Recipe: 4 Days, 3 Feasts and One Leftover Special

Mid-February is always a busy time for the Armstrong-Duartes.  Within the space of 3 days we have to celebrate Valentine's Day, my mother-in-law's birthday and my dad's birthday!  And this was an especially important birthday for my dad -- he turned 75!

So, loosening our belts, we prepared for the onslaught ...

First up, Valentine's Day.  Now I get that a lot of people feel that Valentine's is a Hallmark-consumer-driven-cheesefest.  Got it.  But I still like it.  I like taking one day out of the year to show a little extra love.  We don't do presents or boxes of chocolate or overpriced chi-chi restaurants.  What we do is cook ourselves a feast at home!

Now I wish I could say that I had developed all these recipes on my own, but let's be honest: I don't cook 10-ounce lobster tails on the regular.  I followed recipes.  And they were brilliant, I highly recommend all of them.  Here was our menu:

We started off with Tyler Florence's Steamed Mussels.  LEKKA!  Amazing.  We ate an entire pound-and-a-half between the 2 of us (with lots of toasty bread.) 

Here's the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/steamed-mussels-recipe/index.html

Next up:  Broiled, stuffed Lobster Tails.  The stuffing was garlicky and buttery and complemented the luxuriously tender meat.  SIGH.

This recipe is easy & genius: http://www.food.com/recipe/baked-stuffed-lobster-tails-174936

With the lobster we had roasted root vegetables.  No recipe needed for this one, just a mixture of beets, sweet potatoes, small Yukon Gold potatoes and whole garlic cloves tossed in olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt & pepper:

Then for dessert we wanted something lighter, simple, but apropos ... we did poached pears, one of our favorite desserts:

This recipe is so delicious: http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/poachedpears.htm

One down, 2 to go!

Next up was my darling mother-in-law's birthday.  We actually went out for dinner, at a South Minneapolis Italian place called Al Vento -- really lovely Southern Italian cuisine.  But we came back to our house for cake and presents.  Behold:

That is the patented Armstrong-Duarte birthday candelabra.  I think a touch of Liberace should always be with us, dontchathink?

Two down, one more!  ¡Si se puede!

When I asked my dad what he wanted to do for his big birthday, he was very clear: a lunch at your house with shrimp, rice and salad.  OK, then, here we go!

The star of the show was this:

I actually found the recipe in a little pamphlet-like cookbook that I got in South Africa:

It's called "Let's Braai" and is Published by Media24 Weekly Magazines and edited by Izelle Venter.  I altered the recipe a bit, so, here's my version:

Swakopmund seafood potjie (ala Salvadoreña)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large, or 2 small/medium onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green pepper, seeded and cut into strips (I used one whole bag of Trader Joe's raw, frozen peppers)
3 celery sticks, chopped
1 cup red wine
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 pound large shrimps (prawns), cleaned & rinsed *
2 pounds mussels, cleaned & rinsed *
Chopped fresh parsley and cilantro (coriander/dhania) to garnish

* You can use any combination of your favorite seafood to equal roughly this amount.

Method:
In a large Dutch oven, sweat the onions in the olive oil till translucent.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute, till fragrant.  Add tomato paste to brown a bit.  Add all the spices and cook them a few minutes, till they are fragrant.  Add peppers and celery, turn heat down a bit and let the natural moisture of the peppers andcelery come out.  Cook the mixture down.  You should have a very fragrant sludge.  Add wine, tomatoes, olives and simmer 15-25 minutes.  Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.  (The sugar helps balance out the acidity in canned tomatoes.) 

Turn the heat up, add the lemon juice and zest, stir, then add all the seafood.  Cover and steam about 5 minutes till the prawns are no longer translucent and the mussels open (discard any that don't open.)  Serve with rice and bread to soak up all the juice!

Speaking of bread ...

I made a loaf of the New York Times "No-Knead" Bread -- and I realized again how ridiculously simple it is.  Everyone loved it and assumed I had slaved for days kneading and coaxing starters.  I almost didn't disabuse them of that notion, but my inner Catholic won out and I confessed how stupid-easy it really is. 

