Yucca and Banana Cake

                                                                       Receta en Español

Yucca cake is the most typical dessert in Fiji Islands, it is also typical in other countries like Philippines.
Sometimes yucca is accompanied by banana, the recipe I bring today is with banana.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon sugar.
• 240 ml coconut cream.
• 4 ripe bananas.
• 1 Kg yucca.

Method:

1-  Cut yucca in half and peel it.

2-  Cut yucca alongside to get rid of the root that goes through the inner side:

3- Grate the yucca.

4- Put grated yucca in a strainer and crush it to get rid of the liquid.

5-  Put coconut cream and sugar in a bowl, mix well.

6-  Put bananas in other bowl and blend. Then put blended bananas into the other bowl that contains coconut cream.

7-  Add the mixture of coconut cream and bananas to the yucca and mix well.

8-  Line an oven proof recipent with parchment paper, put the mixture inside.

9-  Preheat oven at 175ºC.

10- Cook the cake in oven for 45 minutes at the same temperature, until it gets gold and you know it is cooked when you poke the cake with a knife and you take it out clean.

My comments to the Recipe:

To grate the yucca is very hard. 
Bananas must be black and ripe to give a sweet taste to the cake, otherwise you should add more sugar.

Where to find the ingredients:

Coconut cream is a kind of thick coconut milk, you can buy it liquid or powder, I bought powder to make the cream as thick as I wanted.
I bought coconut cream at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).

You can also buy it on the internet:

coconut cream



Fidji Islands

Kokoda (Fish marinated with coconut)

                                                                         Receta en Español

This is the most popular dish at Fiji Islands, it is a fish marinated  in lime or lemon.

When you look in a map, you can see that other countries at the Pacific ocean have similar dishes; from Alaska to Peru with its famous 'ceviche'.

At Fiji Islands they use a fish called Mahi-Mahi, it is ideal to marinate, it is a white fish without thorns.
Mahi-mahi can also be found in Spain!, We name it lampuga, it is typical from  islas Baleares, Valencia and Alicante , it is a seasonal fish (summer-autumm) very limited.
If you come from those regions of Spain try to make this dish using that fish.
Otherwise you can use cod or mackerel.

The dish can be eaten as a starter or a main dish. 

Ingredients (4 people):

• 1 mackerel or cod.
• Juice of 4 or 5 lemons or limes.
• 240 ml coconut cream.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped shallots.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped red pepper.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped green pepper.
• 8 tablespoon of a cucumber cut into chunks.
• 8 teaspoons of finely cut chilies.
• 8 tablespoon of finely chopped onion.
• 8 teaspoons coriander.
• 8 tablespoon of a tomato cut into chunks.
• salt and pepper.

Method:

1. Freeze fish to prevent any problem with anisakis.
2. Days after the freezing you can use the fish, defrost it , remove the skin and the thorns.
3. Cut fish into little pieces.
4. Put the fish in a non-plastic container, cover the fish with the lime juice. Cover with cling film and let cool in the fridge overnight. This way the fish will be cooked in lime.
5. Look at the pictures to see the difference before and after:

          

Before marinated

Marinated

     6.  Take 1/4 of the fish and place it in a bowl, mix it with 1/4 of the coconut cream.

     7.  Add 1/4 of each ingredient and stir.

     8.  Do the same with 3 other bowls.

     9.  Refrigerate until you are going to serve it.

Where to find the ingredients:

Coconut cream is a kind of thick coconut milk, you can buy it liquid or powder, I bought powder to make the cream as thick as I wanted.
I bought coconut cream at desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).

You can also buy it on the internet:

coconut cream



Fidji Islands

Alu Bhindi (Okra and potatos curry)

                                                                        Receta en Español

In Fiji Islands, almost half of the inhabitants have their origin from India. They reached the islands in 1879 to work like slaves at sugar plantations. When slavery was abolished ,most of them decided to remain in the islands, its descendants have reached a prosperous life with influence into the culture of the islands. Because of that reason, a lot of typical dishes from these islands are from India's gastronomy.

Alu Bhindi (Bhindi is how okra is called in hindi) is a dish very famous in India, I present to you the way they prepare it at Fiji Islands.

Ingredients (For 4 people):

• 325 g okra.
• 470 g potatos.
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds.
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds.
• 1/2 chopped onion .
• 3 chopped garlic cloves.
• 6 curry leaves.
• 1 chopped chili.
• Olive oil.
• Salt.

 Method:

1.  Heat oil in a big saucepan.

2.  Put onion, galic, mustard seeds and curry leaves into the saucepan and sautée until garlic is brown.

3. Add potatos cut in pieces and fry them a little.

4. Add okra cut in pieces:

5. Add chili and salt.

6. Cook on a low heat covered for 40 minutes, stir every 5 minutes.

7. Serve with pita bread.

Where to find the ingredients:

Okra can be bought in Lavapies, there are a lot of shops along Miguel Servet street.

I bought Mustard seeds and curry leaves in shop where you can find all kind of indian products:  desi gourmet   (Ricardo Ortiz 24, Madrid).



Fidji Islands

Germany



This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Recipes from Germany that I cooked:

  Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage).

Potato Soup from Berlin.





  

Pork knuckle with sauerkraut.






Black Forest Cake.

   



De Softeis - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 3.0, Enlace

Germany

Black Forest cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Last summer I visited the Black Forest in Germany , there I tried the famous Black Forest cake , I liked it very much, I could no skip this oportunity to make one of those marvellous cakes by myself.

It has become the most famous cake from Germany all over the world.

Its name evokes the darkness and mystery of this region, well known by its acid cherries from which they obtain a liqueur named 'Kirsch' or 'Kirschwasser'.

