Custard cream

                                                                               Receta en Español

Custard cream is a basic cream for fillings used for many desserts.

You can modify the quantity of each ingredient as long as you keep the proportion between the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 liter whole milk.
• 1/2 cinnamon stick or vanilla rod.
• 125 grams white sugar.
• 40 grams cornstarch.
• 4 egg yolks.
• 1 lemon rind.

Method:

1-  Put 450 ml of milk in a casserole together with the cinnamon stick and lemon rind, Put on a medium heat.

2-  Once it reaches boiling point , turn off the heat and let cool.

3-  Put sugar in a bowl , add sifted flour.

4-  Mix well, add 50 ml of milk.

5-  Mix well.

6-  Separate yolks from whites ,beat yolks.

7-  Add the yolks to the mixture of the step 5.

8-  Strain the cooked milk (step 2) to get rid of cinnamon stick and lemon rind. Pour a little of this milk into the bowl with the mixture with the rest of ingredients (step 7) , mix well.

9-  Once the mixture is homogeneous , pour the rest of the milk.

10-  Put the casserole on a low heat ,stir continuously until it starts to thicken, once it has the desired consistency turn off the fire and let it cool.

11-  You can keep it in the refrigerator protected by a plastic film.

Sour Cream

                                                                               Receta en Español

Sour cream is an ingredient very useful for a lot of recipes, it has a similar effect as greek yogourt. In fact you can use this yogourt in those recipes you have to use sour cream and you don't have it at hand.

But you should know that you can obtain sour cream in a very easy way. 

Don't mistake sour cream for fresh cream.

To obtain sour cream you need cream and yogurt, to obtain fresh cream you need whipped cream and butter.

Sour cream is an excellent sauce that can accompany boiled potatoes or endives, as you can see in the next photo:

Ingredients:

•   200 ml cream 35.1% fat.
•   50 ml yogourt.

   

Method:

1-  Take a jar made of glass, put the cream and yogourt inside the jar and mix well with the help of a spoon.



 2-  Cover the jar with a paper cloth , let stand for 18 or 24 hours in a place where temperature is 24 ºC.

I put the jar on a heater, after 18 hours it already had the consistency of a cream, as you can see in the pictures.

That is!.

Dja Sauce

                                                                    Receta en Español

This is a very popular Sauce in Benin, it is made with tomato's concentrate ,spices and dried prawns that provide the taste from the sea.  Benin is a big exporter of prawns, they even export to Europe.

This sauce can be used to accompany rice, Amiwo, Igname and Atassi. This is a sauce full of taste and very easy to cook.

Ingredients:

• 100 g onions.
• 4 tablespoons Peanut oil.
• 600 g mature tomatos.
• 2 dessert spoon ground dried prawns.
• 1 dessert spoon paprika.
• Salt.
• Pepper.
• 1 dessert spoon ginger.
• 1 dessert spoon ground garlic.

Method:

1-  Pour peanut oil in a pan , sautée onion.

2-  Add diced tomatos. Put on a low heat.

3- Crush tomatos with a wooden spoon, cook until the meat is well separated from the skin. 

4- Use a food mill to obtain the meat of tomatos without the skin and seeds.

5- Grind dried prawns.

6- Put salt, ground dried prawns, pepper, paprika, ginger and garlic together with tomato meat. Cook on a low heat for 30 minutes to have a concentrated sauce.
If you are using pear tomatos you don't need so many time, 10 minutes is ok.

My comments to the recipe

This is a sauce full of taste , it is a great sauce to accompany rice and other food.

Where to buy the ingredients

Dried prawns and peanuts oil can be bought in Madrid at General Margallo street, metro Tetuán.

Benín

khubz

                                                                               Receta en Español

khubz is a kind of bread typical in Middle East. It is similar to 'pita' bread but bigger and thicker.

To make this bread you don't need yeast, it doesn't get dry soon. Because of this reason it is wide consumed by nomads families who travel along the dessert.

Once you have baken this bread ,there is a hollow in the middle where you can place some other ingredient.

This type of bread is the oldest kind of bread in the world.

Ingredients:

• 125 grams all-purpose wheat flour.
• 125 grams wholegrain wheat flour.
• Warm water.
• Salt.

Method:

1. Place both kinds of flours into a bowl, make a hole in the middle and pour inside a little quantity of warm water.

2. Stir and add more water step by step until all the flour is well mixed and the dough is uniform.
3. Add Salt.
4. The result will be a sticky dough .Now you shoul knead it, to do it you should sprinkle a little flour in your hands.
5. While kneading,the minute you see that the dough is still sticky, you sprinkle flour once again in your hands and keep on kneading until the dough remains not sticky.
6. We should knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, to get a good dough for a bread.

7. Cover the dough with a towel and let it stand for 30 or 40 minutes.
8. Knead the dough a little more.
9. Split the dough into balls the size of your hand palm and flatten them.
10. With the help of your hands try to make that flatten ball bigger, that is turn them into thick pancakes.
11. Put parchement paper on an oven tray and place the breads on it.
12. Preheat oven at 200 ºC for 10 minutes.
13. Now cook the breads in oven for 10 minutes at the same temperature.
14. Once thay are baken you should wrap them in a towel so they keep warm. You should serve them warm.

My comments to the recipe:

It is amazing how this bread can rise even when you don't use yeast. This bread is very good to accompany all kind of dishes you can imagine. 



Arabia Saudita