We also had rice and salad, but in the midst of feeding and feasting, I didn't get any pictures.

I did, however, make sure that I got a picture of this:

Isn't she cute?  It's my dad's birthday cake.  He specified: vanilla with whipped cream & strawberries.  Now the challenge is that my dad has diabetes and he is very careful with his diet.  So I had to -- you know -- make sure he could eat his own cake.

I searched and searched and finally decided on a recipe using Truvia Baking Blend.  It's a mixture of sugar and stevia (an all-natural sweetener that I've loved for years.)  And here's the one womp-womp of this whole marathon of feasting.  I used a recipe from the Truvia website and it was OK, but too dense and too dry.  I mean, it was passable, but not great.  Sad-sigh.  Truvia people, can you please test your recipes a little more carefully?  I had a feeling as I was pouring the batter in to the pan that it was too stiff, but I thought, well, maybe the Truvia acts differently than sugar does ... No.  No, it does not.  Anyhoo, it was still pretty good and ice cream helped moisten it a bit ;)

And a beer always helps dry birthday cake go down!

(Note the candelabra again!)

And to top it all off, and as a light, cleansing meal, the next day I whipped up a yummy rice salad using leftovers from my dad's lunch:

The real secret here is the vinaigrette, which is my own version of a classic French one.  I use way more vinegar and more mustard -- I guess I like it zippy!  Here's how I do it: 

    1/2 cup red wine vinegar
    1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
    1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
    1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup any light-tasting vegetable oil (grapeseed, canola)
    2 shallots, finely chopped

This will make lots of salad dressing, just keep it in the fridge, it's really yummy!  I just mixed a couple of tablespoons of this dressing with rice (white basmati, which had been cooked with chicken stock, bits of carrot, one onion and one garlic clove -- but you can use whatever you've got), some leftover chicken breast, both lemon and lime juice, chopped cilantro and parsley, grape tomatoes, chopped scallions and chunks of avocado.  It was really delish!

So there you go, 3 feasts in 4 days!  Hope you are all well and that the year has started off great for you!

Recipe: ¡Paella!

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season!  I want to share with you the dish we made on Christmas Eve:  Paella! It is an absolute feast, worthy of any special occasion.

This is how my mother and my aunts make paella.  As many of you may know, there are many ways of making it -- from the most traditional Valencian paellas made with rabbit and snails -- to all seafood, all meat and vegetarian paellas.  This is a classic paella mixta (mixed paella) -- a mix of meat and seafood.  This was my first time making it, with my mother leading the way.  

Now this paella is enormous; it feeds probably 12-16, with leftovers.  You can certainly scale it down as needed.

I am so happy to share this amazing recipe and my family's tradition with you.  And let me tell you -- this paella is out-of-this-world. 

 ¡Buen provecho!

Quesada Family Paella

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil

12 drumsticks (or you can do one per person)

1 rack of baby back ribs

1 pinch of saffron

1 huge onion or 2 medium, chopped

5-6 large garlic cloves

1 large red pepper; 1/2 chopped, 1/2 cut in strips

1 large yellow pepper; 1/2 chopped, 1/2 cut in strips

2 large tomatoes, chopped

24 mussels (approx)

12-16 large scallops (approx)

24 large shrimp (approx)

4 cups arborio rice

8 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen peas

Flat leaf parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Paprika

Adobo

Salt & Pepper

Method:

Begin by dusting the baby back ribs with garlic powder, cumin, paprika, adobo, salt and pepper.  My mother has the butcher cut the rack into long strips to make cutting them into bite size pieces easier later on.  It's not necessary but nice.

Put the ribs into the oven with the broiler on.

Now here's the thing that makes paella paella -- real Spanish saffron.  Expensive as all get-out, but for a feast it's worth it.

Add a pinch to the 8 cups of stock and set the stock to simmer.

