Peruvian Purple Potatoes

This combines all my favorite things, especially the toasted sesame seed dressing.

Check out this Peruvian purple sweet potato, it's gorgeous!




QUINOA, SWEET POTATO, AND SESAME SALAD

Ingredients:
-1 sweet potato (whatever color :D), cubed
-1 carrot, peeled and chopped
-1/2 red onion, chopped
-1 jalapeño pepper with seeds removed, minced
-6 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 avacado, chopped and tossed with the juice of 1 lime
-salt & pepper, to taste
-1.5 c. quinoa, washed and soaked for 10 minutes

-->Dressing:
-1/2 c. sesame seeds, toasted
-1/2 c. olive oil
-2 Tbs. vegetable oil
-2 Tbs. soy sauce
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. pepper



Directions:

After soaking, put the quinoa to boil with 3 c. fresh water and 1.5 tsp. salt. When boiling, turn heat to medium-low and simmer for 15-20 min, or until all the water is absorbed. Cut the heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 3 Tbs oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Put in the sweet potato, and fry for about 7 minutes, until it starts taking on color. Add the carrots, and cook for a couple more minutes, or until the carrots take on color. Add the onion, and cook for another 2 minutes. Then add the diced pepper and garlic, and cook 1 min. Turn off heat and add salt & pepper.

After toasting the sesame seeds, put in a blender with the rest of the salad ingredients. Pulse 5 times, so that some seeds remain whole but the dressing is liquidy.

Add the dressing to the quinoa and integrate. Let all the elements cool, then mix together in a bowl with the avocado. Serve at room temperature.

By the way, this dressing is delicious with absolutely everything, I especially like it with cucumber salad :)

Humitas Peruanas (sweet tamales) - English & Español

Para Español, mire por abajo

These are a little step up from the Costco tamales I adored when I was a kid.

Humitas can be filled with whatever your little heart desires, and the butter and sugar in the batter makes them a little desserty. Their name means "little steamed thing".

HUMITAS PERUANAS

Ingredients:
-Corn husks (you may find these at a Mexican grocery)
-1 kilo choclo (large, slightly starchy Peruvian corn). You can buy Mexican dried corn and rehydrate it for the same effect.
-1 egg
-sugar to taste (About a 1/4 c. depending on how sweet you want them)
-50 g. butter, softened
-1.5 tsp. salt
-Fillings, anything from cheese to raisins to chicken.

Directions:

Grind the corn. I used a medieval-looking hand cranked grinder, but you can just use your food processor. Make it smooth as possible.



Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until well integrated. Take your corn husks, and rip them in half (humitas tend to be fairly small). Holding the husk, take a spoon and get a heaping dollop of the corn mixture. Spread this on the lower half of the husk (the part that would be the base of the corn) in a rectangle, the horizontal plane a little bigger than the vertical. The filling should leave room on the left side. Drop a little filling off-center to the right (here we used queso fresco). Fold the right side over the left so the right and left sides of the corn mix meet and the filling is covered, fold the top of the husk down so the corn filling is contained on the top, then fold the left side over the right. You should have a little packet of tamale now!












Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and drop all the tamales in. Boil for an hour or until cooked. These are really tasty with a spicy salsa dumped on them. Here, my favorite thing to eat them with is ají, a slightly spicy sauce made with cheese, sautéed ají amarillo peppers, saltines, milk, and water.



Estos son un paso adelante de los tamales del supermercado Costco que adoré cuando era niña.

Se puede llenar humitas con cualquier cosa deseas, y la mantequilla y azúcar en la maza las hacen un poco como postre.

HUMITAS PERUANAS

Ingredientes:
·Hojas de maíz
·1 kilo choclo (o cualquier tipo de maíz fresco o cocido)
·1 huevo
·azucar, al gusto
·50 gramas mantequilla, ablandada
·1.5 cucharilla sal
·Relleno, sea queso, pasas, pollo deshilachado

Direcciones:

Muela el choclo. Usé un molinero de mano, pero podrías usar procesador de alimentos. Hagalo muy suave.

