Kanda ti Nyama - Meatballs from Central Africa

 The dish known as Kanda ti Nyama is typical in the Central African Republic. It consists of meatballs made with beef, crushed onions, and ground pumpkin seeds.

Kanda originated in the agricultural communities of the Central African Republic, where cattle were raised, making beef an available source of protein. Locals began mixing ground beef with spices in traditional mortars. It's a dish that is cooked as a family activity; everyone gathers around the mortar and chats while grinding and mixing the meat.

It is prepared for celebrations, family gatherings, and village events.

During the colonial era, many traditional dishes of the country were lost or modified to suit European tastes; however, Kanda has survived, maintaining its original character.

It's quite a filling dish because pumpkin seeds are very nutritious and somewhat difficult to digest, so three meatballs are usually enough. It is often served with tomato and rice. Pumpkin seeds add a special tenderness to the meat.

It's also quite easy to make. If you decide to try it, don't forget to write a comment. I love to hear how your dishes turn out!

Ingredients:

- 350g minced beef.
- 200g pumpkin seeds.
- 3 ripe tomatoes.
- 1 chili pepper or black pepper to taste.
- 2 cloves of garlic.
- 2 onions.
- Cooked rice to serve.

Method:

1- Cut an onion into pieces and the garlic cloves into slices.

2- We also cut the second onion into pieces and we are going to crush it with the help of a grinder or food processor.

3- Grind the pumpkin seeds with the grinder; my seeds were already peeled.

4- Cook in a pan with some oil, the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.

5- Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they break down; you can add a little water to make it more liquid. Add salt and pepper as well.

6- Put the minced meat, the crushed onion, the crushed pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper into a bowl and mix well.

7- Take small handfuls of meat and turn them into balls. If you have any left over, they can be well kept in the refrigerator for a few days; you can also freeze them.

8-Put the meatballs in the pan with the tomato and cook them over low heat for 1 hour with the lid on, turning them over after 30 minutes.

9- And there you have them.

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Central Africa Republic

Berlinas from Chile

Berlinas are a dessert typical from Berlin and North Germany.

Due to the migration of german people all over the world, this kind of dessert has reached other countries like Spain where this is called  'bombas' ,it also reached South America, specially Chile where the dessert has become a National dish.

The Berlinas are filled with custard cream, caramel spread or jam. The most common filling is the custard cream.

They can be cooked in the oven or fried in a pan, the most traditional way is to fry them, that is the recipe I present today.

Ingredients for the dough:


- 500 grams flour.
- 1 tablespoon baker's yeast. (20 grams).
- 75 grams butter.
- 60 grams sugar.
- 200 cc milk.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- 2 eggs.

Method:

1- Put the dry ingredients in a bowl; sifted flour, sugar , a pinch of vanilla sugar, salt and yeast. Mix well.

2- Add soft butter and mix well.

3- Add milk at room temperature.

4- Add the eggs and mix well.

5- knead using your hands:

6- Until the dough has this consistency:

7- Cover with cling film and let stand for a couple of hours until it doubles its size. My dough took 3 hours.

8- This was the dough after 3 hours:

9- Make a cilinder with the dough and divide it in pieces that weight 60 grams.

10- Smash every piece of dough and roll it until you get a ball.

11- Put the balls on baking parchment, cover with cling film and let stand for 45 minutes.

12- Fill a pan with oil, the amount of oil should be enough to let the balls float.

Heat the oil until 170ºC, if you do not have a thermometer you know that the oil is ready when you put in the oil a little amount of dough and you see bubbles in the oil.

Fry 3 minutes for every side.

13- Put the berlinas on absorbent paper to get rid of the excess of oil.

14- Let the berlinas get cool, make a little cut in the middle and fill the berlina with custard cream.

The custard cream must be cold , you should prepare it time before.

15- Sprinkle some powder sugar , and There you have the berlinas!.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Chile

Empanadas from Chile

 Empanadas are typical in Chile, the dish was brought by the spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia. In the 1600s the empanadas were eaten by creoles and indigenous people. The most common filling is called pino; a mixture of meat, onion, raisins, eggs and chili pepper.

Pino comes from the mapuche word 'pinu' that means filling.

Ingredients for the filling:


- 900 grams onion.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 450 grams minced meat.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 1 teaspoon cumin.
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika or merkén.
- 1/2 tablespoon ground garlic.
- 1/2 tablespoon corn starch.
- 2 boiled eggs.
- 8 olives.
- 24 raisins.


Ingredients for the dough (8 empanadas):


- 450 grams wheat flour.
- 1 teaspoon chemical yeast.
- 100 grams butter.
- 120 cc water.
- 120 cc milk.
- Salt. 

Method:

1- First we will prepare the filling, it must be cold when we are going to use it for the filling. Because of this we can prepare it the day before.

2- Cut the onion in little pieces, cook in boiling water for 30 seconds.

3- Get rid of the water and keep the onion.

4- Cut the garlic in pieces and sautée it , then add the onion and sautée for some more minutes.

5- Add salt, cumin, paprika, ground garlic and meat, stir well and cook at medium heat covered with a lid until the meat is done.

6- Add corn starch, mix well and cook one more minute.

Let cool, you can use it the following day.

7- Now it is time to do the dough. Mix the flour and chemical yeast.

8- Melt the butter and add it to the flour.

9- Add salt, warm milk and water. Mix well.

9- Knead until the dough is homogeneous, at this moment you should stop kneading. Let stand for half an hour, covered by cling film.

9- Put some flour on a surface, put the dough on the surface and put the dough in the shape of a cilinder. 

Cut the dough in pieces of 60 grams weight, make a little ball for each piece.

10- Flatten every ball with the help of a rolling pin, put it in a circle of 20 cm diameter.

11- Now it is time to fill the empanada, put some filling in the middle, leave some space without filling at the borders.

12- The filling has the meat prepared the previous day, some pieces of boiled egg, raisins and some pieces of olives.

13- Use some water to wet the borders of the circle.

14- Look at the pictures to see how to close the empanadas.

15- Pinch the surface to allow some air  to enter into the empanada.

16- Paint the surface with beaten egg.

17- Cook in the oven at 200 ºC  for 45 minutes.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Chile