Dust the drumsticks with garlic powder, cumin, paprika, adobo, salt and pepper.  Add 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil to the paella (paella is the name of the dish and the name of the pan) or whatever dish you are using.  (A 12-inch stainless steel pan would work well for a smaller batch.)  Heat up and add the drumsticks and whole garlic cloves.  Brown the chicken slowly so that you don't end up with burned skin and raw chicken inside.  Turn the pieces frequently.

In the meantime, chop your veggies:

Also, be checking and turning the ribs, when they're well browned, take them out of the oven.  Turn the oven down to 350F/180C.  Cut the ribs into bite-sized pieces. 

Add them to the chicken.  Take out the (by now well-browned) garlic cloves.

Add the onions, and cook a few minutes will they're soft:

Now add the chopped peppers:

 

Let them cook till soft then add the 4 cups of rice.  Stir the rice through the meat and veggies and saute for a few minutes:

Add all the stock:

Give the paella a good stir and cook it over medium heat until you see the rice begin to emerge out of the liquid:

At this point, add the seafood, right on top:

Pour some of the stock/broth over the seafood.  A turkey baster is a great tool for this:

And decorate the top of your paella, alternating the red and yellow pepper strips:

Now take a deep breath, gird your loins and hoist that baby into the oven.  Seriously, it's heavy, be careful!

The paella will take another 30 minutes or so to finish cooking and absorb all the stock.  After about 15 minutes add the frozen peas.  Be checking the rice.  This is one dish where you do not want the rice al dente, you want it soft all the way through.  If at any point it looks like the paella is drying out and the rice is still not done, you can add a bit of water (or stock, if you've got some extra.)  When all the water is absorbed and the rice is soft, the paella is done!

Sprinkle with the chopped parsley y ¡ya está!

From my family to yours ¡Buen Provecho!

Me and my mom, the master paella maker!

Chumpe: An Authenticity Update

Hiya folks!

So I have a bunch of posts I'm working on, what we've been up to since coming back to Minnesota, lots of South African reminiscing pictures and posts, etc.

But before I post all those -- and in the holiday spirit -- I wanted to revisit one of my favorite recipes, Salvadoran Turkey, or Chumpe.  I originally posted this back in the day, and I mentioned in my post that this is how my family does Chumpe.  But just today I got a comment on the post where a lovely lady said she was going to make this for her Salvadoran husband.  Which got me thinking ...

See, most Salvadorans will add a special mix of spices & nuts to their chumpe.  For one reason or another, my mother never did.  Now, I LOVE the chumpe the way she makes it, but if someone makes this recipe and serves it to a Salvadoran person, they might say, "Hm.  Good, but not quite ..."

So I wanted to update this recipe to add the spice mixture that gives it a more traditional Salvadoran taste.  One isn't better than the other, I love the chumpe both ways.  But this way you have the option!

If you're making this for Christmas, let me know!  And FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

The updated ingredients and method are in bold below.

Here is the Pan con Chumpe, a saucy, drippy sandwich packed with Salvadoran turkey, veggies and delicious sauce.

Ingredients:

Turkey (I used about a 14 pounder)

Rolls

Romaine (Cos) lettuce

Slices of tomatoes

Slices of peeled cucumber

Thin slices of radishes

Watercress

Marinade:

1/4 cup of softened butter

1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup of yellow mustard

1 Tablespoon coarse salt (or 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt)

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cracked ground pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons Adobo or other favorite savory spice blend, I used cajun this time

Sauce:

2 medium green peppers, whole

2 medium onions, quartered

2 large cans chopped tomatoes

1 small can tomato and onion mix

1 very big handful cilantro/coriander

1 very big handful flat leaf parsley

2 celery sticks, chopped

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 - 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Lots of olives, whatever style are your favorite.  I use Kalamata. 

