Category Archives: Family Recipes

Fish and Seafood

Salt Cod with Peppers

Bacalao al Piemiento Morron

(Recipe from Gabriela Barraza)

Garbriela’s Salt Cod with Peppers is a Mexican version. Here it is eaten traditionally on Christmas Eve.

  • 3 lbs salt cod, soaked, cleaned and cubed
  • 6 lbs.green peppers, roasted, deveined, and halved
  • 3 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic

Fry garlic and onion until tender. Add green peppers and cook, stirring, until soft. Add the salt cod cook over low flame until done. May add a little olive oil if desired.

Don’t let salt cod recipes scare you off. Just make sure you really soak the cod for many hours and change the water often in order to get the saltiness out.

When my friend Linda and I went to Lisbon in 1991, we took a tram northiward along the coast and finally came to the end of the line. Being hungry, we went into a tiny restaurant that from the looks of it was the proprietor’s living room. No space to waste. The place was crowded. and looked like a good bet for some good food. Since one of the only things I recognized on the menu was Salt Cod, and since in Portugal it is something like the national dish, I ordered it. With wine, of course. I could not beliieve how delicious it was and I keep looking for more recipes, trying to equal what I had at the end of the tram-line.

Desserts and Sweets

Maria Teresa’s Apple Pudding

María Teresa’s Very Special Apple Pudding from Chile

This recipe is so simple, has absolutely no flour in it (though it does have all that sugar in the sweetened condensed milk), and is scrumptious. It is one of those concoctions that you see one moment, and the next, it’s gone, it gets eaten so fast.

  • 2 lbs. of apples, peeled, cored, and halved
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 4 egg whites beaten stiff with 2 t sugar

 

In a blender or food processor, mix the milk, apples, egg yolks, and half the nuts. When well blended, add the baking powder. Stir in the rest of the nuts by hand (to avoid grinding smaller in the blender).

Turn into a buttered, oven-proof dish. Place in a 350 F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until set.

Meanwhile, make a meringue with the egg whites and sugar. Spread on top of the pudding and return to oven until meringue is golden.

This pudding is good chilled before serving (if it lasts that long).

Note from Maria Teresa, Oct. 21, 1982

Maria Teresa's Apple PuddingIn her note, Maria Teresa states that her Apple Pudding normally serves 8 unless Juan Esteban eats the whole thing first…

Soups and Stews, Vegetables and Salads

Cabbage and Potato Soup

  • 1 medium onion, minced
  • 2 T butter
  • 3 cups shredded cabbage
  • 1/4 cup chopped cabbage
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 t salt
  • 2 cups diced potato
  • 8 oz. medium cream
  • Minced parsley
  • Dash of paprika

Cook onion slowly in butter until golden. Add cabbage, water, salt, and potato. Cook until tender (15-20 minutes). Add cream and reheat, but do not boil. Serve sprinkled with minced parsley and a dash of paprika.  Servings: 6

Eggs and Cheese

Huevos Motuleños

  • 3 corn tortillas, heated
  • 3 T cooked black beans
  • 2 eggs
  • Mexican cooked red sauce
  • 1/4 cup green peas, cooked
  • 1 T grated cheese

Spread 2 tortillas with beans. Heat sauce. Fry eggs. Place 1 beany tortilla on a plate, top with a fried egg, and repeat. Top with last tortilla. Pour hot sauce over top of the stack and sprinkle peas and grated cheese on top.

Serve immediately

Meat and Poultry

Baked Pork Chops in Sour Cream

Polish Baked Pork Chops in Sour Cream

Wieprzowina w Smietanie

  • 4 thick-cut pork chops (3/4″)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 T sugar
  • 2 T vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Season the pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper and brown in butter. Mix together vinegar, sugar and water and pour over the pork chops. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer gently about 1-1/4 hours or until chops are tender.

Add sour cream and heat without boiling.

Pork chops

Sour cream is used primarily in the cuisines of Europe and North America, often as a condiment. It is a traditional topping for baked potatoes, added cold along with chopped fresh chives. It is used as the base for some creamy salad dressings and can also be used in baking, added to the mix for cakes, cookies, American-style biscuits, doughnuts and scones. It can be eaten as a dessert, with fruits or berries and sugar topping. Also, it is sometimes used on top of waffles in addition to strawberry jam. In Central America, crema (a variation of sour cream) is a staple ingredient of a full breakfast.

Sour cream. (2016, December 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:41, December 28, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sour_cream&oldid=757081067.

Desserts and Sweets

Halvah

Halvah is an addictive Middle Eastern sweet traditionally made with honey and ground sesame seeds, called tahini, and often studded with nuts. Apparently there are versions made with semolina flour, seeds, beans, and even vegetables, but I have not tried any of those. I can’t get past the honey and tahini combination. It’s just too good. Especially swirled with dark chocolate.

An uncooked Halvah:

  • 1 cup ground sesame seeds (tahini)
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup toasted, slivered almonds, optional

Mix all ingredients just until creamy but not sticky. Form into balls or place in a pan lined with waxed paper and weigh down with heavy weight. Store in refrigerator.

