At a small Buenos Aires restaurant called Na Serapia, I ordered a dish I had never seen on a menu before: humita. My plate arrived with a small square package of folded cornhusks, filled with creamed corn and tied together with a string of husk. Naturally, I knew I'd be making a version back at home. Humitas are South American steamed corn cakes, created with fresh corn, cheese, and spices.
*Just as a side note, the owner of Na Serapia is one quirky and cool dude. This portrait of him hangs on the wall behind one of the tables, and in fact, the MALBA now keeps it in their permanent collection. He's a hole-in-the-wall, pun intended, Buenos Aires celebrity of sorts.
Aside from the blanching and folding of the cornhusks, the corn cakes themselves are pretty easy to make. I added a few ingredients of my own and steamed them in a roasting pan. They're delicious for dinner on their own, as an appetizer, or to accompany a juicy steak. They're also the perfect addition to any autumn menu.
In South America, these are often made with choclo, a large-kerneled corn from the Andes. While I can't provide you with ears of corn that are out of the current reach of my American hands, I can give you an Andean song. Here is Violeta Parra's extraordinary "Gracias a la vida."
Ingredients:
--6 ears of corn
--1/3 c. half and half
--1 c. cornmeal
--2 red peppers, chopped
--2 cloves garlic, slices thinly
--1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
--2 tbsp. olive oil
--2 eggs
--2 c. shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but if you have a crumbly queso, I think that'd be delicious)
--1 tsp. coriander
--a few pinches of salt and pepper
In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the garlic and onions for about 3-4 minutes in the olive oil until they're getting soft. Add the red peppers and saute until everything is soft and aromatic. Set aside and allow to cool just a bit.
Husk the ears of corn, being very careful to preserve the husks--you're going to be using them as casings for the corn cakes. Set the husks aside. Using a large knife, cut the kernels from the corn and place them in a large food processor. Don't pulse yet!
To the kernels in the food processor, add the garlic/onion/pepper mixture, the half and half, cornmeal shredded cheese, eggs, coriander, and the salt and pepper (in other words, all remaining ingredients). Pulse for about a minute, or until all ingredients are finely ground and combined. Set aside.
Now, the next part gets a little tricky. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the corn husks and boil for about 5-7 minutes, or until they're soft and pliable. Drain the pot and place the husks in a bowl of ice water.
Using 3 or 4 husks as a base, line them up on a workspace, and then add 3 or 4 more in a cross pattern on top. In short, you're creating a liner/pocket to fill with the corn cake mixture. This picture should help:
Next, fill the layer of cornhusks with about 1/2 c. of the corn mixture.
Then, fold up the edges so you've got a small packet, and tie a piece of a cornhusk around the packet to keep its shape.
Repeat with all remaining husks and remaining corn mixture. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and fill the bottom of a roasting pan with about 1/2" water. Place the roasting rack in the dish, and place the corn packets on top of the roasting rack (you want to steam them in the oven).
Place the roasting dish in the oven and steam/bake for approximately 40 minutes, or just until the edges of the husks begin to turn a golden color. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Serve in a dish. When you unwrap them, you'll find a delicious and perfectly steamed corn cake.
And as with everything else from South America, it seems, humitas go very nicely with a glass of Torrontes.
The torta de mil hojas is a classic South American dessert. I tried my first slice at Liguria, an amazing and quirky restaurant in Santiago. I bought another in Buenos Aires at our neighborhood panaderia, Del Carmen on Viamonte. In Chile, the cake featured a lighter caramel in between the layers, and naturally, the Argentinean version had spoonfuls (and more spoonfuls) of dulce de leche.
While I was in the Southern Cone, I continued to dream about all of the sweet things to pair with dulce de leche when I returned to America. Banana has been at the top of my list since I had a banana split and dulce de leche sundae at Freddo, the best heladeria in the world. (I'm not kidding: I don't think I'll ever taste ice cream that's as rich, velvety, and creamy until I return to Argentina.)
I thought a torta de mil hojas featuring some fresh bananas would be out of this world, and it turns out I was right. As with any layer cake, this one is a labor of love, but it's definitely worth the work. I topped mine with a decorative Argentinean sun.
I have the most perfect song to accompany the banana torta de mil hojas. Los Beat 4, a Chilean band formed in Santiago in the late 1960s, has a song that's absolutely made for this dessert. Here's "Dame un Bananino" ("Give me a banana!").