Mezcla bien todos los ingredientes menos el relleno. Toma las hojas de maíz, y arráncalas en mitad (humitas suelen ser pequeños). Cargando la hoja en tu mano, ponga una cucharada grande de la mezcla de choclo. Extiéndase en el parte del fondo de la hoja (donde hay más espacio) en la forma de rectángulo. Ponga un poco de relleno al parte de la derecha (aquí usamos queso fresco). Dobla el lado de la derecha a la izquiera para que el choclo cubre completamente el relleno, y dobla el parte superior de la hoja hacia el fondo para contener el parte arriba del choclo, y después dobla el parte de la izquierda de la hoja a la derecha. Ya debes tener un paquetito de humita!

Hierve una olla grande de agua, y ponga todas las tamales en el agua. Hierven para una hora, o hasta están cocidas.

Están muy saborosas con salsas picantes. Mi salsa favorita es ají, una salsa Peruana de pimientos ají.

Black beans two ways

I bought a 1/2 kilo of black beans yesterday wanting a salad and Chinese sweets.

Remember my last post with the Cantonese egg custard buns? I use the same dough, there are many variations in flavors of the same Chinese steamed bread.

BLACK BEAN AND CILANTRO MINT CREAM SALAD

Ingredients:
-1/4 kilo black beans, cooked
-1 tomato, diced
-2 cloves garlic
-3 green onions, roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 tsp. minced hot pepper-habañero is best
-1/4 c. cilantro (stems and leaves) roughly chopped
-5 large mint leaves
-1/2 c. chopped mozzarella cheese
-hot water

Directions:
Put all ingredients but black beans and tomato into a blender, and pour the hot water in until it just covers the tops of the vegetables. Blend until smooth.



Put the black beans in a pot over medium-high heat. Pour the blender mixture in, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce becomes thick, 5-7 minutes.

Pour this mixture into a bowl and let cool. Put in the diced tomato and eat at room temperature.




CHINESE SWEET BLACK BEAN BUNS (an offshoot of red-bean buns, dou-sha bao 豆沙包)

Ingredients:
DOUGH
-3 c. flour
-1 tsp. salt
-1 Tbs. butter
-1 c. + 2 Tbs. warm water
-1/4c. sugar (I used brown)
-1.5 tsp. yeast

FILLING
-1/4 kilo cooked black beans
-2 c. brown sugar

Directions:
Wash the cooked black beans and put in a pressure cooker. Cover with fresh water until an inch above the tops of the beans. Bring to a boil, then pressure-cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the beans are beginning to fall apart (if using a regular pot, this will probably take an hour to achieve the same effects). When finished cooking, drain and wash beans again. Return to a regular pot, add the sugar, and put in enough water until just above the tops of the beans. Bring to a simmer on medium-low heat, then simmer until cooked down into a sugary paste, about 30 minutes. In the last 15 minutes, watch and stir the pot to make sure the beans do not burn. The beans should be broken down, but chunky. Set aside to cool.

To make the dough, mix the water with the sugar and bloom the yeast in this. In a larger bowl, mix the flour and salt. Pour the bloomed yeast into the flour, add the butter, and knead for 10 minutes (or until elastic) and set aside under a wet wash-cloth to rise for an hour.

When the dough has risen, punch it down and divide into 12 pieces. One at a time, roll the pieces into 3 inch circles and fill with a tablespoon of bean paste. Pinch the dough around the paste and twist to make a ball and set aside under a moist cloth. Meanwhile, bring water to boil under a steamer. Steam the buns for about 13 minutes or until springy.

Red & Green

I'm just writing to share some wonderful Peruvian discoveries.

#1:

Red bananas! Nothing special, they taste like regular bananas. Maybe they're a little bigger. But they're red, which automatically makes them taste better.

The unripe ones are used to make a Peruvian soup called "Churumbo"



#2

Green tea...from Perú?? That's right, it was grown and processed in Cuzco, and tastes just like a standard & decent Chinese tea.

Fly me to Hong Kong

One of my favorite memories from teaching at a camp in Hong Kong was arriving at the Hong Kong Baptist University cafeteria in the morning and getting noodle soup with pickled mustard, turnip cakes, green tea, and nai wong bao egg custard buns.

