I first made this Ecuadorian dish last month for my mom’s birthday.  Since then, I’ve made it several more times.  According to Laylita’s Recipes, "a menestra is a popular stew type dish of lentils or beans and served with rice, plantains, salad and your choice of protein: beef, pork, fish, chicken or an egg  (vegetarian option)."  Using pinto beans in this recipe, the meal went over very well with my family.  Although the cooking time was about two hours, the preparation for the bean stew was very fast and simple.  After simmering in red onions, tomatoes, crushed garlic, achiote (annatto powder), cumin and chili powder, the beans were ready and tasted so good — so full of flavor.  Following the recipe instructions, I served the beans with rice, ripe plantain (my favorite!), avocado, tomato and onion curtido and salad.  To learn more about a menestra, stop by Laylita’s Recipes.

Paz 

Well, here’s another photo from the last snowstorm we had in February — a couple walks their dog in Central Park.  Thankfully, today, there’s only a trace of the snow in the city.   Although Fall is my favorite season, I’m SO looking forward to Spring.

The dog in the photo reminds me of the animals affected by the quakes in Haiti and most recently, Chile.

If you’d like to help the animals survivors in Haiti, go here.

If you’d like to help the animal survivors in Chile, go here.

GreaterGood.org runs both programs.  The charitable organization provides care for not only people but rescued animals.  You can read more about them on their site.   

Or you can simply provide aid to the local animal shelter/rescue organization in your neighborhood.

Non human animals need help, too.  

Paz

If you’re interested in helping the earthquake victims of Chile and are unsure of where to make a donation, you might want to consider the international disaster relief agency ShelterBox.  They deliver emergency shelter (a ten- person tent, blankets, water purification, storage equipment, a stove, cooking utensils, basic tools, children’s activity pack and other vital items) to people affected by disaster worldwide.         

I first mentioned ShelterBox after the quake in Haiti.   They’ve helped many people there and are now helping the earthquake victims of Chile.  You can read about it here and here. 

To read more about ShelterBox and or make a donation, go here.

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Recently, I received some awards from very nice food bloggers.  Thanks for making me feel honored and special.

Kat from Our Adventures in Japan passed on the Sunshine Award to me.  

According to Kat, "The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogging world." The rules once this award is received are as follows:

1. Post the logo on blog.
2. Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers.
3. Link the nominees
4. Let nominees know they have won this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person you received this award from.

Sophie of Sophie FoodieFiles passed on the Happy 101 Award. 

I’d like to pass both these awards to EVERYONE who stops by here and always leaves a comment.  That means all of YOU.   Thank you for your presence on my blog and your kind comments.  Kat and Sophie, thanks again, for thinking about me.

Best,

Paz

Hi Everyone:  Sorry I missed putting up last week’s New York Monday and food post.  I have a family emergency and have been unable to blog.    I’m trying to get back on track.

We had another blizzard last week.  Lots of snow everywhere.   One man was killed in Central Park, after a tree limb became too heavy with snow,  snapped off, and fell on him.  That unfortunate incident did not stop many people from going to the park and playing in the snow.

Have a great week, everyone.

Paz

With the exception of the occasional bacon and ham, I do not prepare or eat pork dishes.  However, the other day, I saw an enticing Mexican recipe posted by Mari of Once Upon a Plate that I just had to try it.   The food looked so mouth-watering and I liked that the recipe was SO simple.  There were three basic ingredients — pork, salt and water.  Long-time readers know that I like the simple things in life, such as simple recipes.  This one had my name written all over it, so I decided to prepare it at the next possible occasion. 

According to Mari, carnitas are a popular snack in central Mexico.  It’s served with a fresh tomato salsa and wrapped in a warm tortilla.  Mari used flour tortillas, so I did the same.  The snack is also served with cilantro, radishes, avocado, onions and sour cream.  How could I resist all these tasty ingredients?  How, I ask you?

The occasion came to prepare carnitas when I was home during last week’s snowstorm.  The only hard part of the dish preparation for me was cutting the pork into cube pieces.  Okay, okay.  I’m exaggerating a bit a lot.  Cutting the pork into pieces wasn’t really hard but it was the most energy that I had to expel making carnitas.

The intriguing thing is that you aren’t supposed to use a lot of water in preparation of the pork.   I was a little nervous that I’d used too much water.  Then because I don’t normally buy pork, although Mari mentioned what kind of pork to buy, I feared that I hadn’t bought the right kind, so that it would brown properly.   Turns out that I worried for nothing.  I’d put used the right amount of water and the pork had enough fat to brown the pieces.  Everything turned out perfectly.

Thanks to a recipe from Simply recipes, I made fresh tomato salsa.  Perfect.   It made my carnitas even more tasty.  I won’t wait for another snowstorm before I make carnitas again.

Paz

Once Upon a Plate

Ingredients:

3 pounds pork shoulder, butt, or boneless country-style pork spareribs, etc.
Cold water to barely cover
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Recipe adapted from Diana Kennedy’s "The Cuisines of Mexico", an excellent resource.
I highly recommend.

Fresh Tomato Salsa Recipe

Method

1 Start with chopping up 2 medium sized fresh tomatoes. Prepare the chilies. Be very careful while handling these hot peppers. If you can, avoid touching them with your hands. Use a fork to cut up the chilies over a small plate, or use a paper towel to protect your hands. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water after handling and avoid touching your eyes for several hours. Set aside some of the seeds from the peppers. If the salsa isn’t hot enough, you can add a few for heat.

2 Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Taste. If the chilies make the salsa too hot, add some more chopped tomato. If not hot enough, carefully add a few of the seeds from the chilies, or add some ground cumin.

Let sit for an hour for the flavors to combine.

Makes approximately 3-4 cups.

Snow, snow everywhere!

The back of a snow-covered statue in Harlem.

We had a snowstorm earlier this week.  It may snow again this Monday.

Have a great week, everyone.

Paz

Yes, that’s supposed to be a heart-shaped cake.  However, no one could would wait for me to take a photo of my finished product and I was too tired to fight off the cake eaters.

When I first saw this cake on Lululu at Home, the stripes immediately captured my attention (It’s actually more mesmerizing on a round-shaped cake).  I was eager to find out how to get that pattern.  Turns out that it was very easy and fun to prepare.   Next time I make this cake, I’ll use the round cake pan.  Oh, I used my homemade vanilla extract.  I’m still so excited that I made my own vanilla extract.   It and the cake were made with love.  Did you know vanilla is an aphrodisiac?  

By the way, can any one tell me why the top of my cake cracked?

Happy Valentine’s day to all. 

Paz

Zebra Cake

Lululu’s Home Cooking

(makes 9" cake)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 large eggs, at room temp

1 cup white sugar

1 cup whole milk, at room temp

1 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9" round cake pan. Line with a parchment circle and butter the parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs and sugar. On medium speed, beat until the mixture is light and creamy. Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until the flour is just incorporated.

Divide batter into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.

Scoop 1/4 cup of plain batter into the middle of the cake pan. Then scoop 1/4 cup of cocoa batter and pour it in the center (right on top) of the plain batter. Continue to alternate between the plain and cocoa batters (always pouring it in the center right on top of the previous batter) until you use up the batters.

Bake at 350F until golden or until a cake tested comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cool for 15 minutes in pan and then remove cake from pan to cool on a wire rack.

Chopped cilantro and onions — part of the ingredients to make sofrito.

I’m not so crazy about turkey.  The only part of the turkey I like LOVE is the wings.  Yeah, I love turkey wings and that’s it.  For a long time, I’d just sprinkle salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil on the wings before putting them in the oven.  That was it for me.  Then family friend, Helin  mentioned how she usually prepares her turkey.  Intrigued, I decided to try her method on my wings.  It sounded so easy and the added enticement was that I could use the same recipe when preparing chicken, too. 

First she made her version (Honduran) of sofrito.  For those new to sofrito, it’s basically a flavorful sauce, freshly made and added to meats, poultry (in this case turkey), stews and sauces.  It’s used in different types of cuisines, such as Latin, Spanish, Mediterranean and more.  Ever since I made my first sofrito a few years ago, I’ve learned that there are different types of sofrito.  

Helin’s sofrito was simple and consisted of 5 cloves of garlic, 1/2 bunch of cilantro, 1/2 bunch of culantro, 1 onion, 1 green bell pepper, water and apple cider vinegar, which was then mixed in the blender.

