Aborrajados from Colombia

Aborrajado is a typical Colombian dessert , original from the Cauca Valley.

This dessert has received the influence from the african gastronomy.

It was the XIX century when african slaves started to use smashed plantain as a wrapping for the food , they started to wrap pork meat, this is known today in Cali as 'Marranitas'.

It was in the Cauca Valley where they started to fill the plantain with farmer cheese and bathed it in a mixture of flour and egg to fry them after that.

Today they add guava paste to the filling as well.

You can use mozzarella cheese or a type of cheese that melts well.

aborrajado can be eaten accompanied by milk, like a side dish or tapa.

The key point is to use ripe plantain  (those who have almost black skin), these plantains are the sweetest.

Ingredients:

- 2 ripe plantains.
- 200 grams mozzarella cheese.
- 200 grams guava paste.
- 6 tablespoon flour.
- 2 eggs.
- 4 tablespoon milk.
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar.

Method:

1- Peel and cut the platains in 4 or 5 pieces.

2- Fry the plantain in not too hot oil, let it get cool on an absorbent paper to get rid of the oil.

3- Take a bowl, put 2 eggs inside and whisk. Add milk and mix well.

4- Add sugar ,a pinch of salt and whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the flour little by little and mix well.

5- Cut cheese and guava paste:

6- Cover a piece of plantain with transparent film, smash it with the help of a dish.

7- Put some cheese and guava paste in the center of the smashed plantain, wrap it and make a ball.

8- Bathe every ball in the dough made of egg and flour. Fry in hot oil.

9- Put on an absorbent paper to get rid of the oil. You should eat them while they are hot.

 

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Colombia

Tamarind Balls

                                                                               Receta en Español

This is one of the most popular desserts in Barbados, it is very easy to prepare and it has the 'sweet and sour' taste, a popular flavour in most of the dishes made in Barbados!.

Ingredients:

•   100 grams tamarind pulp.
•   150 grams white sugar.
•   1 table spoon flour.
•    Pepper.
•    Salt.
•    Brown Sugar.

Method:

1-  It is better if you buy tamarind pulp, if you have the fruit itself you should get rid of the skin and seeds.

Mix all the ingredients (except the brown sugar) in a bowl.

Tamarind pulp is acid and sticky , to mix well sugar with the pulp , it is better to use a food processor, it should be well mixed to soften the acidity of the tamarind.

2-  Take little by little some dough and make little balls. Put some brown sugar in a plate ,make the balls roll over the sugar, this is how they should be:

My comments to the Recipe:

It is very easy, but bear in mind that you should mix well , use a thin sugar to mix with the pulp, after that, the brown sugar to wrap the ball can be as thick as you want.



Barbados

Rhum punch

                                                                               Receta en Español

We cannot talk about Barbados without tasting one of its cocktails; Rhum punch.

The word punch comes from the indien word 'panch' that means five, it refers to the five ingredients of this drink: 

Sour,sweet,strong,weak and spicy.

In Barbados there is a poem that describes the recipe of this typical caribbean drink:

One of sour,                                                

two of sweet,                                               

three of strong                                             

and four of weak,                                 

a dash of bitters                                         

and a sprinkle of spice,                              

serves well chilled                                      

with plenty of ice.                                     

Ingredients:

•   Lime juice.
•   Brown sugar.
•   Rhum.
•   Water.
•   Ice cubes.
•   A splash of Angostura Bitters (aromatic version).
•   freshly grated nutmeg.

Method:

1-  We make a syrup , mix 50 grams brown sugar and 75 ml of water, bring to a boil until the sugar is well dissolved, (30 minutes) .

2-  Use a shaker to make this cocktail. Put inside some ice cubes, Echamos en la coctelera varios cubitos de hielo para tenerla bien now we add to the shake:

       1 measure of lime juice.

     2 measures of syrup.
     3 measures of rhum.
     4 measures of water.
     1 or 3 drops of Angostura Bitters.

3-  Close the shaker and shake for some minutes.

4-  Put two ice cubes into each cup and fill with the drink, now grate nutmeg over the cup.

  

My comments to the Recipe:

Angostura Bitters es a typical product for cocktails, it has a high alcohol content (44,7%), you should use only a few drops that provide a special taste.

This cocktail has a  wonderful taste , the mixture of the ingredients is perfect, it is not sweet, not acid, not bitter...it is perfect.

Where you can buy the ingredients:

It is difficult to find a place where you can buy Angostura Bitters in Madrid, at the end, I boght it on this web site http://www.comprar-ginebra.com/.




Barbados

Macadamia nuts pie (Marshall islands)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Macadamia nuts are original from Australia nevertheless they are these days produced in Hawaii,California, Cuba , Costa Rica, Brasil, Kenya, Indonesia, Taiwán and  East Africa.

They are not produced in Marshall islands , however Macadamia nuts pie has become very famous in these islands, maybe because of the influence of the U.S.A.

It has a base of short pastry and it is normally accompanied by whipped cream.

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 250 grams wheat flour.
• 5 grams salt.  
• 125 grams soft butter.
• 1 egg.
• 2 table spoons cold water.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 65 grams grated coconut.
• 220 grams macadamia nuts cut in half.
• 3 eggs.
• 180 grams brown sugar.
• 200 ml honey.
• 20 grams unsalted butter.
• 2 table spoons coconut milk.

Ingredients for the cream:

• 500 ml de cream at least 35.1% fat.
• 3 table spoons cold coconut milk. 
• 130 grams cold white sugar. 

How to prepare Short pastry:

1- Sieve flour and put it in a bowl.

2- Put  the flour in a mountain shape, make a hole in the middle , put inside sugar, salt, egg and cut butter as you see in the picture: 

3- Add water step by step and mix all the ingredients with the help of your hands until you have a dough, at this moment you should not knead the dough any more.

4- Make a ball with the dough and wrap it in cling film. Let it cool in the fridge for 1 hour.

5- Sprinkle some flour on a surface, stretch the dough with a rolling pin until you reach the shape of the baking mold as you see in the picture:



6- Roll the dough as you see in the picture, this way you can easily take it and put it on the baking mold:



7-  Prick the dough with a fork , this is to prevent the dough to swelling up once it is in the oven:



8-  Put some grated coconut over all the surface of the short pastry.

How to make the filling:

9-  Pour some honey, soft butter, coconut milk, sugar, eggs and mix well.

10-  Add macadamia nuts and stir.

11-  Pour the mixture over the short pastry.

12- Preheat oven at 190 º Celsius and cook 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 160 ºCelsius and cook for 25 or 35 minutes until it looks like this:

14- Let it cool.

 How to prepare the cream:

15- Follow the steps described in this article: Whipped cream with a difference , before whipping the cream add 3 tablespoons of coconut milk. It takes a little longer but the final taste is amazing.

16- Serve accompanied by the cream:

My Comments to the Recipe:

You should try this pie, the mixture of honey and sugar is not so sweet as you may think, the butter provides a wonderful taste and the coconut milk gives a tropical and soft taste.
If you let the pie stand for a while it gets better.

 

Marshall Islands

Bahamian Duff

                                                                              Receta en Español

This is a tasty and typical dessert from Bahamas, I found the recipe at this site written by a bahamian girl  http://bakerchet.weebly.com/my-blog/bahamian-duff

In Spain we have a similar dessert called 'Brazo de Gitano' , the way we prepare the sponge cake is different from Bahamas, I present to you the way they do it in Bahamas.

I had to repeat this recipe 2 times because the first time I didn't seal well the dough and it didn't rise.
You can see the difference between both preparations in the pictures I will show you during my presentation of the recipe, Here You have the dessert when I sealed it right:

  

Ingredients for the Filling: 

• 1 can of guava 480 grams.
• 110 grams brown sugar.
• 1/4 dessert spoon of ground nutmeg.
• 1 pinch of Salt.

 Ingredients for the dough:

• 270 grams flour.
• 2 eggs.
• 90 grams brown sugar.
• 75 grams of butter.
• 1 pinch of salt.
• 2 dessert spoons yeast.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

• 150 grams butter.
• 85 grams brown sugar.
• a splash of rum.
• 170 grams condensed milk.
• Guava pulp (The remains of the guava can).

 
Method for the Filling:

1-  The filling can be cooked the previous day , it has to be cold to fill the dough.

2- Separate the inside pulp (full of seeds) from the rest of the pulp:

keep aside  the inside pulp with the seeds, it will be usefull for the sauce.

3-  Cut the pulp without seeds into little chunks, mix it with sugar, nutmeg and salt.

4- Stir well and cook on a low heat for 30 minutes.

5- Let it cool (Better if you use it the following day).

Method fot the dough:

6-  Take another bowl, mix sugar and butter until you get an homogenous mixture.

7- Add eggs to the bowl and beat.

8-  Add flour and yeast with the help of a sieve to prevent the flour from making lumps.



9- knead the dough until everything is homogenous. We know it is ready when we touch it with a finger and the print of the finger remains.
Let the dough stand for half an hour:

You can add a little milk if the consistency of the dough is very dry, I didn't have to.

10- Spread a little flour on a surface and place the dough on it, take a rolling pin and strech the dough until it is half a centimeter dick.

11-  Pour the filling over the dough, leave the rims free of filling:

12-  Roll the dough as you can see in the pictures.

13- Wrap it in a parchment paper and then into 2 layers of foil paper, seal it with insulating tape to prevent water to get into the dough. Foil paper should be a little loose to let the dough swell.

14-  Preheat oven at maximum temperature.

15-  Place the dough in an oven proof recipent, pour water until it reaches half of the dough.

16-  Cook in oven at maximum temperature during 1 hour and 20 minutes. When it has been 40 minutes in the oven turn the dough the other way so the water covers the other half of the dough.

Method for the Sauce:

17- Take the remaining guava pulp, get rid of the seeds with the help of a potato masher:

18- Put butter and sugar in a casserole, stir well and put on a low heat.

19-  Add condensed milk , guava pulp and rum, cook for half an hour.

20- Cut the duff into slices, serve it with the sauce over it.

You can see in the following pictures the differences in the result when you seal the paper in the right way or not:

Good

Bad

Good

Bad
  

Where you can find ingredients

At the following link you can see where I found the guavas: Guayaba

My Comments to the Recipe

Guava is an excellent fruit to use in your desserts, the sauce is marvellous too.
The key to have a good result is a good sealing so be careful and you will be able to achieve a good Bahamian Duff.





Bahamas