Ingredients:
--1 1/4 c. flour, + extra for rolling
--1/2 c. chilled butter, chopped
--1/4 c. ice water
--pinch of salt
--pinch of granulated sugar
--2 c. dulce de leche (we brought some back from Argentina, but you can also buy it at any specialty foods store, or in many cases, the lovely World Market)
--2 ripe bananas, slice very thinly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor, make a pastry crust by pulsing the flour, butter, ice water, salt, and sugar until the mixture begins to form a ball of dough. On a large flat surface, add some flour and roll out the dough until it's quite thin. Using a dish or other perfect circle, cut out eight (8) dough circles that are approximately 6" in diameter.
On a parchment lined baking dish, bake the pastry dough for about 12 minutes, or until it becomes lightly golden around the edges. Remove and allow to cool completely. **If you want to make a design on top like I did, cut out whatever design you'd like from your remaining dough and bake for 10-12 minutes, or just until golden around the edges--just like the pastry layers.
Once the pastries have cooled, place a dollop of dulce de leche on the bottom of a plate and stick the first pastry circle on top. This will prevent the torta de mil hojas from moving around. Coat the top of the first pastry circle with a heaping of dulce de leche (about 3-4 tablespoons), and then add another pastry circle on top. This time, coat the circle with a very thin layer of dulce de leche (less than one tablespoon) and add a thin layer of bananas. Repeat, alternating between layers of dulce de leche and bananas, until you've placed the final pastry circle on top. If you're adding some pastry decor, attach it with any remaining dulce de leche.
Serve!
In South America during the winter months of July and August, calabaza is king! Panaderías all over Santiago and Buenos Aires sell pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin torts, and so on. I also had some amazing calabaza creations at Cumana, a delicious restaurant in Buenos Aires' Recoleta neighborhood. Naturally, given my love of winter squashes, I tried my hand at some pumpkin and cheese empanadas in our Buenos Aires kitchen! And they're a fabulous savory pastry to have for dinner on a chilly night.
They're also pretty easy to make. Once you've made the flaky empanada dough (basically a pie crust with some salt and pepper), all you need to do is fill your savory pastries with a pumpkin mash. I bought and roasted a pumpkin, added some delicious raw honey fresh from the Pampas, and topped off the filling with some delicious Argentinian queso de campo and a little bit of salt and pepper.
After going to a New Order show just before leaving for South America, I've been listening to a lot of Joy Division and New Order (in fact, I listened to "Unknown Pleasures" almost exclusively as I rode buses to Isla Negra and Valparaiso in Chile). Given the way these empanadas conjure my visit, here's Joy Division's haunting and beautiful "Atmosphere" (and, might I add, one of my favorite music videos of all time).
Ingredients:
The Empanada Crust:
--2 1/2 c. flour
--1 c. cold butter
--1/2 c. ice water
--1 tsp. salt
--1/2 tsp. pepper
--1 egg yolk
--extra flour for rolling
Pour flour into a large bowl and cut in the butter (you can also pulse the ingredients in a food processor). Add the ice water, salt, pepper, and egg yolk. Mix together until all the dry flour has absorbed into the dough.
Roll on a flat surface and cut into approx. 6" diameter circles. Set aside until ready to use.
The Filling:
--1/2 c. shredded queso de campo (if you can't find this cheese in the states, you can substitute a Spanish manchego)
--3 c. pumpkin puree (about one medium-sized pumpkin, roasted)
--3 heaping tablespoons of raw honey
--1 large yellow onion, chopped
--2 cloves garlic, minced.
--2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
--salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
If you're roasting your own pumpkin, slice in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Coat the squash with olive oil. Place both halves on a baking sheet and roast for approximately 1 hour, or until soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool. (If you're using canned pumpkin, go on to the next set of steps.)
Decrease oven heat to 350 degrees F.
In a large saucepan, saute the garlic and onions until soft and golden. Set aside until ready to use.
In the saucepan with the onions and garlic, mash in the pumpkin puree, raw honey, queso, and the salt and pepper. (If you've roasted your own pumpkin, it should be soft enough to just scoop right out of its skin and into the bowl.) I like mine with some texture, so I do a rustic mash with chunks of the squash still intact.
