How to cook cous cous

                                                                               Receta en Español


Cous cous is name after several other names like Alcuzcuz, cuzcuz, cuscus...

The word comes from the berber term 'al kuskus' that  means the amount of food that a bird takes into its beak and kneads into little balls to feed its offspring.

It is a typical dish in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

There is a way to cook couscous . Today I present the way they do it at Maghreb:

Ingredients

• 250 grams couscous (medium size).
• 50 grams butter.

Method:

1. Place couscous in a large dish. Fill a glass with water and a pinch of salt. With the help of your hands take a litle quantity of water from the glass and rub the couscous, do the same again and again until the glass of water is empty ,grains of couscous should remain loose.
2.  Let stand for 15 minutes , this way it  will absorb the water.
3. Spread some olive oil in your hands , then rub couscous with your hands.
4. Put couscous in a couscoussier to steam it, in case you don't have one, you can use a casserole and a sieve like in the picture:
   
5. Put water in the casserole, place couscous on the sieve and boil over high heat. Once it reaches boiling point boil for 15 minutes.
6. Place couscous again in the large dish ,stirr to separate the grains of couscous.
7. Take another glass of water and procede as in step 1.
8. Then repeat all the steps again, twice or more times,until the couscous is cooked.
9. Now spread couscous in the large dish, add butter and stirr well.

Here you can see an example , how you can cook couscous. (In french) :

http://www.amourdecuisine.fr/article-comment-cuire-le-couscous-111575933.HTML

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Algeria

Goxua

                                                                               Receta en Español

Goxua means sweet, it is a typical basque dessert very popular in Vitoria, city where this dessert was invented in the seventies of the XX century.

Ingredients (4 people):

• 400 ml milk.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (maizena). 
• 5 tablespoon sugar.
• 1 piece lemon zest.
• 1 tablespoon butter.
• 2 eggs.
• 200 ml cream (35.1 % fat).
• 4 sponge fingers or chunks of  dried muffins.
• 1 tablespoon Water.
• 1 cup rhum.
• 1 vanilla pod or a teaspoon grinded vanilla.
• 1 cinnamon stick.

Method for custard:

1. Put in a casserole almost all milk together with cinnamon,vanilla and lemon zest. Cook on a medium heat.
2. Put cornstarch in a bowl and mix with the remaining milk, stir well until there are no lumps.
3. Now add 4 tablespoons sugar and eggs to the bowl, whisk.
4. Once the milk of the casserole has reached boiling point. Pour that milk into the bowl with the cornstarch,eggs and so.
5. Put the mix on a low heat, stir continuously with a wooden spoon , keep on cooking until the mix gets thick.
6. Add butter, stir well and let custard cool.

Syrup:

7. Take the remaining sugar and put it in another casserole with some water. Put it on low heat until sugar is well dissolved, at that point turn the heat to high until it reaches boiling point and then turn the heat off.
8. Add rhum to the casserole.

Method:

          9.    Whip cream, add sugar to taste.

10. Place the Whipped cream at the bottom of the cup where we are going to serve this dessert. (1 tablespoon and a half per cup).
    
11. Dip sponge fingers into the syrup, sponge fingers should be well hidratated with the syrup.
    
12. Put sponge fingers over the cream.
    
13. Put 2 spoonfull of custard over the sponge fingers.
14. Let it cool into the fridge. You can eat it warm or cool, as you prefer.
15. Make some caramel and pour 2 spoonsfull over the custard.

Caramel:

16. Put 100 grams sugar and 50 ml water in a saucepan, heat over medium heat. Stirr until sugar is well disolved. Once it happens, stop stirring to prevent it to crystallize.  
    The moment the caramel begins to turn light brown, turn the heat off. 
    The remaining heat in the saucepan will be enough to finish the cooking of the caramel. More details on how to do a perfect caramel:  Caramel

 Here you have the result:

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools



Alava

Caramel

Does it happen to you that your homemade caramel has a burnt taste?

I have finally managed to avoid this problem. These are the steps to make a tasty caramel.

 1. Put sugar and water in a frying pan. The amount of water to pour will always be equal to half the amount of sugar that we have.

2 . Put the mixture of sugar and water in a metal container over medium heat and stir with a whisk until sugar is dissolved . Then stop stirring to prevent sugar crystallization .

3.At a certain temperature bubbles start to appear :

4. When bubbles are like the next photo , you must remain alert because the color will change soon .

5. The moment we see that it starts to change color , a clear brown,  we should remove it quickly from the fire ... It will keep some heat that will allow it to turn dark ,in case we leave it a bit more over heat it will take the burnt taste .

6. Caramel is already done , it hardens very quickly , at this point you can use it to decorate , this way it can serve for example to bathe a pudding bowl (later with the heat when we cook the pudding it liquefies slightly ) . If you want the caramel to remain liquid more time , what you have to do in step 3 is to add a little lemon juice or vinegar.

A splash of lemon juice is enough to mantain the caramel liquid while we are taking spoonfuls onto a cream for example.

Given that caramel dries quickly , it can remain attached to the pan or pot used to prepare it ,to clean it without problems , take some water and put over heat, sugar will come off easily.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Broad Beans ,vitorian style

                                                                               Receta en Español

Favas or Broad Beans are native to Asia Minor, although some scholars suggest that  they originated in Central Africa.

The Romans made ​​great use of this type of beans which they turned into flour to make bread.

They form part of the diet of inhabitants of Navarra and Álava.

