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!.

Soyutma Lamb

                                                                               Receta en Español

Lamb is a food largement consumed in Azerbaijan, today I present to you 'Soyutma Lamb'.

Soyutma means slow cooked, it is the key on this dish, it is a piece of lamb cooked very slowly to obtain a different texture and taste.

Ingredients (For two people):

•   1 leg of lamb.
•   2 medium sized potatoes.
•   1 medium sized onion.
•   Some saffron strands.
•   Pepper.
•   Some fresh mint.
•   Salt.

   

Method:

1-  Wash the meat. Then add salt and pepper to the meat.

Put in a casserole, cover with water and set fire on a medium heat until water boils.

2-  Once it reaches boiling point, you can observe some foam on the surface, get rid of this foam ant put fire on a low heat.

3-  Now add the whole onion.

4-  Now let it cook for 3 hours at low heat. After the 3 hours, add peeled whole potatoes, make some cuts to the potatoes, this way they can cook faster.

Add salt, pepper, mint and some saffron strands, cook until potatoes are done.

5-  Now you can serve it, put a potato for each people , the dish should be accompanied by some yogurt with garlic (tipical from Azerbaijan).

Where to find the ingredients:

I found the mint near Madrid mosque, at arab shops at Antonio Calvo street.

My comments to the recipe

This boiled lamb is very tasty, because it is cooked very slowly , all the spices match very well with the lamb as well as the fresh yogurt.



Azerbaijan

Südlü Plov (rice cooked in milk)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Plov is how people from Azerbaijan call the pilaf. This is a popular dish , there are more than 70 variations of plov.

Today I will present you an original plov, it is rice cooked in milk (südlü means milk), besides, it has dried fruits like dates, dried apricots and raisins. All of them are used in several dishes.

This dish has saffron too , an ingredient very common in Azerbaijan.

Ingredients (Two people):

•   1 cup basmati rice.
•   1 cup and a half whole milk.
•   75 grams butter.
•   50 grams raisin.
•   10 dates.
•    5 dried apricots.
•    Some saffron strands.
•    2 tablespoon sugar.
•    Salt.

Method:

1-  Put some saffron strands into a cup filled with a little quantity of boiling water (you can boil this water in the microwave if you want), cover the cup and let stand for 15 minutes to allow saffron to infuse.

2-  Wash rice and dried fruits.

3-  Mix in a casserole the rice, milk, butter, salt, sugar and water with saffron. Cook at low heat.

4-  Cook until you see 2/3 of the milk has been absorbed, then add the dates and dried fruits.

In this moment cover with a cloth and then the lid, let it cook at low heat.

It cooks very fast, better than giving to you a time of cooking, you should check from time to time and see if it has absorbed all the milk, then you must turn off the heat and let it stand some minutes still covered.

This is the result:

My comments to the Recipe:

¡This is a delicious rice!, it has a special softness thanks to the milk and butter, then the sweet and sour of the dried fruits. It is a luxurious rice, in accordance with the wealth of this country.



Azerbaijan

Barbados

Postdlf from w [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Addicted04 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Recipes from Barbados that I cooked:

Pudding and Souse

Tamarind Balls

Rhum Punch

 

Barbados

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

Pudding and Souse

                                                                               Receta en Español

Pudding and Souse is a traditional dish in Barbados,it is usual to take it on saturdays.

'Souse' is mainly pork and cucumber marinated in lime juice. This is a dish for brave people because one of its ingredients is the hottest pepper in the world Pimiento Scotch bonnet, it is much more spicy than a 'jalapeño'.

The parts of the pig usually in this dish are ears,hands and snout,but you can also use pork loin as I did :-).

The pudding that accompanies the 'Souse' is made of sweet potato, years ago they were used to add pig blood to give a darker color to the pudding, nowadays they use food colouring or leave it with the natural color of the sweet potato.

This dish has a good taste and it lasts a lot of days, given that it is marinated.

Take into account that we must prepare it at least 6 hours before lunch or better the day before.

Ingredients for Souse:

• 700 grams of pork loin.
• 1 onion.
• 2 o 3 cucumber.
• Pepper Scotch bonnet (or other type of chilli).
• Juice of 3 limes.
• Chopped parseley.
• 2 bay leaves.
• Some peppercorns.
• Salt.

Ingredients for the Pudding:

•   600 grams of sweet potato.
•   1/2 teaspoon of thyme.
•   1/2 teaspoon marjoram.
•   1 teaspoon of chive.
•   Pepper Scotch bonnet (or other type of chilli).
•   A pinch of sugar.
•   A pinch of salt.
•   60 grams of butter.

Method for the Souse:

1-  Salt pork loin both sides, besides, sprinkle some lime juice over both sides too, let stand for 30 minutes.

You can see at the pictures the differences after 30 minutes. 

2-  Wash the meat and put it in a pot with some boiling water , bay leaves and peppercorns. Let it cook for 1 hour at medium - low heat.

3- Place the meat under cold water to let it get cool fast , then cut it into stripes 1 centimeter dick. Cut cucumber into slices , cut onions in little pieces. Place everything in a crystal bowl.

4- Add salt, lime juice and some water until all the ingredients are covered. Let stand at least for 6 hours (at room temperature).  If you let it stand more time it will be better. It must be served at room temperature accompanied by the sweet potato pudding.



Method for the Pudding:

5-  Peel and grate the sweet potatos.

6-  Instead of grating the sweet potato you can also use a food processor to crush them.

7-  Put the sweet potato in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients for the pudding (thyme, marjoram, sugar, salt, chive,Pepper Scotch bonnet) , mix well.

  

8-  butter  an oven proof recipient , then put the pudding inside and pour the rest of the butter over the pudding.





 9-  Preheat oven at 350 º C for 10 minutes, then cook for 30 minutes at the same temperature.

My comments to the Recipe

The lime sour mixed with the pudding sweet is a great mixture, besides the spicy is a very refreshing combination. Because of the lime the chilli itching vanish little by little after some days.





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