Fill each empanada shell with about 1 tablespoon of the mash, fold the shell over to create a half-moon shape, and press the edges together with a fork. Poke a couple of fork hole in the top to allow the empanada to breathe in the oven. Continue until you've filled all empanadas. (That's me, in our Argentinean kitchen.)
Place empanadas on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges become golden and crispy. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and serve.
Eat heartily and happily!
*Wine hint: these go very, very well with a bottle of Torrontes, a delicious Argentinean white wine.
I'm heading to the other side of the equator soon, where I'll be leaving the dog days of summer behind me. It'll be winter in Argentina, so here's a summer swan song: delicious and creamy peanut butter frozen yogurt.
I bought an ice cream maker awhile back, and I don't use it enough. However, I'm in love enough with frozen yogurt that I buy it on a very regular basis. In other words, I should use my ice cream maker more often. When you make your own desserts, the flavor combinations are nearly endless. I love peanut butter, and I knew it would make for a delicious chilled treat. And what's great about this recipe is that it doesn't even contain any sugar--all of the sweetness comes from the earthy agave syrup. Making your own ice cream or frozen yogurt is incredibly easy, and it's always worth it.
Do you know the Doors' beautiful and sad "Indian Summer"? It's stunning. It was an outtake, more stripped down than most other songs from the band, and appeared on Morrison Hotel in 1970.
Ingredients:
--3/4 c. creamy peanut butter
--3 c. plain Greek yogurt (you can substitute for a non-Greek variety if you like your fro-yo less tangy)
--1/2 c. sweetened vanilla almond milk (again, you can substitute whatever milk you'd like)
--1/4 c. agave syrup (if you like your fro-yo super sweet, add more)
--1 tbsp. vanilla extract
--chopped peanuts for topping
Melt the peanut butter down until it's easier to whisk (I just placed mine in the microwave for about 35 seconds). In a large bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together, except the peanuts, until creamy.
Pour the mixture into a prepared ice cream maker and turn it on. Allow the ice cream maker to churn for 20-25 minutes, or until the fro-yo reaches the desired consistency.
*To use an ice cream maker, you have to plan waaaay in advance. For most of them, you've gotta chill the churning bowl for 6-8 hours ahead of time. But if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can still make this dessert. Pour the whisked ingredients into a freezer-safe container and chill for about 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Serve with a dusting of chopped peanuts (or, if you have it, some delicious chocolate syrup).
Newly obsessed with mixing kalamata olives and fresh cucumber into everything imaginable, I thought about making some Mediterranean-inspired lamb chops with an olive, caper, and cucumber rice. This is a quick, easy, and delicious dinner. And since it's summer, you might want to grill the lamb on a warm night.
Don't know how to "french" a rack of lamb? Don't worry. It's actually pretty easy, and Alton Brown does a nice job explaining this technique.
Since the dish makes me think of the still waters of the glorious Mediterranean, it pairs nicely with Ferraby Lionheart's "Call Me the Sea."
Ingredients for the Rack of Lamb:
--1 tsp. ground cumin
--1/2 tsp. ground cloves
--1/2 tsp. salt
--1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped finely
--1/2 tsp. fresh English thyme, chopped finely
--1-2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
--1 small rack of lamb, frenched (mine had 6 lamb chops)
Ingredients for the Rice:
--2 c. cooked basmati rice (any rice will do, of course--your choice!)
--1/2 c. chopped kalamata olives
--1 medium-sized cucumber, coarsely chopped
--1/4 c. capers
--3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
--s&p to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the spices and herbs to create a rub for your lamb. Rub the olive oil over your lamb, and then press the rub in until the lamb is covered. Place the lamb in a baking dish, fat-side up, for 15 minutes, or until your lamb has reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees. If you have a larger rack of lamb, it'll need longer in the oven.
Remove from oven, cover with foil, and allow the meat to rest for about 15 minutes. Once it has rested, slice the rack into lamb chops.
For the rice, just mix the ingredients together! Serve a chop or two on top of the rice. Delicious.
A milk tart, or "melktert" in Afrikaans, is a sweet, sweet custard pie. Made with lots of eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar, what's not to like? This is the last of my South African desserts (at least for awhile), so eat it up!
