What's Cooking?

[Lelling 402]

After some cooking-based discussions, we decided to make a thread where we can share our various bakes & recipes with each other, as well as discuss different food-related ideas. We come from such different cultures & backgrounds and we had a lot of people interested in each other's foods - so feel free to share recipes, pics, etc. here  

[Skettical 6]

Wooo! 

 

Since we were also talking about pumpkin pie, this is the recipe most North Americans, to my knowledge, work from: https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18470/libbys-famous-pumpkin-pie/

I've made it myself and it is so good! I might use less sugar myself but  I do that with almost all American recipes, they like their food much sweeter, it seems. 

You can also replace the pumpkin puree with sweet potato, they're very similar in pie form  

 

 

 

[Villhelma 20]

I was talking about polish cuisine lately and I found out it mainly consist of a lot of bacon. My favorites are soups - and there are also soups served in bread (so you can eat the dish and you don't need to do them ). I am from Silesia, southern part of Poland, which language and cuisine is influenced by Germany (if I speak Silesian, people in other parts of Poland cannot understand me completely) and our favorite soup is sour rye soup.

It is soup made of soured rye flour and a lot of meat. First you need to make broth (preferably use smoked ribs for it). Then you add fried, cubed bacon with onion and cubed vegetables such as: potatoes, carrots, parsley root, celery root. You can also use raw kielbasa (also called white in Poland) - it can be added to soup as a whole or sliced - and button mushrooms. When all of the veggies are cooked, it's time to add soured rye flour. If you feel it is not sour enough, you can add also sour cream.

Best served with hard boiled eggs. Final dish looks like this:

 

[Skettical 6]

That looks delicious! I love Central and Eastern European soups and stews, I find them so rich and comforting and perfect for winter. I don't know where one could find sour rye flour in southern France but if I ever get a chance, I'd love to try that. 

I'm more of a dessert/patisserie cook myself, because I have such a sweet tooth and I was thumbing through some actual, paper cookbooks earlier looking for inspiration when I found one of my all-time favourite desserts. It's super sweet but amazing and the ingredients are easy to find just about everywhere. It's a Peruvian dish called "Suspiro de Limeña", which means "The sighs of a woman from Lima", Lima being the capital of Peru. It sounds better in Spanish... I translated it under the picture. You can find it online but if you can get it straight from the llama's mouth, right? :-P

I spent seven months in Peru in 2008 and I collected a few recipes, it's possibly the most delicious and interesting cuisine in South America, IMO. 

This picture isn't mine but it's to give you an idea of what a homemade version looks like.

 

Suspiro de Limeña (yields 8)

Ingredients: 

1 can condensed milk 

1 can evaporated milk

6 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup white sugar

4 egg whites

Cinnamon

*this recipe also calls for a little Port wine, "as needed", but if you don't have it or don't want to use alcohol even if it boils off, you can use water. Honestly, I've never had it with the Port meringue but it's what the book says.

Method: 

1. In a thick-bottomed saucepan, simmer the two cans of milk mixing constantly with a wooden spoon until it reaches the consistency of "Manjar Blanco" (basically, dark and thick - manjar blanco is what the Peruvians call what is more often known as "Dulce de Leche", look at the picture, it's the bottom layer :)) 

2. Add the beaten egg yolks and vanilla (Note: the recipe book doesn't say it but I'm pretty sure you either need to let the previous mix cool down or temper the eggs before adding to the mix. They'd cook and curdle otherwise, no? It's kinda a dark, caramelly custard sort of thing, you want it smooth and creamy and rich)

3. In a separate pan, put the sugar and cover it in the Port wine (Or water, you're making a syrup). Let it boil until it thickens to just soft ball stage. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks while slowly adding the syrup, beating constantly. (Note: Put simply, you're making an Italian Meringue)

4: Put the first mix on the bottom of a serving dish and cover it with the meringue. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top. 

 

Notes: I realised as I typed that the egg yolks are not what I would call fully cooked. This doesn't bother me personally but I don't see why you couldn't, after properly tempering the eggs and adding to the milk caramel base cook them a little longer like you would for a custard. 

For a quick version, I think you could probably get some "dulce de leche", mix in some evaporated milk to make it a little softer and lighter, simmer it for a little while before adding the eggs and proceeding from there. The stuff is expensive and hard to find in my area though while condensed milk and evaporated milk are everywhere and cheap. Also, Dulce de Leche is also sweetened so you'd get an even sweeter end product I expect... Hmm... Would require experimentation... Kitchen adventures? Yay!

Anyway, it's so, so delicious! I'm seriously tempted to go and buy the ingredients right now... 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Skettical

[Villhelma 20]

Oh, yes I think our soups are the best for cold winters. But I also love onion soup and I believe that came from France  Actually you don't need to buy sour flour, you can also make it. Here's a quick recipe:
5-7 tablespoons of rye flour
500-700 ml of water
4 cloves of garlic
5 bay leaves
5 whole allspice berries (dried)

Add everything into a jar and cover with piece of cloth. Store in warm place and stir daily. When it starts to smell a bit acidy, you have it ready to use

This dessert looks wayyyy to sweet for me  But I'll guess I will try it anyway, since it does not require any baking and I don't have oven right now. 

[Lelling 402]

For as long as I can remember, @Pippin's been mentioning eating banana bread every now and then and how great it is, and I've never had it before. So I decided to try and make some .

I've never baked bread in my life, and the last bread-type thing I made was a potica in 2015, so this endeavour is something I've been thinking about for ages, but always put off because I found it too daunting. And for some reason, today, I saw we had some extra bananas and I was like "today is the day". The banans called to me  

Behold, my first bread child!

Well, it's kinda bread. Banana bread is arguably more of a cake than bread  But it's called bread, and it's mine, so it's my first bread child!

I love how soft and fluffy it came out. And look at the bottom! Such good spongy texture! I'm so proud of my firstborn 

 

I was scared about the flavor but it also tastes super nice! Although I don't know how good of a judge I can be since I've never had any banana bread before  

 

 

And don't worry, I didn't burn it The reason it's so dark is because I added cinnamon. 

[Lelling 402]

Holiday update! Over the holidays, there's always a ton of baking in this house, and we always make at least one potica!

Also, bonus loaf of bread  

 

And this was my next banana bread child!

This time, with walnuts!  

(We started eating all of these on Sunday and I'm afraid to say they're all gone )