Koko Alaisa - a dessert from Samoa

 Koko Alaisa is a highly appreciated dessert in Samoa; it is a rice pudding made with coconut milk and 100% pure cocoa.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

- 1 cup of rice.

- 2 cups of cold water.

- 3 tablespoon of 100% pure cocoa powder.

- 125 g of sugar.

- 1 can coconut milk.

- Bread slices.

- Butter.

Method:

1- Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Put the rice with the water over medium heat, cover with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes.

2- Mix the cocoa with a little water and stir well until you get a smooth liquid.

3- Once the 10 minutes have passed, add the cocoa to the rice, mix well, and cook for 5 more minutes over low heat.

4- Add the sugar and coconut milk, mix well and cook for 5 more minutes over low heat.

5- In Samoa, it is common to eat this dessert with a slice of bread and butter. It is delicious and easy to make!

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

Samoa

Starogrojski Paprenjok - biscuits from Croatia

 These biscuits are typical from Croatia, specifically from the island of Hvar ,their origin is in the city of Stari Grad. In the past they were also widely consumed throughout the Dalmatian coast.

They are eaten at all family parties and are highly appreciated for being very durable. In fact in the past, it was a gift that the guests used to give to the bride and groom on their wedding day, the bride and groom had to keep them and consume them when they had their first child.

The sailors' wives and mothers used to make these cookies for sailors to take with them on long voyages, they knew that they were going to have a good sweet for the whole trip.

They are made with sweet wine, honey and a set of spices called 'prapen' with nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

For the dough

- 500 grams flour.

- 250 grams honey.

- 62 ml olive oil.

- 75 ml sweet wine.

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

- 1 teaspoon baking soda.

- 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

- 1 teaspoon cloves.

- 0,5 grams saffron strands.

For the decoration

- 250 grams cast sugar.

- 1 lemon juice.

- 1 egg white.

Method:

1- Put the wine in a saucepan together with the cloves , turn on the fire until it boils.

2- Turn off the heat and add the saffron threads, let the wine get cool.

3- In a bowl, mix the honey with nutmeg, cinnamon and baking soda.

4- When the wine is cold, strain it and add it to the honey bowl, mix everything well.

5- Add the flour and oil, mix and knead until everything is well integrated, make a ball with the dough and cover it with cling film.

Let it rest for 5 or 6 hours.

6- Take portions of the dough and with the help of a rolling pin flatten the dough on a flat surface.

Use cookie molds to cut the dough, also use some stamps to make some drawing on the surface of the cookie.

7- Line a tray with baking paper and place the cookies on it, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes, and then bake at the same temperature for 20 minutes, heat up and down.

8- You can decorate the cookies on the same or another day, the advantage is that these cookies can last for many months, so you won't lose them.

To decorate the cookies we are going to prepare the icing.

Put an egg white in a bowl and beat until it is white and you can make peaks with it and the peaks do not fall off.

Add the icing sugar little by little while stirring.

9- Add lemon juice and continue stirring.

10- Once the mixture is added, cover it with cling film, you can keep it in the fridge until you decide to decorate the cookies.

Croatian women traditionally use a pin to decorate, they dip it in the icing and then make some drawings on the biscuits.

You already have some cookies that you can use at Christmas even if you make them in summer!

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

Croatia

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Tangyuán - glutinous rice balls with black sesame from China

Tangyuan is a typical Chinese dessert. "Tang" means sweet and "Yuan" means circle or reunion.

This is a dessert consumed when families gather for special occasions such as weddings, during the ceremony when the woman arrives at the man's house. During the winter solstice festival (December 21), and the Lantern Festival (the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations and the first full moon of the year). This year, the Lantern Festival will be celebrated on February 12.

The Chinese people are very superstitious; eating this dessert on these special dates is a sign of happiness and family unity, as well as a good omen for a bountiful harvest.

Tangyuan is always served in even numbers, avoiding the number four, which is associated with death. Usually, six are served, signifying that things will flow smoothly, or eight, which is the number of prosperity.

They are made from glutinous rice flour and traditionally filled with black sesame. They are served in a sweet soup or tea.

If you feel like making this dessert, be careful with the flour. It is not regular rice flour but glutinous rice flour with much more starch. It is the same flour used for Japanese mochi.

Ingredients for the filling:

- 80 g black sesame.

- 30 g peeled roasted peanuts.

- 80 g sugar.

- 60 g Butter.

Ingredients for the dough:

- 250 g glutinous rice flour.

- 140 g boiling water.

- 70 g water ate room temperature.

Ingredients for the broth :

- 800 g boiling water.

- 22 g cornstarch.

- 125 g water + conrstarch.

- Sugar.

Method:

1- Toast the sesame seeds in a pan without oil. To know if the sesame is toasted, add a few white sesame seeds to see when they reach a slight toasted color.

2- Grind the sesame seeds ,peanuts and sugar, put it in a bowl, then add the butter, and mix well.

3- We are going to freeze the filling to make it easier to cut. Take a freezer bag and put the mixture inside, then flatten it so it looks like this:

4- Leave it in the freezer and meanwhile, we will prepare the dough. Put the glutinous rice flour in a bowl and gradually add the hot water, mixing well with a wooden spoon between each pour of water.

When the dough is no longer hot, use your hands to mix and knead it. Add the water gradually in case the amount of water of the ingredients become too much.

Once the dough is well combined and manageable, let it rest for 30 minutes (covered with plastic wrap). This gives the flour time to absorb all the water.

5- After one hour in the freezer , take the filling out of the freezer, divide it into portions, I had 40.We make balls with each of the portions and freeze them again so that the balls harden.

6- Now we weigh the glutinous rice flour dough and divide the total by 40, this will give us the weight for each portion. We make a cylinder with the glutinous rice dough and cut it into 4 parts. We leave the 4 parts covered and we take the amount of dough necessary for one portion, we make a ball with it, we are going to put a ball of sesame dough in it, you can see the way to do it in the photos below and better in the video of the recipe in YouTube, you have a link below.

7- We are going to make starchy water to cook the balls, we pour a little water into a saucepan and dissolve cornstarch in it, we stir it well and we pour it all into the 800 ml of water for the soup, we add sugar and we heat it up.

As soon as it starts to boil, we add the balls to the pot. At first you have to stir so that they don't stick to the bottom, but after a few minutes it will no longer be necessary.

The glutinous rice balls are done when they start to float.

8- The balls are served with a little water.

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

Receta en Español

China

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