I’ve always been drawn to recipes where you can manipulate an ingredient into an object or shape that more accurately captures its essence. It’s why I love retro dishes like fighting lobsters (don’t they look like they should be fighting?) or deviled eggs (yolks sent to finishing school). It’s what attracted me to these Argentinian pastries filled with membrillo and shaped into flowers. Fresh quinces have always remind me of perfumed apples so it’s fitting that boiled down with sugar and tucked into pastry dough, they bloom. Continue reading ‘Pastelitos de Dulce de Membrillo’
Archive for the 'Bread/Baked Goods' Category
Pastelitos de Dulce de Membrillo
Published 22 July 2010 Argentina , Bread/Baked Goods , Breakfast/Brunch , Desserts , General 4 CommentsTags: Jonathan Norton Leonard, pastelitos de dulce de membrillo, pastries filled with quince paste, Time-Life Foods of the World: Latin American Cooking, pastelitos de mil hojas, membrillo, quince paste, pastelitos criollos
Domino Effect
Published 4 May 2010 Bread/Baked Goods , Cuba , Desserts , General , Miami 6 CommentsTags: Baking From My Home To Yours, Cuban dominos, Dominoes, Dominos, Dorie Greenspan, Guava Petits Fours with Lime Glaze, King Arthur Flour, Petits fours
I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my 200th post than with a game of dominoes. Growing up Cuban, we loved playing dominoes when we were kids. Our grandparents were happy to have us quiet and entertained for a couple of hours and we were happy to swirl the clacking tiles around the table, dunking oreos in milk between matches, and enjoying the late of hours of a Sunday afternoon. Then we got older and everything changed. Continue reading ‘Domino Effect’
Merengues con Chirimoya
Published 24 January 2010 Brazil , Bread/Baked Goods , Brooklyn , Country , Desserts , Ecuador , Peru , Spain 6 CommentsTags: Anna Pavlova, Cherimoya, Chirimoya, Custard Apples, Dulce de Leche, Manjarblanco, Mark Twain, Pavlovas, Yanuq
I’d been looking for a way to use chirimoyas since I came across them a few months ago in a nearby market. Originally found in the Andean region between Peru and Ecuador, they’re also cultivated in small pockets throughout Chile, California, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, and Israel. Heart-shaped and scaly, they could be a dragon’s paw and are almost as rare in my Brooklyn neighborhood, so I was excited when I found them. Also known as custard apples, they’re like everything and like nothing else. The fruit can be likened to strawberry, banana, pineapple, papaya, avocados, mango, ripe pears, and commercial bubble gum while Mark Twain described it more simply as “deliciousness itself.” Continue reading ‘Merengues con Chirimoya’
Pan de Yuca
Published 13 January 2010 Appetizers , Argentina , Brazil , Bread/Baked Goods , Breakfast/Brunch , Colombia , Ecuador , Light Lunch , Miami , Recipes Leave a CommentTags: Chipas, Ingrid Hoffman, Pan de queso, Pan de yuca, Pão de queijo, Simply Delicioso, Tapioca Starch, Yuca Harina
Though I’d love to have homemade rolls every day, I stay away from bread recipes for first thing. They never seem to rise and bulk up in the time promised. I wake up early and spend the morning nervously peeking at the dough I lovingly covered in its blanky and placed in a draft free place to no avail. One hour becomes two and there’s no breakfast in sight. By the time it’s done, I’m too cranky to really enjoy it. I didn’t get to sleep in yet the dough enjoyed a leisurely rise. When I came across pan de yuca or yuca bread in a Miami, I was curious. A combination of yuca flour (also known as tapioca starch) and cheese, it can be mixed and rolled as quickly as arepas then baked off. Continue reading ‘Pan de Yuca’
Estrellas de Chocolate
Published 15 December 2009 Bread/Baked Goods , Cookies , Cuba , Desserts , General 3 CommentsTags: Nitza Villapol, Chocolate Cookies, Cocina al Minuto, Peppermint, Gourmet Magazine, Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
I’ve become deeply suspicious of Cuban cookies. It’s not really the cookie’s fault. They’re just not what we do. Growing up, home baked cookies weren’t foreign but they did have the exoticism of something you’d mostly like get at a friend’s house. Tres leches, meringues, tocino del cielo, flan were home, toll house was not. The last couple of months, I’ve tried a few forgettable variations. I follow the recipes to the letter but cusubes elude me and my caballitos de queque were cinnamon drenched failures. This being the cookie season, I looked though all my Cuban sources for a new recipe that was traditional but workable. Many called for Crisco with 1950′s abandon while others were really turrones (blended with more Crisco). Continue reading ‘Estrellas de Chocolate’
Figure Eights
