Yucca Pudding

                                                                               Receta en Español

Yucca pudding is very popular in the Oceania Islands, you can find an example on my post for Fiji islands here:  Yucca and Banana cake. 

The recipe I present today is made with sweet potato, there is not sugar, the sweet flavour comes only from the potato.

You can imagine that it is not enough sweet , at Solomon islands there is no culture for sweets, this is closest to a dessert that you can find in this country.

Ingredients:

•   800 grams Yuca.
•   500 grams sweet potato.
•   400 ml coconut milk.

   

Method:

1-   Peel and cut yucca into pieces. Cut each piece in half and get rid of the root that goes through the inner side.

2-   Now you should grate yucca ,I decided to use a cook processor to grind it , you should grate it to a very small point so the dough forms easier.

3-   Now put the yucca in a sieve and smash it, this way a liquid will fall into the pot that is under the siever. 

4-   Now put the yucca in other pot and let the liquid stand for half an hour.

5- Now get rid of the liquid (dark substance in the picture below) because it has some noxious composition. As you see in the picture below, under the liquid there is a white and sticky substance, this is the starch, you should take it and mix it with the rest of the yucca.

6- Peel sweet potatoes and cut into little pieces, grate or grind with a food processor, mix together with the yucca.

7- Add coconut milk and knead until you get the consistency of a dough.

8- Line an oven-proof recipient with parchment paper, put the mixture inside.

9- Preheat oven at 180 º Celsius , heat up and down.

Then cook in oven at the same temperature for 30 minutes or until you poke the cake with a knife and you take it out clean:

To serve cut it into little pieces, it is a dessert by its own but you can use it to accompany fish , the combination of flavours is delicious.





Solomon Islands

Rice Solomon Islands style

                                                                               Receta en Español

It is difficult to find recipes from The Solomon islands, I came up with this dish watching pictures from people that have lived there  and post pictures of what they eat on the internet.
I have observed that this dish is the most popular, Rice in soya sauce with vegetables accompanied by fish.

To cook in Europe with similar fish from the kind of fishes they consume, we can use red bream or red snapper.

This recipe shows the influence of the european and asian gastronomies in the Solomon islands.
It is a juicy rice thanks to de soya and vegetables.





Ingredients:

•   1 green pepper.
•   1 spring onion.
•   1/2 eggplant.
•   1 tomato.
•   Soya sauce.
•   Salt.
•   1 cup of rice.
•   2 cups of water.
•   1 lime.

   

Method:

1-   Cut pepper and onion into stripes.

2-   Sautée  onion and pepper in a casserole with some oil for 3 minutes on a high heat.

3-   Cut tomato and eggplant.

4-   Add eggplant and tomato to the casserole, cook for 10 minutes.

5-   Pour some soya sauce, rice and water. Put on a high heat until it reaches boiling point, then turn it to a low heat and cook for 20 minutes.

6-   After the 20 minutes , turn off the heat and let it stand covered with a cloth.

7- Now it is time to cook the fish, salt both sides of the fish, put some oil in a recipient for oven. Put the fish into this recipient. Make 3 cuts on the fish and place 3 lime slices into each of them.

8- Preheat oven at 175 ºC, cook in oven at the same temperature for 30 minutes.

9- Serve a piece of fish accompanied by rice.



Solomon Islands

Pumpkin,coconut and lime Soup (Solomon islands)

                                                                              Receta en Español

There is not a lot of information about the gastronomy at Solomon islands, I found this recipe in this site dedicated to the soups of the world:
http://soupsofourplanet.com/2014/11/10/solomon-islands-curried-coconut-and-lime-gourd-soup/
They use the typical ingredients of these islands; pumpkin,coconut and lime.

Ingredients:

•   2 tablespoons oil.
•   4 chalotes.
•   2 tablespoons ground ginger.
•   2 cloves of garlic.
•   800 grams of pumpkin.
•   4 cups of broth. (1 liter aprox).
•   2 cups of water. (480 ml).
•   3 tablespoons of ground curry.
•   1 cup of coconut milk (240 ml).
•    lime juice.
•    Salt.

For Broth:

•  Some leaves of spring onions.
•  Some leek leaves.
•  1 clove of garlic.
•  1 chunk of onion.
•  1 chunk of pepper.
•   Salt.
•   Parsley.

   

Method:

1-  We prepare a broth putting the ingredients in a casserole with water.  Put fire on a high heat and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches boiling point, turn fire on a low heat ,then cook for 30 minutes.

2-  Cut the chalotes in little pieces, sauté them in a casserole with oil for 3 minutes until they are golden.

3-  Add garlic cut into slices together with ginger, sauté 1 more minute.

4-  Peel and cut pumpkin into little pieces, Add it to the casserole. Add the cup of broth and cup of water.

