You probably know that it is only my hubby and me so I thought making a full baking sheet of cake would probably be too much. I already have a plum sheet cake on here. So I figured I would make more of a coffee cake in a round form. This would probably not take as long to eat. So I got to working on it and once done, it took very little and suddenly I only saw half of the cake left. Where had it gone? My hubby looked all innocent, he claimed he had only eaten three pieces of cake. If these these pieces were very large chunks of cake I inquired. Well, this depends on how you define “chunck”. Well, well, well… I think it speaks for itself that hubby was so excited about this recipe. I loosely based it on the Recipe from Alfons Schuhbeck (in German). he is very famous, especially for this plum cake called Zwetschgendatschi, so I am happy to present this plum cake with yeast dough, lots of plums, and cinnamon crumbs.
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Guiso de lentejas can be translated as lentil stew and is thoroughly enjoyed in Uruguay. Unfortunately, I never had the priviledge of eating this dish in Uruguay, somehow my family was not that much into legumes. Legumes are probably enjoyed all around the world, Uruguay is no exception. Typically this stew is seasoned with different meat (here also bacon) and gets its characteristic flavor from the tomatoes instead of the broth. Plus point, it comes together in about half an hour and is definitely a hearty dish for the whole family.
Tomatoe tart or tarte tatin with tomatoes, pizza margherita with puff pastry dough, I don’t really know how you want to call this beauty, but you will find tomatoes simmered in caramel, baked with the dough on top and then turned upside down. Sprinkle with additional mozzarella, pine nuts and basil, and you can dig into this summery dish. I had the audacity of eating the entire thing in one go, approved of it and therefore decided to put it on the blog.
Warning, these classic empanadas from Colombia are a labor of love. If you are going to make everything from scratch like I did, you will need a few hours. However, one of the good things about empanadas is that you can prepare a lot in advance. You may wish to make the filling and/or the dough one to two days prior and then “only” need to fill and fry the empanadas the following day. But before we get into the details, what are empanadas exactly? Empanadas are dumplings, each Latin American country has its own variation, heck, every region and city will be proud of their particular empanadas. Since I was born in Uruguay, I am used to empanadas made with wheat flour. The traditional filling in Uruguay is beef (duh) and they are usually baked in the oven. Yes, of course I have a recipe for Uruguayan empanadas on my blog. Colombian empanadas on the other hand are made with cornmeal, if using the right one, they will be gluten-free. Most of the time they are not baked in the oven, but deep-fried. The filling varies, some use a piece of meat that is later pulled apart, I simply decided to use already minced meat. One particularity of Colombia is the “guiso” or “hogao”, this is a thick sauce made of tomatoes, spring onions, onions and herbs that are typically mixed with the meat filling. This makes them Colombian.
Today you will get Gougère from Switzerland! Gougères are cheese balls made from choux pastry. They are super light and airy. If you like eclairs and profiteroles, these are for you, a savory snack made from exactly the same dough, choux pastry is first boiled before eggs are added. If you are interested in sweet choux pastry, how about profiteroles with raspberry filling, black forest eclairs, eclairs with coffee cream or peanut butter filling. Below cheese balls are a wonderful fingerfood, snack, or can be served for any gathering.
Did you watch the Latin American Streetfood Show on Netflix? If you did, you most likely remember choripán, the Argentinian or Uruguayan version of a hot dog. When I watched the show, I remembered eating this hot dog in Buenos Aires lastly in 2016 and I was determined to make a version that also works in Germany. So I first had to find the chorizo sausage. I thought that was going to difficult, but then, surprisingly I found a small version in our regular grocery store. These were the Spanish ones, but I have to say, they taste very similar to the ones I remember from Buenos Aires. So yay to that. Next I wanted to make my own hot dog buns. I knew that they would be so much better. So I set out and tried different recipes. I was surprised when I realized that hot dog buns are much easier to prepare than I originally thought. You basically throw all ingredients together and then have to wait until you form the buns. Really not that hard. So here you go, you got homemade hot dog buns filled with a chorizo sausage (or in my case two as they were so small), the herb sauce called chimichurri (also homemade), and if you want, some red onion slices. Voilá, you have your Latin American version of a hot dog: choripán!
Today I am introducing Polish pierogi ruskie or dumplings with a potato and cream cheese filling! Recently I have had a craving for some of the Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish dishes my grandmothers used to serve. Neither of them are still alive. Thinking back, I have to say, I don’t even know how they did it. Many times when we came to visit, there would be a large family gathering with more than 15 people, yet they would always serve homemade food such as pelmeni, vareniki or pierogi. All of these require a lot of work and are dumplings that need to be formed by hand. I needed half an hour for two people, you can probably imagine how much time it took them for the amount of people visiting. My favorite are either pierogi or vareniki, which are either filled with cream cheese only or cream cheese with potatos. So today I am giving you the traditional pierogi ruskie.
Are you looking for the perfect soulfood for a cold winter day and which is prepared in a jiffy? How about torta de fiambre from Uruguay, which is sort of a pizza with lots of cheese and ham in between? I can assure you that it is going to disappear as quickly as you make it. I already introduced torta de fiambre on this blog. However, the previous version was the gourmet type and much more work than this classic version.
Today I am presenting chicken pot pie, a main course which is perfect for using leftover chicken, goose, duck or similar from Christmas. Obviously you don’t need to necessarily have leftovers, but you can start from scratch. Just saying. You may also go for other vegetables, traditionally chicken pot pie is served with carrots, mushrooms, and peas, but you can use whatever you have at hand and mix it conveniently with the meat. Regardless of how you vary the filling, you will get a very flaky pie crust and a creamy chicken and vegetable filling. This is perfect souldfood for a cold and chilly winter day.
It is one-pan pizza day! Are you in for a pizza with a thick yet fluffy crust? Then this pizza is for you. It reminds me a little of the one you find at Pizza Hut, but better as it is homemade and from scratch. You will need to invest about 25min into the dough as it has a stretching and folding technique you need to repeat every 5 minutes. But other than that it is mostly waiting as this is a typical yeast dough. I also made my very own tomato sauce. You can go with store-bought, but I didn’t mind chopping garlic and onion for this extra delicious sauce. Since this pizza needs to be made the night before and will be chilled in the fridge, I arranged for it to be eaten during lunch as we like to have our main meal during lunchtime. That’s the beauty of this pizza, depending on when you want to eat it, you can schedule accordingly.