Published 6 December 2009 Argentina , Bread/Baked Goods , Colombia , Cuba , Desserts , Mexico , Puerto Rico , Spain 1 CommentTags: Anise, Arab, Buñuelos de Yuca y Malanga, Bunuelos, Bunyols de Quaresma, Catalunya, Christmas, Cocina al Minuto, Iberia, Malanga, New Year's Eve, Nitza Villapol, Oaxaca, Sephardic, Turkey, yautia, Yuca
There’s always a point when I finish a post and choose a country category that feels a little dishonest. Well not so much dishonest but not the whole elephant either. When I decided to write about Latin food, I knew that it would be a fuzzy focus and difficult to define. Buñuelos, fritters popular throughout Spain and Latin America, are a good example. Originally from the Iberian penninsula, they’re either Arabic or Sephardic, or maybe both. Typically made from a wheat-based dough that’s flavored with anise, they’re rolled into balls or discs and deep fried then topped with a syrup or honey. Continue reading ‘Figure Eights’
Elena Ruz
Published 28 November 2009 Bread/Baked Goods , Cuba , Light Lunch 1 CommentTags: Cuban sandwiches, El Carmelo, Elena Ruz, Havana, Havana Cafes, Roasted Turkey
The Elena Ruz sandwich always seemed a little out of place on the menu. A combination of roasted turkey, cream cheese and strawberry preserves, it floats alongside the heavier ham, lechon asado and cheese melds of Cuban lunch menus – lighter and prettier with a first and last name. Named for Elena Ruz, a Havana socialite who had the unusual combination made to order for her at El Carmelo. Then a fashionable cafe in the 1930s, it landed on the menu becoming a popular item. According to later interviews, her parents were scandalized to see a sign for “Sandwich Elena Ruz 25 centavos” on display, though as she pointed out the other sandwiches only went for 10 cents at the time. Continue reading ‘Elena Ruz’
Snow Days
Published 20 November 2009 Bread/Baked Goods , Breakfast/Brunch , Cuba , Desserts , Miami , Recipes 2 CommentsTags: Churrera, Churros, Cocina al Minuto, Nitza Villapol, Versailles Restaurant
Though it’s typically full, it’s rare to see a line outside of Versailles restaurant in Miami. It’s only on the rare cold night that it actually reaches capacity, especially when there’s a run on churros. Any day that dips below 65 becomes an impromptu holiday in a summer town, a Miami snow day of sprinkled sugar and fried dough. The lines form and the usual late night orders for medianoches and mariquitas become churros and hot chocolate.
I think it’s the special occasion quality I associate with churros that keeps me from buying them in New York (though I’d never pass them up in Madrid – I’m not crazy). Yesterday, deciding I needed a little Christmas now, I brought out the churrera, that my mother who hates to cook but loves kitchen gadgets sent, and my Continue reading ‘Snow Days’
Practical Packages
Published 18 November 2009 Basic Techniques , Bread/Baked Goods , Light Lunch , Spain 2 CommentsTags: A Taste of Old Cuba, Alhambra, Anya Van Bremzen, Empanadas, Empanadas de Pollo a la Moruna, Granada, Hernan Cortes, Maria Josefa Lluria de O'Higgins, Mexico City, Pastel Moruna, Puff Pastry, Sophie Coe, The New Spanish Table
With the holidays coming fast and furious, I had the uncharacteristically practical thought that it was time to make empanadas, an easy way to use leftovers. So sensible, but after a poor initial batch involving sirloin tips and too-buttery dough, I had to start from scratch. I was looking for something in a chicken, baked not fried, and maybe a little sweet. That’s when I found Anya Von Bremzen’s recipe for pastela moruna, Moorish chicken with dried fruits and Continue reading ‘Practical Packages’
Pan de Muerto
Published 1 November 2009 Bread/Baked Goods , Brooklyn , Mexico , New York Leave a CommentTags: Pan de Muertos, El Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, Ofrenda, El Museo del Barrio, Calacas, Imperial Silence: Una Opera Muerta, Los Cuatro Vientos, Halloween, Marilyn Tausend, Migule Ravego, Paula Solis, Cocina de la Familia: mas de 200 recetas auténticas, Brokelyn
I came across pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, a few months ago in the long stretch of Mexican bakeries and stores in Sunset Park. Placed on family altars for el Día de los Muertos (November 1 & 2) as an offering to their deceased loved ones, I asked everyone I knew how they’d celebrated in Mexico and whether they continued to do so in the States. For a population associated with movement and migration, it seemed a poignant combination between a spiritual observance and earthly tradition, very much tied to a time and place. Loved ones could be remembered and they’re favorite foods prepared for the ofrenda, almost anywhere, but a path of marigolds and candles couldn’t possibly reach from a Brooklyn apartment to a Mexican cemetery. Researching a piece for another site, I read Continue reading ‘Pan de Muerto’
