Churros (Bianca)

Churros are popular in Spain, Latin America, France, Portugal and the United States.  I was so curious about their origin, so I search the internet to see what I can find out. Well, all of the websites (including wikipedia) state that the history is divided on how exactly Churros came to exist. Some say they were invented by Spanish  shepherds. They were living in the high mountains, with no access to bakeries, so they came up with churro paste - easy to fry in an open fire. Some others say that Churros were brought in Europe by the  Portuguese sailors from Northern China, where they were called "You Tiao". They made adjustments to the technique of making them, as they couldn't learn the Chinese skill of "pulling" the dough. So, they were passing the dough through a star shaped tip.
Eventually the Churros were introduced in Latin America by the conquistadors and suffered various changes. The Spanish recipe has only flour, water and salt.   But any recipe found on the internet originated from Mexico had butter and eggs added. I even watched a video on youtube with Gordon Ramsay making Churros after the original Spanish recipe. In one of the comments there, someone was very surprised as how come Gordon, being a top chef, doesn't know that the original recipe has eggs and butter in it. He grew up in Mexico and he knows the recipe well.
Hmm ... I wanted another opinion, so I turned to my Catalan friend here in Tartu, a gourmet himself, Eneko Itziar. I asked him: ''Churros ... are they originally from Spain or Mexico, as both countries claim they have the original recipe?'' And his answer was : ''Not the first time I was asked about this :) The churros are from Spain, no doubt. There are different regions in Spain that claim to be the *inventors*, but it is said that the first *industry* of churros started in Catalunya in the XIX century. No doubt that the foggy beginning of  this recipe comes from the Arabs, as most of the *dry* or *fried* deserts in Spanish tradition. Actually what Mexican people call *churro* is what Spanish people call *porra*. The difference between these two is that the dough of the churros it's with hot water and the porra it just warmed one, to change the texture.''
After all the research, I decided to make both recipes, the Spanish and the Mexican ones :)

Spanish recipe:

- 500 ml water

- 255 g flour 

- 1 tsp salt

- sugar, cinnamon ( to sprinkle ) 

- plenty of vegetable oil for frying

Hot chocolate sauce:

- 150 g dark chocolate

- 150 ml cream

Mexican recipe:

- 530 ml water 

- 200 g butter 

- 45 g sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 425 g flour 

- 5 eggs

- plenty of vegetable oil for frying

With the Spanish recipe I got about 18 churros, because I used my biscuits pistol to squeeze them, and they came out quite thick. With the Mexican one I got over 30!!!, but I used a pastry bag with a  Φ 10 mm star shaped tip . When I squeezed through the pistol, having eggs inside the dough, they expanded to much looking more as a thick Polish sausage and I wanted them thinner:) 

But no problem here! My brother came by right when I finished them and he said: ''Keep some - the rest are mine!'' So, no waste! :) 

Method for Spanish recipe:

Place the water and salt in a pot and bring it to boil. Then add all the flour and mix well until a consistent dough is formed. Remove from heat and continue mixing until smooth. Let the dough stand covered for about 15 min, to cool down. 

Heat the oil at 180 degrees C in a large frying pan.  Place the dough in a churrera or a pastry bag  with a star shaped tip attached and squeeze out about 20 cm long churros straight into the hot oil. Fry them until golden brown, on each side. Place them on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil and while they are still hot, sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar. Serve them immediately with hot chocolate sauce. 

Method for Mexican recipe:

Same method as the Spanish ones, just that the butter is placed in the water mix. After the butter is melted and the mixture is almost at the boiling point, place the flour and mix until the dough releases from the sides. Remove from the heat and place the dough into a table top mixer. On a low speed, mix the dough, adding one egg at a time. Leave the dough covered for about 15 min, to cool down.

These ones I chose to fill  with creme patisserie (pastry cream) mixed with chocolate, then covered them in chocolate and sprinkled them with coconut, nuts, chocolate and colored sprinkles.

Which ones I liked the most? Has to be the Mexican ones, as they are moist and soft, compare to the Spanish ones that are crunchy outside and a bit chewy inside. 

I hope Eneko won't be mad at me about this ;) 

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Strawberries and cream cheese (Bianca)

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, so I decided to make it special, but nothing fancy. And since I celebrated the day with my best friend, my daughter Stephanie, we agreed to do girl stuff. For her, girls stuff means cooking or shopping :) It's being a long day in school for her, then lots of homeworks, so we skipped the shoppings and got to do the cooking. That's the one thing one can never go wrong with her. She loves to try things in the kitchen.
We wanted to make something that's quick, good and fun too ... so we did stuffed strawberries.
What we needed:
- 500 g fresh strawberries
- 75 g chocolate cream cheese spread
- 75 g cream cheese
- 1 tbls honey
- chopped nuts ( optional) to sprinkel on top ...or anything you want  


First we washed the strawberries.

 Then we cut off the top.

We scooped out the middle.

We use ready made chocolate cream cheese spread and we mixed 1 tbsp of honey with 75 g cream cheese and placed the mixes in pastry bags.

Now Stephanie filled each strawberry, then she sprinkled chopped nuts and sugar hearts on them.

And this is what we ended up with :) 

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day! Pin It Now!

