.

1. Put a handful of wheat berries and a handful of barley in a grinder / blender of some sort and blend for a couple of minutes. It is not necessary to grind them up completely ... I do it mostly to crack the hard grains up a bit so they cook easier.

2. Pour cracked grains into a 2 cup measure and start adding handfuls of the other grains one by one, finishing off with a good spoonful of cinnamon. I also happened to have this big bag of Nopal and Linaza that a volunteer left here recently, so I've been throwing in a couple of big spoonfuls of that for additional health and flavor benefits.

3. Pour the 2-cup measure of grains into a Crockpot. Add 4 cups of boiling water and stir.

4. DO NOT turn on the crockpot. Put the cover on and leave it soaking for the night. I leave the almonds and the raisins close by to have them handy in the morning.

5. At 4 a.m.(or 3 hours before you want to eat the cereal), add a handful or two of the almond slices and the raisins along with 2 more cups of boiling water. Turn Crock Pot to high and leave for 3 hours.

6. Spoon into bowl and top with a generous dollop of home made yogurt and a strong drizzle of raw jungle honey.

Verdict:

I have made it several times now and usually eat it several mornings per week for breakfast. I love it. I find it has a satisfying chewy whole-grainy kind of texture ... a bit of crunch from the almonds and seeds with a nice burst of sweet with the raisins. With a topping of creamy home made yogurt and hearty jungle honey, you can't find a more healthy breakfast.

New Kitchen Toys 2

2009-03-21T13:29:00.002-06:00

I have wanted one of these Immersion Blenders for ages. It looks so much easier to use than a blender, especially since you can take the blender to the food, rather than putting the food in the blender. I finally found the excuse to buy an Immersion Blender when I began learning soap making and discovered that this type of appliance is highly recommended for the small sized batches that I am working with. The biggest advantage is that you can do the blending in the main mixing bowl and you don't need to pour everything, batch by batch, into a normal blender. Finding an Immersion Blender here in the jungle, even with our new Walmart, was a bit of a challenge.

There were not a lot of different makes or models in Santa Elena to choose from ... as a matter of fact, we went to store after store asking for one ... miming the use of it for each salesman who gave us a totally blank look when we asked for an "immersion blender". I finally lucked out at the last possible store. After going through our usual mimed routine, the salesman's face lit up and he ran to find us the only one they had in stock! Fortunately, it is just what I need ... it is perfect!

This model comes with the handheld motor/blender that snaps easily and quickly onto its immersible blending unit or a small chopper. The blender stick blends well, as well as super fast and easy ... and the chopper is excellent for lots of small chopping and blending needs. The unit also includes a pitcher for blending liquids (definitely better than my blender for whipping up my fruit liquados). All the parts are easily cleaned and maintained. You will be seeing it appear in lots of upcoming recipes.

New Kitchen Toys 1

2009-03-21T09:54:00.002-06:00

I remember that I used to own a crock pot many many years ago when they were in vogue. I can't remember that I used it very often, probably because cooking in a crock pot requires foresight and planning, and I've always been a "last minute" kinda cook. I also don't remember being too impressed with what I did cook in it.

So why would I go out and invest in a new Crock Pot now??

Well, mostly because of Flylady (Google her if you don't know her) and menu planning. My goal is to simplify and de-stress (i.e. bring peace) to as many parts of my life as is possible, and menu planning is a big part of that. A crock pot, properly used, can be a huge asset to stress-free dinners. My goal is to learn how to use this new tool in a way that will simplify my day while providing delicious and nutritious meals. I don't have to use it every day, but I figure that if I have 8 or 10 great crock pot recipes (is that stretching it?), then I can add them once or twice to our weekly menu plan over the month. Over the next few months I will be experimenting with my Crock Pot and developing the best recipes for this medium and our lifestyle.

I bought a large crock pot, and I discovered later that bigger isn't always better when it comes to Crock Pots. Since they cook better if 3/4 full, and there are usually only 2 of us, it will make way too much. I will plan it for meals that I want to cook at least double (eat one freeze one), if not triple.

Honey of the Doncella Bee

2009-03-20T11:04:00.003-06:00

This almost colorless honey is from the Doncella Bees (as the local people call them) ... a type of jungle stingless honey bee that produces this light, lemony sweet honey that is prized amongst the jungle people as an antibiotic as well as a lung curative, a cure for eye problems and a general overall tonic.

Native meliponines have been kept by the lowland Maya for thousands of years. The traditional Mayan name for this bee is Xunan kab, literally meaning "royal lady". The bees were once the subject of religious ceremonies and were a symbol of the bee-god Ah-Muzen-Cab, who is known from the Madrid Codex.

The bees were, and still are, treated as pets. Families would have one or many log-hives hanging in and around their house.

This hive is one of four hanging from the eves of one of my neighbors.

Although they are stingless, the bees do bite and can leave welts similar to a mosquito bite.

The outlook for meliponines in Mesoamerica is grim. The number of active Melipona beekeepers is rapidly declining in favor of the more economical, non-indigenous Africanized Apis mellifera. The high honey yield, 100 kilograms or more annually, along with the ease of hive care and ability to create new hives from existing stock, commonly outweighs the negative consequences of "killer bee" hive maintenance. Furthermore, there are flora that the Africanized honey bees do not visit, such as those in the tomato family, and several forest trees and shrubs, which rely on the native stingless bees for pollination. There has already been a decline in populations of native flora in areas where stingless bees have been displaced by Africanized honey bees. An additional blow to the art of meliponine beekeeping is that many of the meliponine beekeepers are now elderly men and women, whose hives may not be cared for once they die. The hives are considered similar to an old family collection, to be parted out once the collector dies or to be buried in whole or part along with the beekeeper upon death. In fact, a survey of a once-popular area of the Mayan lowlands shows the rapid decline of beekeepers, down to around 70 in 2004 from thousands in the late 1980s. It is traditional in the Mayan lowlands that the hive itself or parts of the hive be buried along with the beekeeper to volar al cielo, "to fly to heaven"[citation needed]. There are conservation efforts underway in several parts of Mesoamerica.

Jungle Honey

2009-03-15T10:38:00.002-06:00

One of the great food advantages of living in the middle of the rainforest is the ready supply of inexpensive raw delicious honey.
I love the fact that this honey comes straight from the hive to a recycled bottle. The color can vary quite substantially depending on the location where it was produced and the type of bee that produced it. The ultimate, of course, is to have a hive in your back yard!