Afghanistan

 By Shahid Parvez. Based on a file by User:Ssolbergj [GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Recipes from Afghanistan that I cooked: 

  Kabuli Pulao

  Butter cookies from Afghanistan (Kulche Birinjee)

Afghanistan on Internet:

http://www.afghanonline.com/recipes/




 By Christopher Killalea (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Afghanistan

coconut and guava sponge cake (Antigua and Barbuda)

                                                                             Receta en Español
Ingredients:

• 1 coconut.
• 8 guavas.
• 3 cups of flour.
• 1 cup of sugar.
• 2  eggs.
• 1 cup of milk.
• ½ cup soft butter.
• Yeast.

Where to buy the ingredients: it was difficult for me to find fresh guavas, I could find them as preserved fruit in a shop of latin products at Ramón de la Cruz, very close to Manuel Becerra. 

Method:

1. Open coconut , put aside water and keep the meat.
2. Use a food processor to crush guavas, then pass them through a sieve to get rid of seeds.
   
3. Mix guavas and coconut with the food processor.
4. Add flour and milk step by step.
5. Add butter, eggs , coconut water  and sugar, stirr.
6. Preheat oven at 180 ºC for 15 minutes.
7. Cook in oven for 1 hour at 180 ºC. At 30 minutes and every 15 minutes poke the cake with a knife, if the knife is clean when you take it out,the cake is done.
8. You can keep the cake fresh for 10 days if you wrap it using transparent film and put it in the fridge.

       

My comments:

It has a good taste. It is very important to get rid of  all seeds. It is not  pleasent to find them when eating the cake.

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

Favourite cooking tools

Antigua and Barbuda

Veal with tamarind sauce (Antigua and Barbuda)

                                                                                                                      Receta en Español

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• 225 g chopped mushrooms.
• 1 bunch of chopped chives.
• 2  tablespoon of soy sauce.
• ½ tablespoon sweet or hot paprika.
• 2 tablespoon parsley.
• 4 veal loin steak.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional).
• 1 chopped small onion.
• 3 chopped garlic cloves.
• 1 dessert spoon cornstarch.
• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate.  

Method:

1.       Pour oil in a pan and sautée onions and chives for 3 minutes.

2.       Add soy sauce and paprika , cook for 5 more minutes.

3.       Add parseley and set everything apart.

4.       Mix coriander, cumin and red pepper flakes, sprinkle over the meat.

5.       Take a tablespoon of the prepared mix of mushrooms and chives , place it in the middle of one steak, roll the steak leaving mushrooms in the inner side , use sticks to close the meat rolls.

6.       Fry for 5 minutes, set apart.

7.       In a pan  Sautée onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

8.       Add tamarind and cornstarch.

9.       Cook for 2 minutes.

10.   Serve steaks covered with the sauce cooked in numbers 7,8,9.

My comments to the recipe:

I find amazing the bittersweet taste of tamarind! , tamarind and meat are a perfect match.

Where to find the ingredients:

I bought concentrate of tamarind at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).
It is very strong , you should use just a Little of the concentrate.

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

Favourite cooking tools

Antigua and Barbuda

Black Bean Cakes (Antigua and Barbuda)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Here I present you this popular recipe of Antigua and Barbuda:

Ingredients:

For cakes:

• 2 cups black beans.
• ½ cup chopped onion.
• 1 and a half teaspoon of ground cumin.
• 1  tablespoon chopped chili pepper.
• 2 tablespoon olive oil.
• Salt.

For the Sauce:

• 1  small chili.
• 5 tomatos.
• ½  onion.
• Salt.

For coriander yogurt:

• 1/2 cup natural yogurt.
• 2 tablespoon chopped coriander.
• Half a lemon juice.

Cooking the Sauce:

1. Wash and cut tomatos and chili into small pieces.
2. Pour a Little oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and sauté until it gets golden.
3. Add tomatos, chili  and salt. Cook over medium heat  until tomatos are well done, that is when you press tomatos, they are  soft.
4. Pass the misture through a purée sieve.
5. Cook again over medium heat until sauce is reduced to de desired consistency.

How to do Coriander Yogurt:

6. In a bowl mix coriander, lemon juice and yogurt.

How to do Black Bean Cakes:

7. The night before soak beans for at least 12 hours.
8. Once beans are soaked, add water and beans in a casserole. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour.
9. Water should be evaporated almost completely , in case it is not evaporated cook a little more.
10. Add onion, cumin and chili to the cooked beans . Mix with a blender until you obtain a dough.
11. Take 2 spoons of the dough to make every cake. Fry every cake both sides in a pan for 3 minutes  or until you see them fried. 
12. keep cakes warmed until they are served.
13. Serve the cakes with a little sauce and coriander yogurt on top.

My comments to the recipe:

It is an original and tasty way to eat black beans. tomato sauce and coriander yogurt bring freshness to the dish.

