A Quick Recipe For Dulce de Leche

Posted on | November 16, 2009 | No Comments

Dulce De Leche

Anyone who visits Argentina will quickly notice that people here are obsessed with the scruptiously sweet, smooth and creamy milk concoction that is dulce de leche.  And who can blame them? Dulce de leche bring much joy to Argentines.  Despite the fact that we relish it straight out of the jar, dulce de leche is best savored with cookies and pastries, flan, even toast, but the possibilities are endless.

Arrolladito de dulce de leche

Although you can buy dulce de leche at any local grocery store, making it at home need not be a daunting task.

The following dulce de leche recipe is one that combines the best ratio of ingredients (in my humble opinion).  Keep in mind that you can adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste.  I prefer mine a little bit less sweet so I’ve reduced the sugar by approximately 100 grams in this recipe.  Although I doubt the dulce de leche will have time to expire before you lick the jar clean, I’d recommend eating it within one month.

Argentina pastry with dulce de leche

Ingredients

• 2 liters whole milk
• 600g sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda*

Add the milk, sugar and baking soda to a pot large enough so there is some space between the top of the milk and the top of the pot, and place it over medium high heat.  Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.  Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer for approximately 2 hours.  It is important to keep the heat very low because the milk will boil over and the sugars may burn if you’re not careful.  When in doubt, turn the heat down (the worst that happens is you increase the cooking time).  Stir occasionally, but be careful not to stir in any foam that may have formed on the surface of the milk mixture.  After 2 hours check your mixture.  It should be turning a color similar to caramel.  You will most likely have to cook it for another hour or so, until it has a deeper color and the consistency of a loose but smooth caramel.  At this point you can either whisk the dulce de leche or strain it to make sure it is entirely smooth.  Once this is done, place it in a jar and let it cool.  When it is completely cooled, store the dulce de leche in the fridge.

*baking soda prevents the milk from curdling, leading to a smoother end product and creating a deeper caramel color

Beef Empanadas Argentinas – Recipe by Teresita

Posted on | November 15, 2009 | 10 Comments

Teresita's Beef Empanada

I very much enjoy teaching the empanadas Argentinas cooking class at my home because I get a chance to present this very traditional dish to people from all over the world. The empanada is probably the most world-known dish from Argentina. There are many kind of Empanadas; beef empanadas, corn (humita) empanadas, ham and cheese empanadas (jamon y queso), onion and cheese empanadas (cebolla y queso), but probably the most well know type of empanada is the beef empanada.

how to fill empanadas, filling empanada recipe

Beef Empanada filling ingredients:

1 pound of lean ground beef (500 grams)
1 pound of chopped yellow onions (500 grams)
2 Tsp of butter
2 Tsp of corn oil
1/4 cup of raising
1/4 cup of chopped green olives
2 hard boiled eggs
4 chopped spring onions, only the green part
2 1/2 of aji molido (ground red dry spicy peppers)
1/2 Tsp sweet and hot paprika
2 1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
Salt & Pepper to Taste

how to prepare picadillo

Preparation:

Heat the corn oil with the butter in a large frying pan with a heavy bottom. Sauteed the onion until they are transparent. Add the ground beef and cook over medium high heat, stirring often. Add the raising.  Season with salt and pepper. Add spices, and pour in 1/4 cup of hot water and let the filling boil for a couple of minutes. Once the beef is cooked, put into a bowl and keep in the refrigerator overnight.

filling the empanada

Empanada dough ingredients

1 pound all purpose flour (500 grams)
2 ounces of lard melted – You can substitute with butter (50 grams)
320 cc3 of salmuera – Salmuera is the mixture of 320 cc3 of hot water with one table spoon of salt left to be cooled)

Preparation:
Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and mix with all ingredients together forming a dough and let it rest for half an hour. Make small balls after you let it rest and roll them  into round shapes or use a large-mouth jar of 4″ diameter to cut them. Fold over and press with fingers to seal (repulgue technique covered at the class). An alternative to sealing with your fingers, you can seal by pressing the tines of a fork along the edges of the dough. Carefully place each empanada on a cookie sheet to bake.

Argentine Pastries “Facturas”

Posted on | November 15, 2009 | No Comments

Facturas Argentinas - photo www.bloggingwithmargaret.com

Ask any Porteño and they’ll tell you…Sundays when you visit anyone at their home in the late afternoon at mate time you have to stop at the local “panaderia” (bakery) of choice before and get them some “facturas” as your treat.

Facturas I guess would be the american equivalent of pastries. Facturas are a little different though…they come in all shapes and sizes and there’s a wide variety you can choose from. There are medialunas, a smaller version of the french croissant, that are made of manteca (butter) or of grasa (lard). There are churros – there’s plain ones or filled with dulce de leche (milk jam) or chocolate. YUM! Another option are the amazing Bolas de Fraile (rough translation would be the Monks’ Balls?) or also known as Berlinesas, which are large round pastries filled with thick sweet yellow cream and covered in white sugar. Pastelitos de Membrillo or Batata (sweet potato) are also a common traditional sweet treat in most latin american countries, you can find similar versions of these little cakes in Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, etc.

Most of them are made of the same basic recipe of flour, sugar and egg and then baked in a large sheet in a high-heat type oven…not your recipe for weight-loss if you ask me.

