Faery's Kitchen: 01/2010

1/27/2010

Nanaimo Bars

The Daring Bakers January Challenge:
Nanaimo Bars

As I don’t manage English like a native speaker I wondered this question: Cooking from scratch or scratching to cook?. I don’t know if it is a valid expression in English but in Spanish it is.
The challenge for this month was to find the ingredients IN my house, coconut trees, refrigerator cabinets etc, fortunately I had almost everything…Why? Because the government decided to close another bank but keeping the savings for dark purposes because we don’t know what are they doing with everybody’s saving accounts money, this is not the first bank that has suffered this “procedure” the irony here is that the same day the bank closed (at midnight, as always with this government) I deposited all the money there before noon after queuing for two hours and half, my brother send us enough money but we can only spend in necessary things because we don’t know how long will this take.
*sigh* and another *sigh* I found this challenge really delicious and easy BUT I made a mistake...I added the cocoa to the crumbles so I had to sieve the crumbs to keep the steps as described in the recipe. My family and friends loved the crackers but as I did not have sorghum flour I substituted it for a cup of corn starch, I also added a layer of guava marmalade that was very tangy I love to combine guava and chocolate in my humble opinion it is delicious. I will make these Nanaimo bards often they are simply fabulous.
Thank you so much Lauren
The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

My mistake
crumble with cocoa

1/24/2010

Buñuelos de Yuca, a Venezuelan Dessert.

(Gluten free)

I have been thinking about my granny Ramona, no one can cook like her, everything she cooked was delicious none of us has the same touch. My cousins, sister, mom and I were talking about her today, she died at age 103 years old (maybe more and she was so clear and still making things by herself) but she looked like a 70 years old woman and has the spirit of a teenager, she raised her 4 kids alone, her daughters four kids (she left) and her ex husband’s four kids (when their mother died), her day began when it was still night , washing clothes (no washing machine), cooking, cleaning for others (she hired some rooms in her house) and taking care of 12 kids, she gave shelter to all those “poor creatures of God” who knocked at the door including politicians that were running away from the dictator of that time. Her only husband was my grandfather who left her when my mom was born. She was poor and her favorite phrase was “God will provide” and He always did.
My Grandmother is my Hero. Now, when I think of Amelia Earhart (Whom I admire a lot) I say “but she only flown a plane”.
These Buñuelos are delicious but never like her buñuelos, although she told us her secrets for cooking and I try hard it is not the same; I guess she was an angel and everything she touched was blessed with tons of love, and it is the flavor, scent and texture in her food that we love so much . Te quiero mucho abuelita

The yuca roots, I worked hard to get this pic, look at the groun it is too dry.
The yuca leaves
The yuca roots

place knife on top of the yuca and twist the knife a bit the yuca piece will split

The Panela, soft and creamy.

Buñuelos
Yuca and cheese sticks

Raw ingredients for the guasacaca

mmmm...

Buñuelos.
Ingredients:
800 gr boiled and mashed yuca. (mandioca, tapioca)
1 large egg.
¼ teaspoon salt.
3 tablespoons sugar.
Corn oil for deep frying.
Corn starch for coating the buñuelos.
For the Syyrup
1 cup sugar.
1 ½ cups water.
60 gr panela (brown sugarloaf)
Anise seeds, (or cloves, or cinnamon), I used star anise.
1- Cut the yuca in small pieces, and boil them until they are very soft. Let cool.
2- In a bowl place the mashed yuca, sugar, salt and egg, mix well.
3- Heat the oil on a medium flame.
4- In a small bowl place three tablespoons of corn starch, and drop one spoonful of the mashed yuca, turn to coat the other side and with your hands form a patty and place it in the hot oil, when it is light golden brown turn the patty, when it is golden brown on both sides place on a strainer lined with absorbent paper. Continue until you use the entire mashed yuca.
5- For the syrup place all the ingredients in a sauce pan and allow to boil until the consistency looks like cough syrup

Yuca and Cheese Sticks with Guasacaca.

I only use half of the mashed yuca to make buñuelos, to the other half I added 1 ½ cups white cheese, grated. Following the procedure to coat the buñuelos a made stick and fried them.
To accompany these yucca and cheese sticks I made a guasacaca, which is a raw sauce made with green bell pepper, sweet chili, onion, green onion, parsley, coriander, cumin, oregano, salt, corn oil, vinegar or lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soya sauce and a bit of mustard, place all the ingredients in the blender and you decide the texture of the sauce

1/15/2010

Hello, I’m back….

So many things happened during December. I think I owe an explanation about my absence, first I was working hard because my mom and I made panettone and pan de jamón (ham filled bread, a tradition during Christmas time) for sale, then I had the “great” idea of “refreshing” the kitchen but I did not want cement, noise, and construction workers in the house, besides the kitchen had a sing that said “stressed out women at work” I could not use that kind of refreshment, so I did it myself…how…with auto adhesive paper called deco-wall. It was easy to install buuuuut I took time and I was tired fortunately my friend Hector gave me a hand; we painted and cleaned the house and kitchen. Meanwhile I was also decorating the Christmas tree, the fireplace (yes, with this hot hot weather but Mike said that Santa needed one, so I made one), the nativity or pesebre (I made 4 pesebres) and other Christmas decorations and cushion cases for the kitchen chairs. also I made two cakes for Mike’s school and had to attend a Christmas party with Santa (there I almost end up killing Santa and the school principal too) the experience was so bad that I took him out of the party , how? I told him we’d go to MacDonald’s and I’d allow him to play in the “MacGames” (I don’t like MacDonald’s play grown) he accepted immediately.
Then we had so many more things to do, like Hallacas a traditional dish for Christmas time. We had Christmas dinner then new years eve dinner and on January 2 this small family became a big family because my brother and his small family came home, we celebrated his birthday on Thursday 7, my mom made pizza, I made hamburger buns, jello, flan and the cake, my brother made hamburger patties and his wife grilled them, but the worst job was to peel off the quail eggs. Them my LOVE Michele got sick with a very high fever (lower 38.5°C – higher40°C), then his doctor asked for a blood test we were so worried because he was dehydrated due to he was vomiting too but the nurse (God bless her) was so good that she took the sample in only one movement, that evening his hands and feet began to itch and He, his mom and I spend three nights without sleep, the pediatrician said it was dengue (dengue fiver or break bones fever). Thanks God he is fine now, he wants to eat and drink, and he sleeps well, no itching, he wants to play with his dog and with his wii (he says in good English: Wii sports resort).
Chronology in pictures:

This began on November and finished on December 30

One cake for Mike's school

...a cake for Mike

First meeting at the school

I began to decorate the christmas tree and the fireplace

It seems there is more paint on me that on the wall
Snack. white chocolate mousse and cherry filling

another snack...he he he. I will post the recipe for this pan de jamón

the refreshment and some of the "tools",they look like real tiles

.....snack

Mike's school's cake for christmas party.

Second Meeting. Santa and Michele. We bought a beautiful present for Mike when he got in the school the gift wasn't there and the principal began to shoul where did you put Michele's gift to one of the assistants so Mike realized the truth about Santa and in shock, then I had to convince him that Santa does exists.