This treat has all the glory of a delicious pie crust, and all the velvety sweetness of a custard. And it's delicious warm or cold. (I served it warm out of the oven, and then I continued to eat it chilled out of the fridge.) My recipe is adapted from an Epicurious version--a website for which I am ever grateful.
I'm shocked by my own oversight, but I don't think I've featured a Nirvana song on this blog. As a girl who once baked a birthday cake for Kurt Cobain (I confess!), I've done one of my oldest and best-loved bands a disservice. Here's Nirvana's "Milk It."
Ingredients:
--1 pie crust, rolled and trimmed (god, don't buy one! Use my pie crust recipe, found on my pecan pie post)
--2 c. whole milk
--1 cinnamon stick
--4 eggs, separated
--1/3 c. all-purpose flour
--1 tbsp. cornstarch
--1/3 c. granulated sugar
--1/2 tsp. baking powder
--pinch of salt
--2 tbsp. unsalted butter
--1 tbsp. vanilla
--1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
--1 tsp. ground cinnamon (for dusting)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a 10" tart pan, lay pie crust and press into edges. Poke a number of fork holes in the bottom and bake at 400 degrees F for 7-9 minutes, or until the crust starts to bubble just a little bit. Remove and allow to cool (but leave the oven on, reducing the heat to 350 degrees F).
In a medium-sized saucepan, heat 1 1/2 c. milk and the cinnamon stick over low heat until it just reaches a boil. Set it aside for 15 minutes and allow the cinnamon to infuse into the milk.
In a large bowl, beat together the 1/2 c. milk that remains, along with the 4 egg yolks (make sure you've separated the eggs!), the cornstarch, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Remove the cinnamon stick from the milk, and whisk in the egg yolk mixture. Return to the saucepan to a low-medium heat, and cook, whisking constantly, until the custard thickens (about 5-7 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and the butter.
In a separate bowl, beat the 4 egg whites with the cream of tartar until they form stiff peaks, just like this:
The cream of tartar adds volume to the egg whites, just fyi. Fold the egg whites into the custard, and pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, then reduce heat to 325 degrees F and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the custard has set. Remove from heat and immediately dust with ground cinnamon. Serve!
Driving to Pittsburgh earlier this year, a GPS mishap led to the discovery of Delallo, one of the most glorious indoor markets I've ever encountered in America. In addition to a seemingly mile-long olive bar and to-die-for desserts, they also make fresh pasta. With all of the farmer's market veggies I've been buying, I decided to use Delallo fusilli to make a summer squash pasta with applewood-smoked bacon and sweet heirloom tomatoes. And what could make those ingredients better? Some fresh chèvre, of course!
This pasta is so delightfully summer. To accompany it, here's Durutti Column's "Sketch for Summer," live in Madrid (1983).
Ingredients:
--1 lb. fresh fusilli (or any other pasta you like!)
--8 strips extra crispy applewood-smoked bacon (Evan smoked ours on the grill, but any crispy bacon will do)
--2 yellow squashes, chopped
--2 ripe heirloom tomatoes, chopped
--2 tsp. fresh lemon thyme (I grow this in my garden, but you should be able to find it almost anywhere)
--1/2 cup crumbled chèvre (a.k.a. goat cheese)
--3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
--1/2 tsp. salt, + extra for cooking pasta
First thing's first: smoke the bacon. There's an art to smoking, and we're coming close to mastering it! Soak your wood chips (we used applewood), and light your charcoal. When the grill it hot, pour the wood chips over the charcoal. Lay your bacon across the cast iron grates and close your smoker. The bacon should smoke for approximately 15 minutes, but monitor it--when it's crispy, it's done. Crumble the bacon and set aside.
In a large saucepan, saute the yellow squash in extra virgin olive oil. Add the lemon thyme and salt. The lemon thyme adds a really nice, crisp citrus flavor. Saute for approximately 10 minutes, or until soft. Remove from heat and add heirloom tomatoes.
Boil water for pasta and add salt. Cook fusilli for 2-3 minutes (if fresh). Otherwise, follow pasta instructions (you know the drill-usually 7-9 minutes, depending on the pasta if you like it al dente). Strain the pasta once cooked and add to the veggies. Mix in the bacon, then add the chèvre and mix well. The chèvre will coat the pasta like a delicious, creamy sauce. Serve warm or chilled.
