Latin America-General | hungry sofia

Jan 5

Mousse de Turrón

I’m not devoutly superstitious so I have no problem picking and choosing which New Year’s traditions to follow. While 12 grapes at midnight are non-negotiable anywhere Spanish is spoken, for the rest of Latin America it’s pretty much an open field. I’ve written wishes for the coming months (Venezuela) then throw them in the fire so no one could steal them. Unfortunately, I forgot what I’d written before the paper had turned to ash, leaving me with unstarted resolutions. If I lived in Honduras, I’d make an “Año Viejo” doll stuffed with fireworks to set off at midnight if I didn’t find effigies and fireworks equally frightening. I’ve never thrown a bucket of water out of my window to rid myself of evil spirits (Puerto Rico), but a water pipe bursting a few years ago started off one of my favorite New Year’s nights and great year. A Peruvian friend suggested I wander around the block with a suitcase if I wanted to travel in 2011, but I’ve had enough of packing bags and getting nowhere in the last few days. Fortunately, everyone seems to be in agreement on an underwear color scheme for the occassion (red=love, green=money, yellow=luck, white=health). I don’t know if it works, but at the very least it forces you to get your priorities straight before midnight. Read more

Oct 22

5 Comments

Fairy Tale Soup

It was supposed to be a fairy tale. I found a recipe for pumpkin and crab soup that I couldn’t wait to try, a Cinderella pumpkin I couldn’t wait to photograph, and pound of fresh lump crab meat I couldn’t help but splurge on. Using a recipe that seemed pretty straight forward if a little vague, I roasted the pumpkin and scooped out a few cups – careful to leave the shell in tact so it could it be used as a tureen – then pureed it with scallions and coriander. Combining the puree with broth, I added way too much curry (the wooden spoon I used still looks gold plated). I made some adjustments but it only got the soup madder. I was moments away from throwing good crab meat into bad recipe when I decided to give up on it altogether. Read more

Oct 19

12 Comments

Croquetas with Blue Cheese and Jamón Serrano

When chef Michelle Bernstein described Miami’s lunch counter croquetas as “leaden”, I hated to admit that she was right. Made of pureed ham, chicken, or beef, they’re often left to sit out in glass cases for hours. Even if you’re lucky enough to come across a freshly fried batch, it’s more ham spread than creamy béchamel. On a recent trip home, I had one from an otherwise good bakery filled with a flourescent paste that could not have possibly been found in nature. Sold in large trays for family parties, the tiny versions pack an even weightier punch. Still, I haven’t given up on them yet. Using any excuse to visit the crowded coffee stands and bakeries that dot Miami, they’re usually the first thing I ask for when I land and the last thing I pick up on my way to the departure gate. Read more

Oct 14

7 Comments

Tequila-Cured Salmon Gravlax

A friend from Seattle once described his family’s Christmas tree ritual. Every December, they’d go to the woods, pick a tree, argue a little, cut it down, then bring it home where they’d have hot chocolate together. A lovely story, but so wholesome, it seemed exotic. Told to a bunch of urbanites who believed Christmas trees sprouted up spontaneously from the sidewalks in front of grocery stores once a year, we wanted to know if there was a designated “tree section” of the forest. That’s the way I felt about making my own gravlax which I’d only bought pre-packaged and ready to serve (random connection I know but they’re both related to the Pacific Northwest). I love sushi, ceviche and all things smoked and cured, but when it comes to fish, I relied on chefs and Nova Scotians to tell me when it’s raw and when it’s lunch. This week I found a recipe for tequila-cured salmon topped with mango and lime relish that changed my mind. Read more

Sep 9

4 Comments

Soufflé de Quinoa

Nothing takes the fear out of making a soufflé like making three in a row. I found a recipe for one combined with amaranth that I couldn’t wait to try. My training for this year’s New York City marathon is nearing the 20-mile mark so I’ve been cooking up batches of amaranth to have on hand for cereal topped with honey and fruit. While adding eggs and cheese may not be the best way to enjoy my vitamin high grain, it sounded wonderful and I’d been so good. Read more

Aug 10

3 Comments

Launching Into OpenSky

I usually write about what goes in the pot, on the table, or fills the bowl. This post is about the bowl and where to find it. I’ve always found interesting things in my neighborhood – gadgets, housewares, and yes bowls. Shopping in Brooklyn stores is a unique experience. Relatively small, most shops have their own aesthetic with a limited but well thought out selection. Excited or bored, helpful or indifferent, there’s always the likelihood that the salesperson is also the owner/designer/artist/buyer of the merchandise your casually turning over and commenting on with your friends. It makes you think about what you say, and leave with a goodbye and thank you – like you would in Paris or an Ernst Lubitsch movie. Read more

Jul 18

6 Comments

Humitas Ecuatorianas

I’m a little late in posting this recipe for humitas. Though I read about them weeks ago and made my first batch a couple of days ago, a lot of have-tos (and a few want-tos) have gotten in the the way. Initially, I didn’t recognize them as the tamales I’d grown up with. They were of course and they weren’t. Depending on whether you’re in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela or the Caribbean, they’re known as humitas, humintas, tamales, tamalli, tamalitos verdes, chapanas, bollos, choclotanda, chumales, cachapas, chapanas, chiguiles, envueltos de mazorca, ayacas, hallacas, juanes, pamonhas. The filling can be sweet or savory, made with fresh or dried corn, plantains or potatoes, wrapped corn husks, banana leaves or parchment paper, steamed or baked, served as a snack, side dish, casserole or heavy stew. Read more

Jun 8

3 Comments

Gourmet Latino Festival

This past Sunday I was invited to “Feel the Spirit of Brazil” at the Gourmet Latino Festival’s cachaça tasting seminar led by The Brazilian Kitchen’s Leticia Moreinos Schwartz and Olie Berlic. I have to admit that I was mostly looking forward to the petiscos: pão de queijo (cheese rolls), biscoito povilho (yucca sticks), croquette de carne (meat croquettes), and brigadeiros (chocolate fudge truffles) but there was more. Read more

May 27

11 Comments

Cuisine à Latina Cookbook Giveaway

Before the official start of summer’s grilling, beaching, hazy half days, I wanted to thank everyone who’s been reading and commenting with my first cookbook giveaway. Since its release last year, Michelle Bernstein’s Cuisine à Latina has become one of my favorites. Raised in Miami by her food-loving Argentinian and Jewish family , she’s become known for the contemporary Latin cuisine with Spanish, South American, Caribbean and Mexican accents that she serves at Michy’s and Sra. Martinez in Miami and Palm Beach’s MB. The book is full of great recipes to make at home for anyone who’s home is always elsewhere. To win a copy, let me know what dish your most looking forward to having this summer. Leave a comment here (one entry per person) between today and June 4th midnight (EST) when I’ll pick a winner at random. Read more

May 7

Around the World

Going through second hand stores in the West Village, I always feel like all the good finds have been found, but the other day in Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in the West Village, I found a copy of Time-Life Foods of the World: Latin American Cooking that looks like it could have been the sole reference book in Life Aquatic galley kitchen. Written by Jonathan Norton Leonard with photographs by Milton Greene, it’s one in a series of 27 books published in 1968 that I wished someone in my family had acted now to order.

Filled with recipes like Mexican chiles en nogada, Peruvian chancho adobado, and Brazilian crema de abacate alongside over-saturated images of candy making convents and ladies who lunch, it’s a combination of simple, traditional food and late-sixties baroque. If I don’t find at least one occasion to turn a pineapple into an ice bucket this summer, I will be very disappointed. Read more