* Spice mix: 

1/3 cup raw sesame seeds
1/4 cup raw peanuts
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds 

1 dried mild chile, destemmed and deseeded
2 teaspoons dried thyme

* Adapted from http://www.whats4eats.com/poultry/pavo-salvadoreno-recipe

Procedure:

Wash turkey well inside and out.  Pat dry.  Mix all marinade ingredients together into a liquidy paste.  Don't worry if it's not a perfectly smooth mixture (I often forget to leave the butter out to soften and end up with little lumps of cold butter in the marinade.  Not to worry.)  Bathe the turkey in the marinade, inside and out and between the skin of the breast and the meat.  (The skin really isn't a big deal with this recipe, so don't worry if it rips.)  Then take a very sharp, small knife and poke holes in the turkey, all over, front back, breast, thighs, etc.  Leave to marinade overnight in the fridge.

The next day:

Take turkey out and in a deep roaster, put it in a hot oven (400F/200C).  Let it brown, probably about 30-40 minutes, start to check it after 20 minutes.

Then turn it to brown the other side.  This can be a bit tricky.  As you can see, it took lots of weird kitchen utensils and three of us to do it:

Now, as the other side browns, you can make the sauce.

 Add the sesame seeds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds to a dry frying pan over moderate heat.  Toast them till fragrant and golden, constantly stirring and shaking the pan.  Don't walk away -- this only takes a few minutes and the nuts will burn easily.  When done, put them in a large bowl to cool as you prepare the rest of the sauce:

 

Put the quartered onions and green peppers in a dry pan over high heat.  Blister the heck out of them:

When good and charred, split the peppers in half and take out the seeds.  Peel them lazily (as in, rub off whatever falls off, leave the rest.) Add the peppers (in rough chunks) along with the onions into a big bowl (where you have the roasted nuts) with all the other sauce ingredients, except the bay leaves and the olives.  Also add the thyme and the dried chile.  Blend, blend, blend till smooth:

Then pour over the browned turkey:

Add olives and tuck in the bay leaves:

I usually wait till it's cooked a couple of hours before I add salt/pepper as the marinade will flavor the sauce.  I will also add a half to a full teaspoon of sugar if the tomatoes aren't very sweet and the sauce tastes a bit "acidy."

Lower the heat (350F/175C) and bake the turkey for approximately 3 hours or until it's basically falling off the bones.  If it starts to get too browned at the end, cover with foil.

You can have the chumpe with rice and salad, or as "Pan con Chumpe," which is my favorite way, like this:

Basically, you just stuff a lovely roll (Ciabatta, french, etc.) with lots of turkey meat, romaine (a.k.a cos) lettuce, slices of tomato, slices of cucumber, thin slices of radishes, watercress (if you like it).  Then top it with tons of sauce and ... curtido! (Here's the recipe.) It makes for a pretty huge sandwich.

ENJOY!

Notes:

Making the Day Before:  Since the chumpe is stewed, it's even better made the night before, which can make planning a big feast a heck of a lot easier.  If I do make it the night before, I leave it to cool all night in the oven, then in the morning take it apart, slice the breasts, and chunk off the dark meat.  Put the slices/pieces into baking dishes, cover with some of the sauce and put in fridge.  Then, when you're ready to eat, reheat them gently in the oven (covered with foil) and the leftover sauce can be quickly zapped in the microwave.

Making Pieces: While this is a recipe for the whole bird, you can easily adapt it to just make a turkey breast or a couple of thighs or drumsticks for a less fancy dinner.  A couple of thighs make a great Sunday dinner.

Recipe: Cheater's Tres Leches Cake

Ok, so after that absolutely-everything-from-scratch pumpkin pie recipe I thought I'd share with you the easiest cake-cheat in the world.

It's barely even a recipe!  But it's good!  Reallllly good.  It's Cheater's Tres Leches Cake!

If you're not familiar with Tres Leches Cake (I've never seen it anywhere in South Africa), it's a very traditional Latin American dessert.  From Mexico to Chile, I swear, everyone has some variation of this. It's second only to flan.  And it's pretty understandable why it's so popular.  A simple sponge cake soaked in milky creaminess, topped with whipped cream.  