A cooked version of Halvah:

2 cups honey
1-1/2 cups sesame tahini
1/2 to 2 cups toasted sliced almonds, pistachios, or other nuts (optional)

Place the honey in a heavy pot and the tahini in a smaller pot, and set the tahini aside for the moment. Heat the honey over medium heat to soft ball stage (235-240F or 118-120C), which is when a drop of the honey placed in cold water forms a soft ball that loses its shape when taken out of the water.

Once honey has reached soft ball stage, set it aside and place the pot of tahini on the heat until it reaches 120F (50C).

Pour the heated tahini into the honey and stir well with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and well combined.  Add the nuts and continue to stir as the mixture cools and stiffens. This may take five to eight minutes.

Pour into a greased cake pan or spring pan. Let cool to room temperature, then wrap the whole pan tightly in plastic wrap and store in fridge for 24-36 hours. Crystals should form in the halvah during this process. Remove halvah from pan and cut into slabs with a sharp knife.

Wrap individual slabs tightly in plastic wrap. Keeps well for several months in the fridge if tightly wrapped.

Breads and Pancakes, Desserts and Sweets

Spudnuts

Spudnuts are potato-based doughnuts–heavier and more substantial than regular raised doughnuts.

  • 2 pkg. yeast
  • 1 cup lukewarm potato water
  • 2 t sugar
  • 4 cups scalded milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2  salt
  • 5 eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups freshly mashed potatoes
  • 15 cups flour, approximately
  • 1 cup shortening, melted

Dissolve yeast in potato water with 2 t sugar. Let stand 10 minutes. Add yeast to cooled milk, then sugar, shortening, salt, potatoes, eggs, and 1 t nutmeg if desired. Stir well. Add flour to make a very soft dough.

Let rise to double. Punch and let rise again. Roll on floured board to 1/2″ thickness. Cut into doughnuts. Place on floured paper and let rise till doubled.

Fry in deep fat placing underside up. Dip while hot in following glaze: Simmer 3 cups sugar, 3/4 cup butter and 1 cup hot water for 5 minutes. Add 2 t vanilla. Keep over hot water to avoid granulating.

Servings: 8 to 10 dozen

Fish and Seafood

Octopus in its own ink

PULPOS EN SU TINTA

(Recipe from Gabriela Barraza)

Wash octopus with lime juice and rinse well. Cut up and cook. (Emilia, the maid, cooks them for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker without water, and then chops them.)

Finely chop garlic, onion, tomato and parsley. Sauté the onion and garlic lightly, then add tomato and parsley. Allow to cook. Add octopus pieces, a bay leaf and the octopus ink. A bit of red wine may be added.

Personal comment:

I’ve heard that there’s a way to cook octopus very slightly, just to the right point so that it’s tender and juicy–a matter of a few minutes. I’ve never been able to do it. My method of cooking octopus tender is to throw it in a large pot, cover with water, cover the pot and put on the stove for a minimum of two hours. You don’t have to worry about anything except keeping the level of water high enough to cover the carcass. Once a fork glides smoothly into the thickest part of the body, drain and cool. Once it’s cool, remove the fatty parts and the suckers on the tentacles, if you wish (all that can be slid off with your fingers), and chop the now buttery-tender tentacles and body (discarding the hard eyes), and use as desired. By the way, the ink must be removed before boiling!

Noodles and Dumplings

Poppy seed noodles

These are a sweet noodle. Sinfully. And with butter, too.

  • 8 oz. noodles
  • 2 tablespoons fat
  • 4 oz. ground poppy seeds
  • 4 oz. sugar

Cook the noodles according to instructions on the packet and drain. Mix with the melted fat. Stir the sugar and poppy-seeds together and sprinkle this mixture on to the hot noodles and serve.

Appetizers, Fish and Seafood

Ceviche Acapulco Style

Ceviche is a delicious white fish marinated in lime juice, Acapulco style.

Ceviche is made throughout Latin America, and there are many styles, although all involve marinating (or “cooking”) raw fish in lime or lemon juice. Historians claim that ceviche originated in the coastal regions of Peru and was spread during colonial times to other parts of the Americas.

Acapulco-style ceviche is typically made with chopped tomatoes, onion, chile peppers, and fresh coriander leaves. This particular version also includes optional olives, garlic, and parsley.

Fish by Stella, 2010

Ingredients for Acapulco-style Ceviche

  • 1 lb. white fish such as dorado (mahi-mahi)
  • Lemon or lime juice
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 T parsley, chopped
  • 4 T coriander leaves, chopped
  • 2 T green olives, chopped
  • 1 small clove garlic, crushed
  • salt

Cut fish into small cubes or strips. Cover with lemon or lime juice. Refrigerate for 6 hours or more, turning occasionally to make sure all the fish is immersed well in the juice. Drain and rinse slightly under cold water to remove excess lemon juice.

Combine tomato, onion, chile peppers, olive oil, parsley, coriander, olives, garlic and salt. Pour over fish. Allow to sit in fridge, covered, for at least 1 hour before serving.

Serve with crackers or tostadas (tortilla chips).