hungry sofia

Jan 13

Pan de Yuca

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. Read more

Jan 10

7 Comments

The Imperfect Present

A little beginner’s luck is a dangerous thing. I made truffles for the first and only time a couple of years ago for a dinner party. They came out well and everyone raved. I was outwardly modest but secretly thrilled. Hoping I’d discovered a secret talent for handling chocolate, I could see the Brooklyn storefront in my future -warm chocolate shop, pretty apron, tiny smudge on my cheek. Though I hadn’t made them since then, a mixed bag of failures and moderate successes have shown me just how difficult it is to work with chocolate. It has a temper and when it turns on you, it is not cute. Read more

Jan 7

3 Comments

Quimbombó

I love the idea of quimbombó, especially the name. Not okra but Kee-Bom-Bo. A quick Google search brings up as many music sites as recipes. If Cuban food were music, quimbombó would be the chorus. Brought to Cuba by African slaves in the seventeenth century, it’s stewed with chorizo or pork then blended with mashed plantains and served over rice. Still recovering from the holidays, I found a recipe using chicken Read more

Jan 5

6 Comments

Un Cafecito

From the onset of the holiday season, scrooges and Christmas fans have one complaint in common, if it’s so wonderful why isn’t it like this year round? Then January 2 happens and there’s a collective gasp – what have I done?! Nothing fits! I’m so hungover! I have to get rid of this tree! Churches empty and gyms fill, and it’s only been a month. While I support the idea of everyday peace, love and understanding, I don’t think we’re up to daily Christmas just yet. Read more

Jan 1

A Blank Slate

I took it as a good omen when I woke up on New Year’s Eve to snow falling. A blank slate arriving just in time. I hadn’t thought about it too much until a couple of weeks ago when I realized I’d been holding my breath for much of the last ten years. As decades go, it’s been a twister. Having spent the last year cooking, writing and building this site, I feel like I’ve finally found a place to land, due in no small part to friends comments, ideas and support. Before racing forward to another decade, I wanted thank you all for reading and wish everyone a happy and healthy new year! Salud, dinero, y amor…y tiempo para disfrutarlos!

Dec 29

Lucky Lentils

I was surprised when I read Martha Rose Shulman’s New Year’s Dishes for Prosperity and Longevity, in the New York Times. Though she writes that Italians consider lentils good luck at the beginning of the New Year, she doesn’t mention that they’re also popular in Latin America and Spain. I know because I’ve been forcing them down New Year’s lentils for years. Not my favorite bean, I’m purely in it for the prosperity. So if you’re Italian, Hispanic, or need a little luck, here’s a recipe to start the New Year.

Dec 24

3 Comments

Boxing Days

It’s been all about the boxes these days – the boxes I packed my kitchen into when I learned hours before Christmas vacation that my apartment was being renovated, the boxes I’ve been wrapping for gifts, and the ceder box or caja china I sat by for hours this afternoon with a 70lb pig roasting inside for Nochebuena. Let the de-boxing begin and have a Merry Christmas!

Dec 21

1 Comment

The Mean Reds

I hadn’t planned on going to Fifth Avenue and when I did it was grudgingly. I was rushed, I was cold, it was Christmas but didn’t feel like it. I was having the mean reds. When I found myself just a few feet away from Tiffany & Co., the breakfast cure was so close it was worth a try. I wasn’t Holly Golightly, but it was Tiffany’s and it worked. Bright and precise, it really does turn the reds to rubies and the blues to sapphires for the moment you’re there. The best holiday songs are about the Christmas you’re not having so it was relief to find a place that’s just what it should be in a season of high expectations. If you find yourself with the same situation and no yellow cab to get to 57th Street, here are a few Tiffany windows to tide you over.

Dec 18

Shops Around the Corner

Shopping in Brooklyn can be a unique experience, each store its own world staffed by the designer/owner/manager who’s set up shop. Going into the final week before Christmas, I decided to do a quick tour of my favorites looking for housewares and kitchen gadgets, preferably utilitarian but with something more. After all, if they’re pouring out the same 1/2 cup of milk, why shouldn’t measuring cups come shaped like matryoshka nesting dolls or salt and pepper shakers as penguins for that matter? Here’s what I found:

Estrellas de Chocolate

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). Read more