I recently had egg yolks on hand and a huge craving for Chinese food, so I (with the help of my wonderful boyfriend and my buddy Katherine since my right hand is out of service), pulled together these lai wong bao.

They're steamed sweet bread with a thick filling like the middle of Boston Cream Pie. Every recipe I looked up used ingredients like "Hong Kong flour" and "custard powder", so I just made my own recipe.

NAI WONG BAO (奶黄包)- Chinese egg custard buns

DOUGH-
-3 c. all purpose flour
-1 tsp. salt
-1/4 c. sugar
-1 c. warm water
-1.5 tsp. instant yeast
-1 Tbs. butter

CUSTARD-
-1/3 c. & 1.5 Tbs. corn starch
-1/2 c. evaporated milk
-1/4 c. sugar
-3 egg yolks
-1/4 c. butter

Put the sugar in the warm water and stir until integrated. Add yeast, stir, and let sit until frothy. In a bowl, mix the salt and flour. When the yeast is ready, add to flour mixture, add the butter, and knead until elastic (10-15 min). Roll into a tight ball and put in a well-oiled bowl and cover with a wet towel for an hour to an hour and a half.

When the dough is almost done rising, start the custard. Put the starch, milk, and sugar into a sauce pan over low heat, and cook until bubbly and thickening. When the whole surface is bubbling, remove from heat and add butter in chunks, stirring until melted. Place the yolks in a separate bowl, and add tiny spoonfuls of the milk-starch mixture one at a time while stirring. This heats the yolks up slowly without scrambling them. When you've added half the milk-starch mix, pour the yolk mixture back into the pot with the rest of the milk-starch. Cook this over low heat, stirring constantly, until you're able to draw lines in the bottom of the pot and the mixture is very thick, about 2-4 minutes. Take off heat and set aside.

When your dough is ready, divide into 12 even balls. Using a rolling pin, roll the balls into circles about 3 inches in diameter, big enough to put 2 teaspoonfuls of filling in. Spoon in those 2 teaspoonfuls, draw the edges toward each other to form a ball around the filling, and pinch and twist the bottom so the filling doesn't come out (don't worry if they don't completely stay shut, mine didn't and they turned out fine because the dough rises together in the steamer). Place this pinched side down on a plate and cover with a wet towel. Do this for all 12.





Meanwhile, put on a couple of inches of water to boil in a pot with a steamer basket. When boiling, turn the heat to med-low and put the buns in the basket, leaving an inch around each so they may rise. Put on a lid, and steam for about 13 minutes, or until the skin is tight & springy and the buns have risen twice their size. No, I didn't use any little wax paper squares, they came off the steamer rather easily.

Now enjoy your delicious goodies and think happy, dim-sum thoughts.

Fried

Anything better than sweet potato fries?

Here in Perú we've got these really great sweet potatoes with purple in the skin, so they're even more delicious with the skin.



SWEET-POTATO FRIES:

Cut the fries to your desired thickness (I like mine a little bigger than shoestring), then leave to soak in water for an hour or two.

Heat a couple inches of vegetable oil in a pot or pan on high heat for 30 min or so, until it's completely hot. Take the fries from the water, dry them, and fry in small batches until golden brown and delicious! Put on salt and enjoy.

Who doesn't love a good pickle? (Nabos encurtidos Limeños) English & Español

Mire por abajo para Español.

And by pickle, I don't just mean cucumbers.

Here are some Lima-style "oshinko", or Japanese pickles. I found this style of oshinko randomly in a Lima supermarket, it was a little shocking. And even more shocking, I found daikon radish in my market one day in my little Andean town. This recipe combines ají amarillo peppers (a Peruvian staple) with thin-sliced daikon in a simple pickling liquid.


LIMA-STYLE OSHINKO

Veggies:
-3 small daikon radish or 1 huge one, sliced in thin rounds
-2 medium-side fresh ají amarillo peppers, deseeded, cut in half lengthwise then again crosswise, and thinly sliced into sticks. If you can't find these, any sweet & mildly spicy pepper will do. For a not-spicy version use orange bell pepper, and for spicy one use jalapeño.

Pickling liquid:
-1 c. white wine vinegar
-1 c. water
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 Tbs. sugar or honey

Other stuff:
-1 large jar (I used a jelly jar that held 1kg. of jelly).



Boil your jar in water or pour boiling water over it to make sure that it's sanitized.

Bring your pickling liquid to a boil on the stove. Use a lid if you don't want the house to smell like vinegar.

Layer the daikon and ají in your jar (fill it with a portion of daikon, then of ají, and so on) until your jar is filled.

Pour the pickling liquid over the top until it reaches the shoulder of the jar. Put the lid on and shake & tap the jar until all the air bubbles come up from the bottom. Then pour the rest of your pickling liquid in.

Put the cap on, refrigerate, and it should be ready to eat in a day! It tastes better if you give it a week or so to mellow though :)



Digo "encurtidos", pero no solamente los de pepinos que comimos en los EEUU.

Aquí tenemos "daikon no oshinko" del estilo Limeño, o nabos encurtidos. Daikon = rábano japonés (en Perú, nabo). Oshinko = encurtidos. Al azar, encontré este tipo de oshinko en el supermercado en Lima, y fue un poco espantoso. Y lo más espantoso es que encontré este nabo en mi pequeño pueblo en los Andes. Esta receta combina ají amarillos y rodajas de nabo en un liquido sencillo de encurtidos.

NABOS ENCURTIDOS LIMEÑOS

·3 nabos pequeños o 1 grande, cortado en rodajas muy delgadas
·2 ají amarillos, quitado de semillas y cortado en trozos largos y delgados. Jalapeños tambien se puede usar

el liquido:
·1 taza vinaigre blanco
·1 taza agua
·1 cucharilla sal
·1/2 cucharón miel de abeja o azúcar

Tambien necesita una jarra (mio contuvo 1 kilo de mermelada).

Hierve la jarra y la tapa en agua para unos minutos, para desinfectarlas.

En otra olla, hierve todas las ingredientes del parte liquido. Usa una tapa, si no quieres que tu casa huele de vinaigre :P

Ponga las rodajas de nabo y trozos de ají en la jarra en capas (una capa de nabo, una de ají, y así sucesivamente hasta la jarra está llena).

Vierta el liquido hervido en la jarra hasta la paletilla. Ponga la tapa y agita la jarra para que las burbujas de aire suben del fondo. Ya vierta el resto del liquido en la jarra.

Ponga la tapa, y ponga en el refri. Está listo para comer después un día, pero es más rico después de una semana. Disfruta!

Mayonaissey

This is really difficult, so hold onto your pants:

Egg + salt + veggie oil = mayonnaise!

I spiffed it up a little, but if you've never had homemade mayo, you should feel obligated to try this:

INGREDIENTS:
-1 egg
-1 egg yolk
-1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
-about 1/2 c. vegetable oil
-1/2 a key lime, or 1/4 a regular one
-1 tsp. vinegar

Put the eggs and salt into a blender, and turn it on to medium speed. When mixed and while the blender is still going, slowly pour in all the oil in a thin stream. When finished pouring, let the blender run for another half minute to a minute. The mayo should be nice an fluffy as mayo is. Add the juice of your lime and the vinegar, blend to mix, and eat!



For using it, here's a good recipe. Remember that okara from my last post, the leftovers from making tofu? I use this to make a "tuna" salad sandwich.

CHICKEN OF THE...BEAN?

INGREDIENTS:
-1/2 a carrot, diced
-1/2 a stalk of celery, diced
-1/2 a spring onion, sliced
-a spoonful of edamame
-1/2 c. okara
-2 Tbs. mayonnaise
-1/4 tsp. pepper
-1 garlic clove, minced
-a pinch of cumin
-1 tsp. vinegar
-1/2 tsp. Chinese chili-garlic sauce

Mix it all up! I ate mine with whole wheat sandwich bread toasted with mozzarella cheese and tomato slices (like a tuna melt :D)