Lemon Sugar Cookies

A few weekends ago it was a fabulous day in Santiago, not simply because of the weather, though it was a fairly nice winter day, but because a day at the market produced the most wonderful results.  On a Saturday, I finally managed to make it out of the house at a reasonable hour, meaning there was time to go to La Vega Central, the huge fruit, vegetable, and all purpose market in the center of the city.

Hummus

Being in a new place like Santiago, here are a few of the things I’ve learned recently:

There’s not a lot of Middle Eastern food in Chile
1 cup of dried chickpeas produces a lot of cooked chickpeas
I’m willing to pay an obscene amount of money for tahini

Pastéis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts)

Now that I’ve graduated, now that I have my diploma in hand and I’m in the workplace, I can admit to the world what I’ve already admitted to most of my friends. I used my final presentation for Portuguese as an excuse to bake.

Quinoa salad with avocado and lima beans

Don’t be afraid of the title. Lima beans can be tasty. And this recipe proves it. I love quinoa and all year in my co-op, I couldn’t understand why so few people in our house made it.  It’s healthy, it’s easy to make, and it’s a delicious base for so many different meals and side dishes.  As such, for my summer, El Comidista meal, with Summer Lasagna, Roasted carrots and cauliflower with orange, and Arroz con leche, I decided to make a tasty quinoa salad to round out my meal.  I’d had my eye on this recipe for some time, even though it contains those dreaded lima beans.  Rest assured, though, this quinoa comes out delicious and refreshing.

Quinoa salad with avocado and lima beans (adapted and translated from El Comidista)

Yield: Serves 4 people, almost a meal unto itself

Ingredients:  
400 gr. of quinoa
400 gr. of large lima beans (can be frozen)
1 avocado
200 gr. of radishes with their leaves
100 gr. of oak leaf lettuce
1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 dried red peppers (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Begin with the dressing. Using the blade of a knife, crush and peel the cloves of garlic. Mix them in a bowl with 8 tablespoons of olive oil, the cumin, crushed red peppers (for a bit of spice), salt and pepper. Set aside.
2) Prepare the quinoa according to the directions on the package. When it’s finished cooking, set aside and allow to cool.
3) While the quinoa cooks, boil the lima beans in heavily salted water for 4 minutes. Strain and rinse with cold water before using your hands to remove the grey skin that covers the beans. (I forgot to do this and the salad was still good)
4) Remove the leaves from the radishes. Choose the good leaves, wash and dry them, set aside. Then, wash the radishes well and cut them into small pieces.
5) Peel the lemon as seen in this video, and put it in the large bowl in which you plan to serve the salad. Add the avocado, peeled and cut into chunks, and coat it well in the lemon juice so it doesn’t turn brown.
6) Combine the lima beans, quinoa, radishes, radish leaves, and the the lettuce in the bowl with the avocado. Remove the crushed garlic from the vinagrette, pour over the salad, and mix. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding)

Rounding out my El Comidista meal of Summer Lasagna, Roasted cauliflower and carrots with orange, and Quinoa salad with avocado and lima beans, I decided to divert from the theme a bit and make Arroz con Leche.  It’s a super easy, tasty dessert which won’t break the bank to make (especially important to me now in Chile).  The only thing I might have to worry about is super picky arroz con leche eaters, though I confess I don’t have too many Latino friends here who might be offended by my less than perfect arroz con leche.

While still a cold dish for my Comidista meal, I found this recipe not on Mikel López Iturriaga’s blog, but in my stash from the cooking school I had gone to in Madrid and from which emerged other delicious Spanish foods like, Tortilla de Patata.  I made this dish earlier in the school year for my first cook in my coop and not really been happy with the result, so I decided to make it again for this cook.  I also wanted to surprise my friend who loves arroz con leche.  While I was still not entirely pleased with the result (I need to make it a bit thinner for it to be true arroz con leche) I was glad to see that my friends really enjoyed it.

However, in order to find the desired consistency next time, I plan to follow the advice of Smitten Kitchen.  She suggests you cook this until a certain amount of liquid has been absorbed, I’d say all but 20 percent, and as it cools it will thicken.  This is especially true when you cool it in the fridge, which I recommend doing along with making it the night before.  That way, the arroz con leche has time to both thicken and cool down so the next day you're not waiting to serve your dessert.  As a final tip, I suggest using a very large pot for this recipe so the milk doesn’t accidentally boil over while the lid is on.  Just a piece of advice which I learned from experience...

Arroz con Leche or Rice Pudding (adapted and translated from Cocina Cayena)

Ingredients:
1 cup arborio rice (or other short grain rice)
5 cups of whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup of sugar
1 lemon peel
1 orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
ground cinnamon (for garnish)

Directions:
1) In a large pot, heat the milk, cream, sugar, the lemon and orange peel, and the cinnamon stick.
2) Once the milk boils, add the rice and let it simmer for about 20 minutes with the lid on, until the rice is tender.
3) Remove the lid and allow the rice to cool and absorb the rest of the milk and cream
4) Remove the lemon and orange peel, and cinnamon stick. Divide into individual bowls or cups. Top with ground cinnamon and serve.

Roasted carrots and cauliflower with orange

It’s not summer here in Chile (in fact it’s quite cold with none of the buildings having central heating) but I wanted to continue my stream of delicious summer dishes for everyone back in the U.S.   As such, this entry features yet another dish from my Comidista summer dinner, which I introduced with previous entry of Summer Lasagna.  Having free reign to choose whatever recipes I wanted for this meal, I decided I needed to have a theme to narrow down my choices of what to make. Looking over my list of recipes to make, I realized I had a ton of from, my favorite Spanish food blogger, which I’d never had the chance to prepare.  Seizing the opportunity to experiment, I decided my meal theme would be cold foods (for our hot summer weather), using healthy, fresh produce, and recipes from Mikel López Iturriaga’s blog, El Comidista.

One of the side dish recipes I settled on were these roasted carrots and cauliflower with orange. Great for a summer day, these have a zesty flavor and can be served warm or cold.

Roasted Carrots and Cauliflower with Orange (adapted from El Comidista)

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
2 small heads of cauliflower (one white and the other green or purple or both white if you can’t find other colors)
4-8 carrots, depending on their size
1 large orange
1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of spicy paprika
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Fill a large pot with water, salt it, and put it to boil over high heat.
2) Peal the carrots and cut them into pieces. Cut off the trunk of the cauliflower leaving only the florets and break it into pieces. Set aside.
3) Preheat the oven to 445ºF.
4) Boil the carrots in the pot of water for 5-10 minutes or until they’re a bit soft, but not cooked all the way. Remove the carrots from the water. Add the cauliflower to the same water and boil for a minute. Rinse both carrots and cauliflower. Drain well.
5) Cut the orange and the lemon in half and set aside one half of each. Juice the other two halves and mix the juices.
6) In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoons of the juice with the cumin, paprika, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper.
7) Place the cauliflower, carrots, and unsqueezed halves of lemon and orange on a baking sheet. Cover with the marinade, using your hands to mix, making sure the carrots and cauliflower are evenly coated. Place in the oven for 20 minutes until the cauliflower is soft and golden. If it’s browning too quickly, put some aluminum foil over top.
8) While that’s in the oven, mix the combined orange and lemon juice with 8 tablespoons of olive oil, the brown sugar, salt and pepper. Toss the dressing with the roasted carrots and cauliflower and serve. If you’d like it a bit bitter, you can add the juice from the roasted orange and lemon to the dressing.

Chocolate, Cherry, and Hazelnut Biscotti

As I’m embarking on my trip to a new job, (in the New York airport right now in fact), I’d like to use this recipe to reflect on last summer. 

One of the wonderful things about any good job is great co-workers. Last summer, I had many of them since I had two jobs. However, a truly awesome co-worker is one who, among other things, also gives you tasty recipes.  The office manager at Kingston Family Vineyards, is one of those people. A wonderful cook, Barbara gave me some great recipes last summer, many of them which I have not even had the chance to try yet. However, in my last cook ever at my co-op, I decided to try something totally new and make one of Barbara’s recipes. It did not disappoint.

Though I was somewhat nervous about trying my hand at making biscotti for the first time ever, on such an important occasion, I decided to do it. It wasn’t the easiest dessert to make, but it certainly wasn’t one of the most complicated I’ve made either. It also, unsurprisingly, went over well with my co-op mates. Now that I’m over my fear of making biscotti, I’ll probably be making this, and other kinds, again soon. Thanks, Barbara!

Chocolate, Cherry, and Hazelnut Biscotti (adapted from Donata Maggipinto)

Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup port or other sweet red wine
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (I didn't have any and it didn't seem to be missing anything)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F.
2) Place hazelnuts baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring once. Turn nuts out onto a towel. Roll up towel; rub off skins. Chop nuts.
3) Pour wine in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 1 minute. Add cherries, and let stand for at least 30 minutes. Drain well.
4) Place sugar and chocolate in a food processor; process until chocolate is finely ground.
5) Place vanilla, egg, and egg yolk in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until blended (about 1 minute). Add sugar mixture; beat 1 minute.
6) Combine flour and remaining dry ingredients. Stir with a whisk. Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture, beating until blended. Add hazelnuts and cherries; beat just until blended. (The dough will be very stiff.)
7) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly several times. Divide dough in half; shape each portion into an 8-inch-long roll. Place rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; pat each roll to a 1-inch thickness.
8) Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool on a baking sheet for 10 minutes.
9) Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
10) Cut each roll diagonally into 12 slices. Place, cut sides down, on baking sheet.
11) Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Cool completely on wire rack.