Modern Romanian cuisine (3) - My ''Mamaliga''

Romania isn't best known for its food but it will be....I know. There is an incredibly rich culinary tradition here, homegrown in Romania, born out of the necessities of life, brought in by the Ottomans, Germans, Russians, Serbians, Hungarians.... Add to that a generous climate, fertile soil and the Black See that provide fabulous ingredients in abundance and you are ready to feast.
To understand Romania and to understand mămăliga, you have to understand traditional Romanian culture.
Historically, Romanians ate this golden bread (mămăliga - made from cornmeal) as a replacement to bread. It is inexpensive, easy to do every day, in every season and could be found in every house.
Mămăliga is similar to a porridge made out of wheat of cornmeal traditional for Romania. It is better known to the rest of the world in its Italian form named polenta.
Traditionally, mămăliga is cooked by boiling water, salt and cornmeal in a special-shaped cast iron pot called ''ceaun'' or ''tuci''.
Mămăliga is much thicker than the regular Italian polenta to the point that it can be cut in slices with a string, like bread.
Sometimes, mămăliga can be much softer, almost to the consistency of porridge.
Mămăliga is a fat-free, cholesterol-free, high-fiber food. It can be used as a healthy alternative to more refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white pasta or white rice.
In Romania, mămăliga is used as a bread substitute and can be served all day:
-with sour cream and jam for breakfast,
-stuffed with cheese and served with pickles as a all day meal
- used as the starchy base for meaty stews, grills, Sarmale recipe here….etc, at dinner.

Today I will introduce you to mămăliga, not in a traditional way of preparation, to demonstrate how versatile and deeply satisfying this peasant dish can be.Parmesan and Rosemary Polenta with Wild Boar Stew
Mamaliga cu rosmarin si parmesan servita cu tocanita de porc mistret
Serves 6 to 8
Rosemary Polenta
Ingredients150 gr of polenta
400 ml of chicken or vegetable stock
400 ml of water
100 gr of grated Parmesan cheese
fresh rosemary, chopped
olive oil
salt
Preparation
In a cast iron pot ''ceaun'' or ''tuci',' or a pot, add the water and stock to boil.
After water is boiling, reduce heat to the lowest possible setting.
Add salt and rosemary. Gradually stir in polenta; cook, stirring the mixture constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes or until polenta thickens and pulls away from sides of pot.
Stir in Parmesan and olive oil. Once it begins to stick to the side of your pot, before collapsing back into the mix, the mamaliga is done.
To prepare stew
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onion chopped
1 kg boneless wild boar meat, cubed 1-2cm
1 tbs white flour
1/2 bottle of red wine
400 ml beef stock
400 gr canned chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves from real spice
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 dried chili peppers crushed from real spice
1 cinnamon stick from real spice
250 gr carrots chopped
250 gr celery sticks chopped
100 gr dry prunes
6 sun-dried tomatoes
fresh thyme chopped
fresh rosemary, chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
Directions:
To prepare stew, in a large cast-iron pot, saute the onion in olive oil until translucent.
Add and cook the meat over high heat, turning frequently, just until it's cooked on the outside. Add the flour and mix to incorporate. Add the wine and beef stock. Add the canned tomatoes and the bay leaves.
Gradually add the garlic, dried chili, cinnamon stick, sun-dried tomatoes, carrots, celery, prunes, herbs, and salt and black pepper to taste.
Simmer on low and stir occasionally for at least two hours or longer if possible.
The stew is ready to eat when the meat has totally fallen apart and most of the liquid has been absorbed by the meat.

Take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves before serving.

Serve over the polenta or with pasta and top with grated cheese or parmesan bisquit.
Accompany with a full bodied red wine, and enjoy with good company.
Here you can find mamaliga not in a traditional way of preparation.
With Tiger Prawns and avocado salsa.

 ''Mamaliga'' with scalops and salmon rulade.

 ''Mamaliga'' with cod wraped in parma ham and lobster bisque.

 Black ''mamaliga '' with squid ink served with Tiger prawns.

 Red ''mamaliga'' with venison filet, goats cheese, red onions marmalade and thyme sauce.

 Filet of lamb with feta and aubergines roulade served with goats milk ''mamaliga'' and olive puree.

''Mamaliga'' stufed with goats cheese and served with fresh tomato sauce and catalan herbs olive oil.
Enjoy! Pin It Now!

''Taste of Estonia''

''Taste of Estonia''
The modern cuisine album "Estonian à la carte" is now available.
- 31 restaurants and cafes Chefs, carefully selected for the 2011 modern Estonian food.
- 100 inspiring recipes with food pictures- Chefs own authored.
- 288 pages / hardcover
The book is in English and Estonian.
Price - 25 Euros.
The book is now out in stores.
How to buy it? You can purchase a signed copy directly from me (send your request to nlontras@yahoo.ie with full details of name and address) which will cost you 25 euros + transport or you can purchase a regular book from „Rahva Raamat“ or „Apollo“ shops.
Please allow approximately 2 - 4 weeks for ground delivery. Refunds or exchanges are possible only in special circumstances. Contact me if any questions at nlontras@yahoo.ie .
The following pictures are from the book!

''Cuisine is the calling card, and cooks symbolic ambassadors, representing their country.
Food is and will remains one of the peculiarity of a great opportunity to introduce to the world of local traditions, values
and skills, and domestic raw material" says chef Dimitri Demjanov foreword to the album.
Contact me if any questions at nlontras@yahoo.ie .
Thanks and enjoy! Pin It Now!