Other typical possibilities are: vigilantes (elongated strips of sweet pastry filled dough), miguelitos, cañoncitos (little canons filled with dulce de leche and powdered sugar), sandwiches de miga (thin salty sandwiches made of ham & cheese, roquefort and ham, pineapple, palm hearts, cheese and egg, cheese and green olives, etc.)

At the panaderia people order no less then half a dozen or a dozen facturas (“media docena” or “docena de facturas”) and pricing is very reasonable, around $1-2 peso each, particularly in neighborhoods that are not that commercial or touristy yet. A typical scenario is getting a paper number at the door and waiting for it to be called and then a salesperson will walk around the store with you and grab the ones you want. Other panaderias have a basket where you can choose on your own and get it wrapped at the counter.

Facturas are most definitely included in the long list of things not to miss when you are away from this beautiful and great city of Buenos Aires.

Créme Caramel

Posted on | November 15, 2009 | No Comments

Créme Caramel in a Spanish dessert and it is generally prepared with regular eggs, milk and sugar. Even though vanilla is the commonest flavor, there is a great variety that includes flavors such as almonds, pistachios, dulce de leche, lemon, and other fruit varieties as well. In the past, crème caramel used to be elaborated with pepper and honey, or with sugar, cheese, almonds, fish, cinnamon, spinach and confectioner’s custard.

It is traditionally cooked a bain-marie with caramel on the lower layer (which becomes the upper layer when it is served).

Once the cooking is finished, the mould is inverted so as to leave the upper side of the crème caramel covered with caramel. You can also try the powdered crème caramel whose preparation is very similar to that of the jelly.

In Argentina and neighboring countries, crème caramel is generally served with dulce de leche; however, some other people prefer whipped cream. There exist a third option which is a combination of both, dulce de leche and whipped cream separately served in the same plate.

Native Food From Argentina

Posted on | June 21, 2008 | 1 Comment

Today, I would like to talk about the flavors of my country Argentina. Argentina offers a diverse cuisine due to its multicultural influences.

To begin with, we should divide the country in four regions. Today, I will introduce the first one which is the central region, the land of the gaucho, and even though there is not much heritage left, we can still appreciate the asado, dulce de leche, mate and torta frita (fried cake). If we combine that with our Italian heritage then we will realize that pasta, pizza, especially the pizza canchera (only tomato sauce, condiments and coldly served), stuffed pizza, and stone-baked pizza are part or our culinary heritage.

The milanesa (breaded steak) is served in different forms such as stuffed, plain or a la napolitana; topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese; and, by the way, it has nothing to do with Naples in Italy.

From Spain, we have inherited, among other recipes, the cocido, a stew-like dish that have become our traditional stew that firstly came to represent the food people with scarce resources would consume, and with the passing of time it became a traditional dish liked by every social class.

We should not forget about our native meat that the gaucho used to eat before the arrival of the Spaniards, and with the introduction of pork, cattle and sheep the rhea meat, a typical animal of this land, appeared, and with it, exquisite dishes started to be made. Little by little our native meat cuts started to gain the place it deserves to have.

Comida Autoctona Argentina

Posted on | June 14, 2008 | No Comments

Hoy quiero hablar y referirme un poco a los sabores de mi pais….Argentina….

Argentina es una region multicultural y por eso ofrece un menú diferente, pero no menos gustoso que los del resto del mundo…., mas exotico, por menos conocido y digno de conocerse para halagar cualquier paladar por exigente que este sea….

Dividamos el pais en cuatro regiones y dediquemonos hoy a la primera…la zona central…la tierra del gaucho…que de gauchos nos queda poco, pero a el sobrevivieron, el asado, el dulce de leche, las tortas fritas y el mate. Si a esto le sumamos nuestra herencia italiana, nos encontramos con que las pastas, la pizza, especialmente la canchera, la rellena y la que se hace a la parrilla, hacen hoy dia a nuestro acervo gastronomico. Llegaron luego, las milanesas…rellenas, sencillas o a la napolitana, que nada tienen que ver con Nápoles. De España heredamos, entre otras recetas, el cocido gallego convertido hoy, en nuestro popular puchero, que como muchas comidas del resto del mundo, comenzaron siendo comidas de gente de bajos recursos para convertirse y continuar siendo hoy dia un plato gustado y requerido por todos los niveles sociales.

No nos olvidemos de las carnes autoctonas, que el indio consumia antes de la llegada de los españoles y de la entrada de la carne vacuna, porcina o bovina, la carne de ñandú , animal tipico de esta zona y con la cual se preparan unos exquisitos platos…..De a poco va ganando el lugar que tenia y que se merece por ser la autoctona

Dulce de Leche Recipe

Posted on | June 12, 2008 | No Comments

Dulce de Leche Casero (Homemade Dulce de Leche)

• 122 cubic inches of milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 20 ounces of sugar

In a casserole, put all the ingredients together. Cook them until boiling point. Keep stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. (In former recipes, it was advised to stir the preparation with a fig tree branch to give it a special flavor.) Lower the heat and continue cooking until it gets so thick that if it is put on a plate, the preparation would not slide. Remove from fire and place the casserole over another casserole containing cold water and stir until it is cold. For a more intense color, add a pinch of baking soda while cooking.