Recipes | hungry sofia

Oct 4

Cold Nights

He turned round, and leaning upon his elbow, began to sip his chocolate. The mellow November sun came streaming into the room. The sky was bright, and there was a genial warmth in the air. It was almost like a morning in May.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

There are always a few weeks in early Fall where it is colder in my apartment then it is outside. I leave the house ready to face a brisk New York, early frost and find a mild northern California day instead. While the season makes up it’s mind, I’ll just live in a bowl of hot chocolate. Read more

Oct 1

Keeping It Simple

Reading Melissa Clark column in this week’s New York Times Dining & Wine section, “It’s Autumn’s Hearth”, reminded me that I had just a couple of more weeks to take advantage of the few tomatoes and late summer vegetables left. I started looking at recipes for pisto manchego, a Spanish version of ratatouille. Just onions, tomatoes, and green peppers, sauteed in olive oil then cooked slowly till soft, it’s maybe served with a fried egg, maybe over bread, maybe both. I was tempted to play with the dozen variations I found online but contented myself to throw in zucchini but leave the eggplant, chorizo and ham for another day. So simple, it was exactly what I wanted.

Sep 30

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Pan de Medianoche

Recently, when I was asking friends and family how they felt about the sandwich Cubano, I was surprised at how many said they preferred medianoches. Similar to the Cubano but smaller and sweeter, the medianoche or “midnight” sandwich was sold in Havana nightclubs to tired dancers at late night cafes. Also tired from my last miss at making a pan de agua loaf, I decided to medianoche bread instead. If you live in South Florida, making Cuban bread at home makes as much sense as churning your own butter. It’s as easy to find there as it’s impossible everywhere else, so I was excited to see this recipe for the challah-like bread on the Three Guys From Miami site. I spent all day fussing over the rolls like a nervous mother – will the yeast bubble, do I knead more, will they rise? Read more

Sep 28

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What’s In A Name?

I had resolved to take a dessert break last week but made an exception for this batch of Mexican Chocolate Crackle Cookies from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. They were made on request to take as a gift so I wasn’t tempted for long, though the box did go out 1 or 2 or 3 light. Similar to nutty Mexican polvorones known as wedding cookies here, the recipe calls for added chocolate, coffee, and optional ancho chile powder. Though the recipes in the book are pretty foolproof, I didn’t think the chile could only be optional if they were to give an authentically Mexican kick to the crackles. Read more

Sep 23

Future Plans

I noticed that I’ve been dessert heavy lately when even my WiiFit avatar plumped up a little. I wanted to make something light to get through a heavy week and found this recipe for quinoa pilaf on Yanuq, my favorite Peruvian food site. Each time I go to it, I find something familiar and healthy but with a twist that I can’t wait to try. The Read more

Sep 21

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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 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