hungrysofia

Sep 21

Once Upon A Fig

There was a fig tree in the backyard of the house where my grandfather was born in Yaguajay, Cuba. I know this because he told me the story-often. Having moved with his family to Havana, he found himself in the province years later and decided to knock on the door of his old house. He asked the family living there if they had a fig tree, and they brought him through the house and showed it to him. Only then did he tell them who he was and how he knew it was there. I always wondered why they’d let him go through the house in the first place and pictured their polite confusion while they waited to see where all this was going. Read more

Sep 18

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Estrellitas

If you’ve ever been to a Cuban bakery, you know that the only question is how you’d like you’re guava. In puff pastry, shortbread, masa real, with crackers or as flan, I never get tired of it. Cupcakes were inevitable. I’ve been making guava cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for friends but hadn’t come across just the right combination till last week. I tried small pieces of guava paste that sank to the bottom and guava jelly that was undetectable. Preserves piped in just after baking worked the best, but I haven’t found them outside of Florida. Tired of hoarding the tiny jars I’d bring back from Miami, I found a recipe for an easy filling made of guava paste, orange and rum. A Cuban solution for a Cuban cupcake. Read more

Sep 17

Punk Piscoratti

I love finding articles that take you to improbable places. In A Peruvian Cocktail in The Washington Post, John Briley introduces the Peruvian Woody Allen before crossing paths with the Godfather on his way to La Reyna Bodega in Catapalla, a small town south of Lima, to meet piscoratti Godofredo Gonzales: Read more

Sep 16

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Autumn Stewing

Buried in a cookbook from the 1960s, I first read about the Argentinian carbonada earlier this summer. Made to celebrate Argentinian Independence Day on July 9, during their winter season, stew weather seemed a long way off then. A mixture of beef, corn, peaches and pears, it seemed perfect for early fall, when the heartier fruits and vegetables come in just as the sweeter fruits of summer are fading out. Wishing I’d taken pictures of the market’s golds, purples, and reds, I felt like bit of a witch at her cauldron when they reappeared in the pot. Traditionally, the carbonada is served in a large pumpkin-like gourd called a zapallo. Hollowed out, baked, then filled with the stew, each serving includes a spoonful of pumpkin. With no fairy godmother to turn my northeastern squash into an Andean zapallo, I turned the small acorn and colorful delicata squashes into soup bowls instead. Read more

Sep 15

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The Scoop

Pastryscoop.com, sponsored by the French Culinary Institute, has opened registration for their fall 2009 conference to be held on Sunday, October 18th at the International Culinary Center where I’ll be helping out. For one day, they open their kitchens for top pastry chefs hold two hour demonstrations, workshops and tastings. I’m always amazed at how generous the chefs that take part are with their time and most importantly, they’re secrets.

Sep 13

Singing Salt

I spent the day at the Brooklyn Book Festival at Borough Hall wandering in and out of readings and seeing friends. With little time to cook, I thought it would be right to end the day with Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. In his Elementary Odes, he writes to wine, tomatoes, maize, large tuna, chestnuts, artichokes, lemons. Here the salt sings back. Read more

Sep 10

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That’s No Lady

I have a regrettably low tolerance for alcohol. Typically, I’ll sip a mojito till it’s watered down to nothing or nurse a light Mexican beer most of the night. I’m that girl. So it’s odd that I’ve spent this week spiking sorbet with cava, getting a lobster drunk on rum, and now drizzling lady fingers with vermouth and yet more rum for a Bien Me Sabe, a Venezuelan dessert of lady fingers layered with coconut cream.

Whenever I have people over, I always go to Latin Chic written by my friend Isabel González-Whitaker and co-author Carolina Buia. Living in the neutral territory of New York City where everyone is from somewhere else, it’s full of simple but great ideas to add a cultural twist that’s honest to entertaining in Latin American style. Looking for a dessert to bring to a dinner party, I made their version of Bien Me Sabe or “It Tastes Good to Me”. This one in particular comes from Carolina’s great-aunt Mercedes Camps. The legend goes that she made it for Venezuela’s future president Rómulo Betancourt when he was hiding from political adversaries in her home. It’s impossible not to admire a woman who not only offers refuge to those in need but then throws in dessert. After three weeks, she smuggled out the father of Venezuelan democracy disguised in one of her dresses. Read more

Sep 9

Peruvian Treasure

Since realizing how much we owe to them, I have been looking for anything and everything to do with Peruvian cuisine. With so many ingredients difficult to find, I sometimes have to be content to read the food rather than make it. In Food Fit For The Gods for Saveur magazine, Gabriella de Ferrari describes the way recipes were passed (or not) among family and friends:

When my mother came to Peru, no Peruvian cookbook of any significance existed. Instead, recipes were passed from mother to daughter—or, like beauty secrets, were exchanged cautiously by word of mouth, as symbols of friendship. I remember that one of my classmates got into trouble because she revealed to me her mother’s special method of preparing mazamorra, a dessert made of fruit and purple corn. Read more

Sep 8

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A New Season

I may have waited until the very last weekend of the summer to have my first lobster roll, but now that I had, I wasn’t letting it scuttle away just yet. I decided to try a recipe from the 1930s for Lobster Havanaise, a cross between a Thermidor and Newburg but with rum instead of brandy. The rum is added off heat just before serving so the flavor is very pronounced. I started at Fish Tales in Brooklyn since they’re always helpful and let me take complimentary limes, even on a 1/4 pound of salmon. I almost left empty handed when I realized I would need at least two Maine lobsters to make up for the 2 pounder called for in the recipe. They pointed me instead to the Brazilian rock lobsters right for Caribbean cooking. With no claws, rock lobsters carry all their meat in the tail (no kidding, and I thought the only Cuban element was the rum). Though they’re not as sweet as the Maine variety, they’re in season from the end of the summer through winter, so they’re is plenty of time to play with. Read more

Sep 5

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Summer Break

Maybe it’s because of the “what I did on my summer vacation” essays, but summer always feels like a project. You’re given 2-3 months to put together a set piece for future memories and expectations are high. Even as an adult, fall blends into winter which blends into spring, but summer stands apart. It’s hard not to spend Labor day weekend thinking about what I did or didn’t get to do. It also marks my 100th post since I started writing this blog, though some days, I’ve felt like it’s been writing me. Still, I love where it’s taken me, and I’m still hungry for more. I wanted to end the season with fresh cava sorbet, a mix of Spanish sparkling wine, strawberries and oranges. It seemed like the right palate cleanser to catch my breath, send off summer and start making plans for fall. Read more