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.
Guys, I find it amazing how easy it is to make this two-ingredient vegan pumpkin pasta! Seriously, even if you are not into making your own pasta, I can definitely recommend making this one. You don’t even need a pasta machine, the dough can be rolled out by hand with a rolling pin, cut it into long stripes, and voila, you’ve got yourself delicious tagliatelle! I tried both options, tagliatelle by hand and also using the pasta machine to make spaghetti, both work wonderfully. As stated, this is vegan pumpkin pasta as it only contains pumpkin puree and all-purpose flour as its two ingredients. I find that so awesome!
You asked for it, so finally you get traditional Uruguayan empanadas! Yay! Empanadas are flaky pasties in the shape of a half-moon filled with juicy and seasoned beef and boiled eggs. Usually they are served with the herb dip called chimichurri. Just thinking about these delicious treats make me want to grab one. When I made a story on Instagram about empanadas, I was surprised how many of you asked for the recipe and how many were excited about them. You guys encourage me to continue posting Uruguayan recipes, even if they may not be as popular as others. So here goes.