The combination of cherries, kirsch, cream and chocolate turn this cake into a tentation:

Ingredients for shortcrust pastry (25 cm diameter ):

• 120 g wheat flour.
• 1 teaspoon yeast.
• 2 tablespoon sugar.
• 1/2 sachet sugar vanilla taste.
• A pinch of Salt.
• 60 grams butter.
• 1 egg yolk.

Ingredients for chocolate sponge cake  (25 cm de diameter):

• 6 egg yolk.
• 3 tablespoon warm water.
• 200 grams of sugar.
• 1/2 sachet sugar vanilla taste.
• 6 egg white.
• 150 grams wheat flour.
• 75 grams cornstarch.
• 2 teaspoon yeast.
• 50 grams cocoa powder.
• A pinch of cinnamon.

Ingredients for the Whipped cream:

• 1  liter of cream ,at least 35.1% fat.
• 60 grams sugar.
• 1 sachet sugar vanilla taste.
• 3 gelatin sheets.
• 4 tablespoon kirsch.

Ingredients for cherries:

• 1  SauerKirchen pot (500 grams). They are seedless and with added sugar . 
• 3 tablespoon sugar.
• A pinch of cinnamon.
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch.
• 5 tablespoon kirsch.

To decorate:

•  50 grams black chocolate.
•  12  SauerKirchen (taken from the SauerKirchen pot).

To assemble the cake, you will need the shortcrust pastry, chocolate sponge cake and Sauerkirchen to be cold, becuase of that reason it is better to cook them on the previous day.

How to prepare the shortcrust pastry:

1.  Soft butter at room temperature.

2.  Put egg,sugar and butter in a bowl and whisk.

3.    Add sifted flour and yeast.

4.   Whisk until the mixture is uniform.

5.   Now knead the mixture, just a little until you get a little ball. Wrap the dough in a cling film , put it half an hour in the fridge.

6.  Meanwhile prepare a cake mold ;put parchment paper on the base and a little oil on the sides of the mold.

7.  Stretch the dough with a rolling pin, don't knead the dough , the more you knead it, the easier it breaks. Put the dough into the mold.

8.  Preheat oven at 180 ºC.

9.  Cook the pastry in the oven at 160 ºC, place it in the middle of the oven with heat over and below. Cook for 10 -15 minutes:

How to prepare chocolate sponge cake:

10.  Separate whites and yolks, put the whites in a bowl with a pinch of salt.

11.  Beat egg whites until they are consistent like in the picture, you can make some peaks that remains:

12.  Put the 6 egg yolks in another bowl together with 3 tablespoon of warm water.

13.  whisk for 5 minutes.

14.  Put sugar into the bowl , keep on whisking for 10 - 15 more minutes.

15. Add sugar with vanilla taste and keep on whisking.

16. Add cinnamon and whisk.

17. Add wheat flour, cornstartch and cocoa, all of them sifted.

18. Add yeast and mix all very well.

19. Add the beaten egg whites we prepared at point 11, mix little by little with envelopping movements.

20. Prepare another mold with butter or parchment paper, Add the mixture into the mold. Prehat oven at 200 ºC.

21. Put the mold into the oven and cook at 200 ºC for half an hour, with heat over and below the cake. It is cooked when you poke the cake with a knife and you take it out clean.

How to prepare the Sauerkirchen (cherries):

22.  Take the juice of the cherries pot with the help of a strainer.

22.  Mix the juice with sugar, cinnamon and kirsch, cook until sugar is disolved.

23.  Take a little of the liquid of the point 22 and pour it into a cup, add cornstartch. Mix well and pour it again into the casserole of point 22, mix well.

24.   Add Sauerkirchen into the casserole and let them cook a little, the juice must remain with a gelatinous consistency, don't stir too much , this way the cherries will not break.

Keep 12 cherries apart to decorate the cake.

Whipped cream:

25.  You can follow this tips to whippe the cream: whipped cream.

26.  You should take into account that you must add differents ingredients to whippe the cream, attention to the quantities of this recipe , we should add the sugar with vanilla taste , a part from the sugar. When the cream is already whipped ,it is time to add kirsch (see point 27,28 and 29).

27.  Take the gelatin sheets and put them 5 minutes into warm water.

28.  Now take the gelatin sheets from the water and put them in a casserole together with the kirsch. Put on a low heat, gelatin will disolve little by little, use your fingers to stir.

29.  Once the gelatin is disolved add the mixture to the whipped cream little by little, mix with the help of a spoon.

Assemble the cake:

30.   Take the shortcrust pastry , put it on the base of a removable mold for cakes (I put parchement paper on the bottom ).

Spread some prepared juice of the cherries over the shortcrust pastry (without the cherries) .

31. Cut chocolate sponge cake in 3 layers.

32.  Place the lower layer of the sponge cake over the shortcrust pastry.

33.  Put a layer of cherries, put more quantity in the middle, let the sides free.

34.  Use the mold to place the layers right:

35.  Put a layer of whipped cream to cover the cherries:

36.  Put the second layer of chocolate sponge cake.

35. Wet the sponge cake with a little kirsch.

36.  Add whipped cream to cover all the surface of the sponge cake.

37.  Put the third layer of the sponge cake , now you can take out the mold.

38.  Wet the sponge cake with a little kirsch.

39.  Cover the cake with the rest of whipped cream, cover the sides of the cake too.

40.  Decorate the surface with the 12 cherries, and some drawings with the cream.

41.  Grate some black chocolate with the help of a knife. Grate it into the shape of wood chips:

42.  Put the black chocolate chips over and on the sides of the cake.

Now yoy have the cake, you can keep it in the fridge.

Where to find the ingredients in Madrid

I bought kirsk at 'Corte Inglés' . I found the SauerKirschen at 'Mantequería Alemana' at Padilla 88  ,metro Diego de León.

Germany