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

Favourite cooking tools



Antigua y Barbuda

Coconut Pudding (Angola)

                                                                                                                      Receta en Español

Coconut desserts are typical in Angola. 'Cocada amarela' is the most popular, but today I present another dessert worldwide known made with coconut: Coconut Pudding.

We are going to cook it using microwave, an easy and fast recipe!.

Ingredients:

• 250g condensed milk.
• 4 eggs.
• 125 g grated coconut.
• 500 ml whole milk.
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch.
• 100 g sugar.

Method:

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.

Pour caramel at the bottom and sides of a microwave safe pudding baking mold.

In a blender combine eggs, milk, condensed milk , grated coconut and cornstarch, blend and pour over the caramelized sugar.

Cook in microwave at maximum power for 10 minutes.

Let cool for several hours, It is better to place it into the fridge during 12 hours and then unmold and taste it!.



Comments to the Recipe

It is delicious, condensed milk provides softness and sweetness . It is very easy and fast.

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

Favourite cooking tools

Angola

Funge

                                                                               Receta en Español



Funge

This is the typical side dish to accompany the angolan dish Muamba de Galinha, although you can eat it as a side dish, in fact it is a dish on its own, it is the only way of feeding for many angolan families.

It can be made from corn or cassava flour.

Ingredients:

• 250 grams corn or cassava flour.
• 1 liter water.
• Salt to taste.

Method:

Pour a liter of water in a casserole and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile take another casserole with a litle warm water in it, add a litle quantity of flour and stir until the flour is well disolved.

Once the water in the casserole is boiling add the disolved flour and stir.

Step by step add the rest of the flour, stirring continously to avoid lumps. The moment the mixture looks like mashed potatoes, keep cooking and stirring five more minutes to finish the dish.

To reach the desired consistency , place the mixture in a bowl with a little water at the bottom, cover with a wet plate. Keep the dough like that for 10 minutes.

To serve use a wet spoon so that the dough does not stick to it.



Funge as a side dish of Muamba de Galinha

My Comments:

This is a different way to eat carbohydrates. In Angola they eat it without salt ,but it is far more tasty when you add salt.
It is soft and goes very well with Muamba de Galinha.

Angola

Sopaipillas from Potosí (Bolivia)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Sopaipillas are a typical treat from Potosí, a Bolivian city.

In all festivals and fairs of this city you can see street stalls selling this sweets, together with chambergos and tawa-tawas, all of them made of flour and sweetend with honey or syrup. 
Today I present the recipe of Sopaipillas, not only typical in Bolivia, but also in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, U.S.A and Spain where they are called Sopaipas.

The origin of this treat is Spain, it was taken to America by the spanish settlers. The repice has changed a Little. This way, every place has its own recipe of Sopaipillas. 

Here you have the way they make them in Potosí, Bolivia:


Ingredients (70 simple sopaipilla):

-  200 grams margarine or butter.
-  230 grams ground panela (or Brown sugar).
-  4 eggs.
-  800 grams flour.
-  1 sachet yeast.
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder.
-  Cane syrup.
-  Powdered sugar or grated coconut to sprinkle over the sopaipillas.

Method:

1- Put in a bowl butter at room temperatura together with Brown sugar or panela, use a mixer to mix well. If you use ground panela the mixer will be good to grind it thinner.

2- Add eggs, mix well:

3- Add vanilla and flour, mix all the ingredients with encircling movements with the help of a spatula:

4- Add yeast and keep on mixing. Kneat the dough until you get an homogeneous mixture. Let stand for half an hour.

5- Sprinkle some flour over a Surface, spread dough with the help of a rolling pin, dough must be 1 cm thick.

6- Take a round mold ,about 6 cm of diameter and cut the dough.

7- Put baking paper over a baking tray and place the cut dough on it.
Preheat oven at 170ºC, then cook sopaipillas for 10 minutes at the same temperature, heat up and down.

8- Once sopaipillas are cooled , it is time to bath them in Cane syrup. Take a brush and paint with the syrup just one face of the half of the 'cookie', to form sopaipilla join two 'cookies' placing the cane syrup in the middle.

9- Then paint the top surface and borders. Sopaipilla can be formed by two 'cookies' or just one, always leaving the lower part without cane syrup. 

10- Sprinkle powdered sugar or grated coconut over the sopaipilla. And that is!.

My comments to the Recipe

It has a natural and wonderful taste , grated cocunut goes very well with panela and cane syrup, it is soft an delicate.
I made the recipe with margarine , I suppose with butter it is even tastier ,but it could be heavier.

Where to by the ingredients

Panela and cane syrup can be bought at latin food stores. I bought it at  Hermanos Machado 24 , Calle Collados. Metro quintana.

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

Favourite cooking tools

                                                                  By Caleb Moore (xrmap flag collection) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons