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Queijadas de Sintra

Monday, July 31st, 2006




Les queijadas sont des sortes de petits cheese-cakes. Juste après les pasteis de nata , elles figurent en deuxième place dans le Top 5 de mes pâtisseries portugaises favorites. Il existe diverses manières de faire à travers tout le pays, mais la recette de Sintra - une ville enchanteresse située à 30 km au nord de Lisbonne - les surpasse toutes, paraît-il. Même si mes modestes queijadas n'arriveront jamais à égaler celles de la célèbre pâtisserie Piriquita de Sintra (qui a un secret de fabrication jalousement préservé), je suis tout de même assez fière du résultat. D'ailleurs, il n'en reste plus une seule...!



Ingrédients pour 12 unités



Pâte



- 350 g de farine

- 1 pincée de sel fin

- 75 g de beurre salé

- 1 oeuf

- 1,2 dl d'eau



Garniture



- 4 petits fromages frais de vache (4 x 85 g, environ)

- 1,5 cuillères de farine

- 160g de sucre

- 1 pincée de sel fin

- zeste finement râpé d'1/2 citron

- 1 cuillère à café de cannelle moulue

- 8 jaunes d'oeufs

- 80 g de beurre fondu



Préparation



Préchauffer le four à 190ºC.



Préparer la pâte : mélanger la farine avec le sel et le beurre coupé en petits morceaux. Pétrir en frottant le mélange du bout des doigts. Ajouter l'oeuf et l'eau. Pétrir de nouveau.



Étaler la pâte assez finement sur le plan de travail légèrement fariné. Découper 12 cercles de pâte à l'aide d'un emporte-pièce ou d'un petit bol retourné. Foncer des petits moules (type moules à muffins) légèrement aspergés d'eau avec les cercles de pâte. Réserver.



Presser les fromages frais avec les mains dans un chinois au maillage assez fin. Transférer dans un saladier et incorporer le sucre, le sel, le zeste râpé et la cannelle. Enfin, ajouter les jaunes d'oeufs et le beurre fondu. Bien mélanger pour lier les ingrédients.



Distribuer la crème obtenue dans les moules. Enfourner à 190ºC pendant 25-30 minutes.



Laisser tiédir et démouler. Servir les queijadas légèrement tièdes ou froides, avec du café ou du thé.



Voir également la recette des queijadas de Coimbra

Something for those days when even your skin feels like too much clothing

Monday, July 31st, 2006

The last few weeks have been busy (as you may have noticed from the negligence of my poor little blog...I'm sorry!) and HOT. Super HOT. 100+ F degrees HOT and don't you think for a minute that particular "F" means "Fahrenheit." Luckily, it's now starting to cool off, but this dandy little salad has gotten me through it all.

This recipe is super adaptable – you can add whatever you like to it, and it still tastes delicious. Other add-ins or substitutions could include artichoke hearts, shaved fennel, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, pecorino cheese, parsley or other herbs.

Chopped Tuna Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, adapted from Real Simple
Serves 4.

2 six oz. cans of tuna, drained (*my pick: Italian tuna packed in olive oil, drained)
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 12 oz. jar of roasted red peppers, drained and roughly chopped
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 tbsp. capers
zest of 1 lemon, grated
10 cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
10-15 black olives cured in olive oil, pitted (optional)
1/4 cup thinly sliced celery (optional)
2 tbsp. basil, chopped
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
toasted pita bread, for serving.

In a large bowl, combine the tuna, beans, red peppers, onion, capers, lemon zest, tomatoes, and olives and celery (if using). Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and black pepper in a separate bowl. Pour vinaigrette over the tuna mixture and toss. Serve with toasted pita bread.

** For those of you in Eugene, Italian tuna in olive oil and olive oil-cured black olives are both available at PC Market of Choice. And truly, the tuna makes a huge difference!

Links: Blogs de Venezuela, los de gastronomía que leo…

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Hoy una nueva amiga me preguntó algo así como cuáles son los blogs de gastronomía hechos en Venezuela que yo leo. Hice esta lista tratando de actualizarla lo mejor posible, agradezco que por favor me avisen si saben de otros blogs especializados en esto...

Carlos
Inés Peña
Sumito Estévez
María Eugenia Eiras
Takeshi Nagahama
Oriol Serra Nadal
Jorge Crovato
Nelson
Víctor Moreno
Zulmi
Tomás Fernández
Duelos y Quebrantos
Stelle
Andreína García
Eduardo Castañeda

Hot Food, Cool House As many of you know around th…

Monday, July 31st, 2006
Hot Food, Cool House
As many of you know around the country, we are all sweltering out here. The midwest is extremely hot and now it's headed to the east coast. I really didn't want to turn on the oven to bake chicken so I dragged out my trust crockpot. My crockpot has become my best weapon against heating up my house and getting in some extra knitting time. I love to grill more but hubby isn't getting home at a decent time these days and I am not the grilling queen. So I take the easy way out.

Hubby bought some skinless chicken thighs because I had thought about grilling them out on the weekend. I changed my mind when the sky opened up last weekend and just poured and poured. So I had to be flexable and find something that didn't need to be grilled. I got out my Slow Cooker Bible and thumbed through it. Most of the recipes are very simple with basic pantry ingredients.

I stumbled upon Thai-Style Chicken Thighs. That was just up my alley! The directions give you ways to cook on low for 6-7 hours or fast (HA!) 3-4 hours. I chose the fast method. It would give me enough time to do some serious knitting. 6-7 hours of knitting is just way too much and besides the guilt would eat me alive!

Thai-Style Chicken Thighs
Serves 6

1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt (I always use Kosher)
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
6 bone-in chicken thighs (I had skinless and the chicken was still both tender and moist)
1 med. onion, chopped (a medium rough chop worked well)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup canned coconut milk
1/4 peanut butter (I used what I had left of my reduced fat peanut butter and then the full fat stuff)
2 TBS. soy sauce
1 TBS. cornstarch
2 TBS. water (cold because you are going to make a slurry with it)
3 cups hot cooked couscous or yellow rice
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Coat slow cooker with cooking spray. Combine ginger, salt and pepper; sprinkle over meaty sides of chicken. Place onion and garlic in slow cooker; top with chicken. Whisk together coconut milk, peanut butter and soy sauce; pour over chicken. Cover, and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours, or until chicken is tender.

With slotted spoon, transfer chicken to serving bowl; cover with foil to keep warm. Turn slow cooker to HIGH. Combine cornstarch with water until smooth (this is called a slurry). Stir into juices; cover and cook 15 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened. Spoon sauce over chicken. Serve chicken over couscous; top with cilantro. Garnish with lim wedges, if desired.

Chef's Choice
As many of you know who read my blog, I never follow as directions. Sadly that also follows through to my knitting. So here is my "not following the directions" account of how I did the chicken. I did not want to have to make the slurry and have to wait until it thickened in the crockpot while my chicken sits on a platter cooking off foil or no foil. So I mixed all the ingredients for the sauce part, and threw it all in. After doing that I see why you need to use some non-stick spray. The sauce gets really thick and starts to get dark, if not burned, around the top edges. Lesson learned? None, I will do it that way again, use some hot water and dish detergent and let the crockpot soak overnight.

Since we have the garden going strong, I needed to use some of the bounty. I sauteed some Kentucky Wonder green beans and cut them into 1/2" pieces. I used zucchini that we had picked that weekend. The carrots and mushrooms came from the grocery store. The chicken and sauce were over Jasmine rice I needed to use up. The recipe is good and you can add more heat to it by adding more cayenne pepper.




Pequeños Pasos

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Hago un enlace a lo escrito y publicado por Sumito Estévez en El Nacional porque me gustó mucho. Y porque además se lo dedicó a José Antonio Delgado, de quien me ha costado hablar después de su muerte porque siento un enorme respeto por lo que logró hacer y por lo que quedó en sus sueños, por lo que preocupa hoy a su esposa y lo que pensarán mañana sus hijos sobre las hazañas de su padre.

Lean a Sumito haciendo click aqui, definitivamente, cada paso debe preceder al siguiente. Creo que a veces de eso -tan sencillo- nos enteramos solo después de haberlos dado.

Chicago Tribune: Food Porn

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Pro Bono Baker was featured in a Chicago Tribune article recently!  Also mentioned is one of my favorite Chicago food blogs Bunny Pie.  To read this article on food porn follow the link above or download the article below.  Thanks to Trine Tsouderos for putting together a great piece on one of my favorite hobbies!


Download ChicagoTribune-WhataDish.rtf

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager

Monday, July 31st, 2006

I guess now that the Star Wars series is over, Vader needs to pay the bills.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Food Bloggers Meet at Blogher 2006

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Underwater restaurant

Monday, July 31st, 2006

Imagine that you are out on a romantic dinner with your love one. After a while, the waiter brings you the food and drinks. You look eachother in the eyes, toastes and while drinking you wine, a seahorse passes by the window. Impossible? Not anymore.

A new restaurant called the Red Sea Star offers all this. As they say on their homepage http://www.redseastar.com/restaurant-en.php:

An underwater gastronomic experience is waiting for you, about 5 meters below sea level, in the restaurant of the Red Sea Star. Enjoy a wide variety of exotic dishes in a magical atmosphere of beauty and peace, while observing through giant windows the colorful underwater coral garden and an endless shifting panorama of marine life in all their kaleidoscopic splendor. Next to almost every table in the restaurant there are two personal windows through which guests can observe the underwater surrounding - one in the wall, to which the table is attached, and the other in the ceiling above it. The restaurant of the Red Sea Star has a very rich and exclusive menu, including fish, meet etc.

I´m looking really forward for my next holidays. Romours will know, that I will try to see if i can convince my girlfriend to go to the Red Sea next year, and hopefully the restaurant will still be there. Must be so coool to dine, wine and look at the sealife at the same time.

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Pequeños Pasos

Monday, July 31st, 2006
En este link está el último artículo que publiqué en El Nacional: PEQUEÑOS PASOS

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