And here's all it takes to make it, cheater's style:

 

Yup, that's it, so here's the recipe:

Cheater's Tres Leches Cake

• 1 box of your favorite cake mix (you can use vanilla, yellow or chocolate)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cup regular milk
• Whipped cream for topping

Prepare the cake according to instructions & bake.  Meanwhile mix the milks together.  Once the cake is out of the oven poke holes throughout the cake with a skewer or long toothpick.  Immediately pour the milk mixture over the cake.  Let it come to room temperature then put it in the fridge till you're ready to serve.  Top with whipped cream.  You can also add fruit on top (sliced strawberries or whole raspberries go beautifully.)  And don't worry if the bottom of the cake gets really soaked and almost begins to fall apart -- that's how it's supposed to be.

Enjoy!

Oh, and sorry for the lack of photos of the cake.  Guess who was too busy eating to take pictures?

Recipe: Best Homemade Refried Beans ... EVER

Alrighty kids, here it is, Doña Esperanza's secret, fabulous, can't be beat, best refried beans recipe.  I should make you all sign a blood oath ...

This is how my mother taught me to make refried beans.  It is a classic example of taking just a few ingredients and making pure frigging gold.  It is also typically Salvadoran (in that we make very smooth refried beans, unlike Mexican versions, which tend to be chunkier), simple, easy (no soaking), very healthy, and so flipping delicious.

Here's what you do:

Take half a bag of pinto beans (here in South Africa the closest I could find was red-speckled sugar beans) or if you're very lucky and live near a Salvadoran shop (like the Lempa Market in St. Paul) you can get authentic Salvadoran red beans.  Sort through them for stones and rinse.

Put beans in a large pot, add one small (or half a medium) onion (quartered), one small (or half large) green pepper (rough chopped) and three medium garlic cloves (peeled but not chopped.)  Cover with cold water by about 4-5 inches. If you use the whole bag of beans double your quantities.

Bring to a rolling boil and keep it there for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours till beans are splitting their skins and are completely soft.  Check on them every once in a while, give them a stir and make sure they are always covered with water by at least an inch or two.  An easy way to do this step is in the crock pot.  Oh, how I miss my crock pot!

Once they are soft, add salt.  DO NOT ADD SALT BEFORE THIS POINT.  If you add salt to beans before they are soft they won't ever get tender.  Start with 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of salt.  You can add more later, but once you put too much salt in it's impossible to undo it.  In fact, I start with just a little, blend them, then taste and adjust.

Next step is to blend the beans.  Blend them completely smooth (in a blender) with all the veggies and most, if not all of their broth.  You want them pretty liquidy.  It shouldn't be a paste at all.  Because it's liquidy at the start, it takes a while to cook them down to the consistency you want and therefore develops more flavor.  Taste the beans again, add salt if necessary, but remember that you will be cooking a lot of the water out and the flavors will concentrate.  Again, better to be on the bland side at this point.

Now, take another small to medium onion.  Quarter it and add it to a large, cold (non-stick) frying pan with 2 tablespoons of a neutral tasting oil (canola, light olive oil, etc.)

 

Heat up the oil and onion slowly.  And then cook them ... and cook them and cook them ... until they look like this:

Yeah.  Till it's black and burned.  Don't freak out, this is the secret part of the recipe and I SWEAR that it won't taste burned or horrible.  Now, add your liquidy beans to the pan and stir around: 

What happens is that the oil and the onions flavor the hell out of the beans.  Truly scrumptious.  Cook them down until you get the consistency you want.  Make sure you stir them once in a while because the bottom will start to get thick while the top stays thinner, so stir them to even out the consistency.   When you've got it how you want it, pick out the onion pieces, and make any final salt adjustments. 

In El Salvador, we like them a little less pasty and more liquidy, but you do it how you want.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of the final product -- duh! 

But here's a picture of them in the actual pupusa:

They are very solid here because they were being used for the filling.  Usually, I'd leave them softer. 

These are absolutely delicious as a side dish, in burritos, on tostadas, as a healthy dip for veggies or tortilla chips, of course as filling for your pupusas ... or ... you know, at midnight right out of the fridge on a spoon!

PS:  Of course you can add more spices (bay leaves and cumin are my favorites) ... but when I want refried beans that taste like home, this is what I make, and they are my absolute favorites.