Sofrito prepared in the blender

Next, she carefully cleaned and washed the turkey, making sure to remove stray feathers.  I confess that I was never that thorough when preparing any type of poultry.  Then Helin rinsed the wings with fresh lemon juice and water.  I’d never seen it done that way before but she said that’s what she does to help get rid of the bacteria.  Another confession:  I normally just wash with cold water and call it a day.   Well, I’ve learned something new now.

Next we seasoned the turkey with Adobo, Sazón with coriander and annatto and covered the wings with the freshly-made sofrito (The wings could also be marinated a few hours in the sofrito.).  Helin said that when she prepares a whole turkey, she pokes holes into it so the the sofrito seeps into the turkey and flavors it more.

Turkey wings covered with sofrito before going into the oven.

We covered the wings with foil and place them in the oven.  After 40 minutes, we removed the foil and left the wings in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.  Uncovered, we spooned the juices/gravy over the wings.

When ready, the turkey came out full of flavor and very tasty.

A few days later, I tried the same method with chicken pieces.  Again, I wasn’t disappointed.  Delicious.

Paz (very happy)

Three remaining pieces of turkey wings after everyone served themselves.

Part of the menu you’ll find at a Lebanese restaurant on the West side.

Have a great week, everyone.

Paz

Melting chocolate chips and butter for the cake.

Neither my family nor I really care for chocolate cake.  We rarely eat it and prefer yellow cake over a chocolate one.  Recently, I saw a Mexican chocolate cake recipe on Canela and Comino .  One ingredient in particular intrigued me.  Ground cayenne pepper.  Ground cayenne pepper in a cake — in a chocolate cake?  I HAD to try this recipe. 

My mom recently celebrated her birthday and so I decided to make the cake for her birthday.  Yikes!  God help me if she and the rest of the family didn’t like it.   Can you imagine hating your birthday cake.  LOL! 

As I melted the chocolate to make the cake, it reminded me of the first time that I’d melted chocolate.  It was a disaster.  I’d burnt the chocolate.  Oy vey!  What an experience it was.   Thankfully, I’ve come a long way, today. I no longer burn chocolate.

Putting the cake ingredients was relatively stress-free.  I had no problems.  I mixed all the ingredients, including the intriguing cayenne pepper and put the mixture in the oven.

Later, I made the decadent-tasting icing (glaze) and poured it over the cake, watching with fascination as it landed on the top and dripped in  large puddles at the bottom of the cake.  It looked really good.  Better yet, it tasted REALLY good.  The chocolate, pepper and other ingredients mixed well together.  Luckily, everyone, especially the Birthday Girl, enjoyed the cake (and the icing!).  They all ate a second slice.  Whew!  

If you’re a chocolate cake lover, then this is definitely the cake for you.   Even if chocolate cake isn’t your thing, I believe you’ll still like a slice of this Mexican Chocolate cake.  I’m so glad my family of non-chocolate cake lovers loved this Mexican chocolate cake.

I have to share with you, though, that I had a plan B, in case the Mexican Chocolate cake didn’t go over nicely.  I bought a cheesecake.  What?  LOL!  I’m adventurous but I try not to be dumb, especially when it comes to my mom’s birthday cake.  Ha!  So, we ended up enjoying BOTH cakes. 

Paz

MEXICAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

CAKE
3/4 cup of butter
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of packed light brown sugar
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 1/4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2-3/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 cup of whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate chips over medium heat, taking care not to burn the chocolate. Remove from the heat and add both types of sugar and vanilla. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

3. Add eggs one at a time, whisking to incorporate completely.

4. In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper. Alternately add a third of the flour mixture and half of the milk, stirring to combine after each addition. Pour into a 12 cup Bundt pan, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes.

5. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out to a cooling rack. Drizzle with chocolate glaze.

CHOCOLATE GLAZE
1/4 cup of butter, melted
1/4 cup of chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, room temperature
Pinch of salt

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate chips over medium heat, taking care not to burn the chocolate. Allow to cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

2. Add powdered sugar to a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add melted, cooled chocolate, whipping cream and salt. Stir until blended. If necessary, add additional powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time.

Decadent chocolate glaze.  Tasted soooo good!

A slice for you.

Chocolate cake batter.  Stick your finger in the bowl and have a taste.