Put on a high heat until it reaches boiling point, then turn to a low heat and cook covered for 30 minutes until pumpkin is soft.

Don't forget to add salt.

5-  Make a purée with the help of a blender.

6-  Add curry, coconut milk and lime juice.

7-  Stir well and serve with some basil on the top:



Solomon islands

Austria

"EU-Austria" by NuclearVacuum - File:Location European nation states.svg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Recipes from Austria that I cooked:

käseschoberl soup

Tiroler gröstl (Potatos from Tirol)

Sacher cake





Austria in Internet:
http://www.gutekueche.at/oesterreichische-alle-rezepte
http://www.ichkoche.at/oesterreichische-rezepte/
http://www.rezeptewiki.org/wiki/Kategorie:Österreichische_Küche
http://sobreaustria.com/2008/12/07/la-gastronomia-de-austria/
http://www.schule.at/portale/ernaehrung-und-haushalt-eks/detail/oesterreichische-kueche-1.HTML





Austria

Sacher cake

                                                                               Receta en Español

Sacher cake is an unquestionable symbol from the city of Vienna, worldwide famous.

History tells that the origin of this cake dates from 1832 when Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, a german nobleman and Austria's foreign affairs minister, organized a banquet. He asked his cooks to make a special dessert. That day the chef was ill, it was an apprentice ,called Franz Sacher 16 years old, who invented this cake that dazzled the guests.

After working several years at this nobel's house, Franz Sacher decided to open its own business in Vienna; a delicatessen shop where he sold his cake as well.

Years later, his son Eduard Sacher started to work at the famous cake shop 'Demel', there he improved his father's recipe to obtain the one that we know today.

Finally Eduard Sacher founded ,together with his wife, the Sacher Hotel , there he started to sell his cake.

Eduard's son, called Eduard as well, also started to work at 'Damel' cake shop, where they started to sell the same cake.

Sacher Hotel and Demel cake shop had a legal fight to have the exclusivity on the selling of the original recipe. It was Sacher hotel who won it. At Damel's they sell the cake with some differences.

This cake has a chocolate sponge cake, filled with apricot marmalade and covered with a chocolate frosting.
At Sacher Hotel the cake has 2 layers of marmalade, one in the middle and the other just before the chocolate frosting. This is the recipe that I present to you today. 

Ingredients (for a recipient 23 cm diameter):

•   140 grams butter at room temperature.
•   210 grams sugar.
•   1 teaspoon ground vanilla.
•   6 eggs.
•   130 grams black chocolate (70% minimum).
•   140 grams flour.
•   400 grams apricot marmalade.
•   Yeast.

For the Frosting:

• 200 grams sugar.
• 125 ml water.
• 200 grams black chocolate easy to melt.
• 40 grams butter (optional).

Method:

1-  Separate whites from yolk. Whisk the yolks.

2-  Put chocolate in a bain-marie , once it is soft add the butter and turn off the fire , stir until butter and chocolate mix.

3- Add yolks little by little stirring fast to prevent yolks from cooking, let it get cool. 

4- Once it is cold, add sifted flour little by little, add yeast and vanilla. Keep on stirring.

5- Whisk whites to form stiff peaks, then add sugar little by little  , and keep on beating until you obtain meringue.

6- Add the whisked whites little by little to the bowl where you have the mixture, do it very softly to keep the sponginess.

7- Put some parchment paper on the base of a oven mold, smear some butter on the mold sides too.
Pour the mixture inside the mold. Preheat oven at 170ºC.
Cook in oven for 55-60 minutes. The first 10-15 minutes you should leave the oven's door a little open (as you see in the picture), the rest of the time cook with the door closed.

 8- Let the sponge cake cool for 20 minutes.

9- Cut the sponge cake in two parts. We start placing the lower part.

10- Heat marmalade slightly, put half of the marmalade over the lower part of the sponge cake. Leave the borders without marmalade.

 11- Cover with the other part of the sponge cake. Grind the rest of the marmalade to have a uniform consistency, paint all the surface of the cake with this marmalade.

12- Now it is time to prepare the frosting. First we prepare the syrup: Boil the water together with the sugar for 5-6 minutes and then let it get cold.

13- Melt chocolate in a bain-marie, add some butter to give it some brightness.
Once you see that the chocolate is melted, turn the heat off .Now you can start to add ,little by little, the syrup (step12) ,always stirring.

14- Now you should pour the frosting over the cake. Put something below the cake to collect the chocolate that falls, you can reuse that chocolate to pour later again over the cake. This way you can have a thicker layer of chocolate.

15- Decorate the cake with the letters 'Sacher' with the help of a pastry bag filled of some chocolate. 
Let the cake get cold outside the fridge, it is better if you let it get cold all the night long, and you consume it the following day.

16- Serve accompanied by some whipped cream



Austria