Broad Beans are so consumed and produced in Álava that they have a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO);

This dish is one of the most typical if you want to make a meal based on food from the Spanish region of Álava.

Ingredients (3 people):

• 450 grams of beans.
• 120 g of cured ham.
• 60 g  of bacon.
• Oil.
• Salt.
• Water.

Method:

1. Shell the beans and wash them.
2. Pour water in the pot (just to cover the beans), heat until it boils.
3. Add the beans and salt ,then cook over medium heat 30 to 40 minutes.
   
4. Meanwhile, put the ham ,bacon and a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan ,sauté  it. Once it is ready, add  it to the pot of beans and cook for other 5 minutes until the broth thickens. 

5. Salt to taste. If the beans are large you can peel them.

My comments to the Recipe : It is an easy recipe to prepare, if we don't know exactly how much water to use, do not worry too much, if we have too much water, rather than taking and moving the ham and bacon to the pot, we do the opposite, we put the beans in the pan adding just a little water (not to let them dry).Of course, it would be better if we add just the necessary quantity of water from the beginning  ,this way we will not lose the vitamins that remain in the broth.

Talking about the taste of the dish, great! . Ham and bacon go very well with broad beans.

 

 

Álava



Pavlova

                                                                               Receta en Español

Pavlova is the quintessencial dessest of Australia.

It is named after the russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who was touring Australia and New Zealand in 1926. Both countries attribute themselfs the invention of this dessert.

Australians tell that Bert Sachse , chef at Esplanade Hotel at Perth , was the one who devised this dessert. Nevertheless, we can find a similar recipe in a cookbook entitled Rangiora Mothers' Union who was published in 1933.   

There is even a recipe that appeared in a New Zealand's magazine in 1929.

The important part of this dessert is the meringue, it resembles a ballerina's tutu.

On top of the meringue it is usually added whipped cream and fruits. I will add strawberries and tangerines, but you can use the fruit that you like the most.
The meringue should be brilliat and white to resemble the ballerinas' tutu.

Ingredients:

For meringue:

• 4 egg whites at room temperature.
• 1 cup of powdered sugar (200 grams). I used normal sugar grinded with a food processor.
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch. (maizena).
• 1 pinch of salt.
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar.

For the filling:

• 400 ml whipping cream with 35.1 % or more fat.
• 50 g powdered sugar.
• strawberries and tangerines.

Preparation of meringue:

1. Take a big bowl , clean and dry. It should not have traces of fat or water to achieve a good meringue.

2. Eggs should be at room temperature and not too fresh. Separate the egg whites from the yolks . Keep egg whites in the cleaned bowl.

3. With the help of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until they become white, then add cream of tartar. This would provide a firmer  consistency and you will get a softer and creamier meringue. 

4. keep on whipping until egg whites doesn't fall from the bowl when you turn it down.

                                                

5. Now you can start adding sugar, step by step. Don't stop whipping the whites.

6. Once there's only a tablespoon left to add, we mix it with corn starch and add together to the whites. Keep on whipping.

7. Now meringue turns bright, we stop whipping, add vinager and vanilla , then stirr with a spatula. (Corn starch and vinager make meringue more stable and does not crumble when we cook it in the oven).

8. Draw a circle of 20 cm diameter in a baking paper, this circle will be the size of pavlova, we can take a pan to draw this circle.

9. Turn paper down to prevent pavlova to touch the pencil drawing. (You can still see the circle) Place this paper on top of an oven tray, sprinkle some flour over it.

10. Spread meringue over the paper following the circle to have a rounded pavlova. On top of the pavlova leave a little gap to place the filling after cooking.

11. Preheat oven at 175 ºC, place the tray in the middle of the oven . Cook in oven for 1 hour and a half at 100 ºC  until pavlova changes a little its colour, it turns a little toasted. This way it will be crispy on the outer side and creamy on the inner side.

12. Let pavlova cool in the oven. Leave the door slightly open. You can use a spoon as I did.   See picture:

     I left it cool overnight.

 13. The following day take out pavlova, move it very carefully because it brakes easily.

Preparation of filling:

14. This filling should be placed on top of pavlova just ten minutes before comsuption, the reason is that meringue turns little by little softer once it has some cream on top. 

15. Prepare whipped cream.

16. Place the whipped cream  on top of the pavlova, then add strawberries and tangerines on top of the whipped cream.

This  is the result :

My comments to the Recipe:

I found this is a stylish dessert , it is also fresh and delicate. 

It has a delicious taste , crispy on the outer side and creamy on the inner side. 

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Australia

Whipped cream

                                                                               Receta en Español

Here I show you how to make whipped cream, and several tricks to get it right:

• It is very important the fat. You should use a cream of 35% or more . The more fat the cream has, the best consistency will have once whipped.
• Another important thing is the temperature of the cream, bowl and whisk. They should be very cold. Some hours before making whipped cream put everything into the fridge. While whipping the cream it es advisable to put the bowl over another bowl that has water and ice inside.
• Shake well the container of the cream before pouring it into the bowl, the fat should not be left into the container. 

Now it is time to whip , by hand or using a mixer or beater. 

Once you see that the cream starts to get a little thick, we start adding sugar little by little , keeping whipping.

You can taste it to adjust the quantity of sugar.

Once you see cream is whipped, it has the appearance of the picture. 

Don't whip it more time because it could turn into butter.

This are the ingredients :

1 liter of cream should have 150 - 250 grams of sugar. It depends on how sweet you like it!.

I did it with:

250 ml cream

50 g sugar

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools