THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: PUMPKIN BOLO DE FUBA’ CREMOSO

The Secret Recipe Club took a break in the month of December, but now we are back! For those who don’t know, the SRC is a fun blogging event in which you are paired (in secret) with another blogger, and on reveal day post a recipe chosen from that blog. Everyone in the same group posts at the exact same time, even if you are blogging from Japan. 😉 This month I was paired with Shirley, from the blog Enriching your Kid. Shirley is a clinical psychologist who, after having kids, opted for working very hard at home taking care of them and paying particular attention to a healthy nutrition. She cooks a lot of Indian food, so at first I had my mind set on one of her many paratha recipes, but then I spotted a very familiar Portuguese name – “bolo de fuba’ cremoso” – and that was it. I knew it would be my choice for the first SRC post of 2013. She added a nice twist to the classic, by incorporating pumpkin in the cake. Check out her post about it here.

PUMPKIN BOLO DE FUBA’ CREMOSO
(adapted from Enriching your Kid)

1 cup masa harina (corn flour)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree’
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups milk
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup grated cheese
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp grated nutmeg
lemon zest

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place all of the ingredients (up to the salt) in a blender or a food processor and mix for 4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth (it will be very liquid). If your processor or blender is very large, you can add the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise, transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the cheese, baking powder, nutmeg and lemon zest, mixing well with a whisk. Pour into a buttered and floured pan (8 x 8 inches).

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top of the cake is golden. Cool the cake before cutting it into slices.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: First, a little bit on language, as Shirley was puzzled about the gender issue in Portuguese. All nouns have a gender, and for the most part words that end with “a” are feminine. Words that end with “o” are masculine. However, there are exceptions. Fuba’, for instance, the term that describes a particular type of corn flour, ends with “a“, but it is masculine. Therefore, the adjective that goes along with it, “cremoso” (creamy) must agree with the gender, and end with “o“. Let’s suppose we were talking about a coconut concoction called “cocada“. Cocada ends with an “a“, and it is indeed feminine. In this case, creamy coconut would be described as “cocada cremosa“. Clear as mud? Well, mud is feminine: A lama. Earth is feminine: A Terra. Love is masculine: O amor (gotcha there! Amor ends with “r” to confuse non-native speakers ;-)).

Now, to the recipe: I made a few small modifications, using cooked pumpkin instead of raw. I absolutely had to put my beloved pumpkin puree to use, and that was a perfect opportunity. I also reduced the sugar slightly. If you are Brazilian and grew up enjoying bolo de fuba’, this version seems like a different sweet, mainly because of the nutmeg. If you are not too fond of nutmeg, or if you want something closer to the Brazilian version, reduce the amount or omit it. Pumpkin was a great addition to bolo de fuba’, I loved what its subtle taste brought to the cake.

Shirley, I will definitely be cooking other recipes from your blog, as Indian cuisine is fascinating and I don’t have enough experience with it. I hope you are having a great reveal day… 😉

For my readers: if you want to see what the crowd from SRC Group D came up with in this first posting of the year, click on the happy frog and a new page will open with plenty of great posts.

ONE YEAR AGO: Citrus-crusted Tilapia Filets

TWO YEARS AGO: Bran Muffins, not just for Hippies

THREE YEARS AGO: Flourless Chocolate Cake

26Nov2012

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CHOCOLATE ORANGE DRIZZLE CAKE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Last Monday of the month, and it’s Secret Recipe Reveal Day for my group. For those not familiar with it, the SRC is a monthly event in which food bloggers are paired in secret, and after stalking the assigned blog for a couple of weeks, they cook and blog on a chosen recipe. I was paired with royalty this month: Lavender and Lovage is a great food blog that I’ve known long before I joined the group. Karen, the host, has lived in many different places, teaches cooking classes in the Southwest of France, and does a lot of research on British cooking. In fact, she is writing a cookbook about it! Her About Me page is a must read. I had four recipes high on my list of possible choices, but finally decided to bake a cake. And one that takes creaming the butter with sugar, which proves I am a very daring person. 😉

CHOCOLATE ORANGE DRIZZLE CAKE
(from Lavender and Lovage)

for the cake:
6 oz (150 g) softened butter
6 oz (150 g) superfine sugar
6 oz (150 g) self-raising flour
3 large eggs, beaten
grated rind from 2 oranges
2 tablespoons milk
(7″ to 8″ round cake pan ~ greased and lined)

for the drizzle:
Juice from 2 oranges
2 oz (50 g) sugar
2 oz (50 g) 85% chocolate

Heat oven to 170C/350F. Beat the butter and sugar together until
light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs and flour,
alternately, mixing well in between. Add the grated orange rind and
mix well before adding the milk to make a soft dropping consistency.

Pour the cake mixture into a greased and lined pan and bake for 35 to
40 minutes, until risen and light golden brown; test the center of the
cake with a skewer, if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Cool in the pan.

Make the orange drizzle by gently heating the orange juice and sugar
together in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. When the cake has
cooled, pour the orange drizzle over the cake in the tin. When the
cake is completely cold, take it out of the tin and place it on a
serving plate.

Heat the chocolate in a saucepan over a low heat, do not allow to
boil, and as soon as it has melted, drizzle the chocolate over the
cake, using a fork to make patterns.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

This cake was delicious, and Karen’s description of it was spot on: some cakes that are drizzled with syrup after baking will end up soggy and overly sweet. Not this one. She coated it with a full layer of chocolate and decorated it with chocolate swirls, I stayed with a humble drizzle, as my chocolate reserves in the pantry were unexpectedly low. One wonders why. 😉

To see what my fellow bloggers from group D cooked up this month, click on the smily frog below. To see who got my blog and the recipe chosen (it’s delicious!) click here for Avril’s site. The Secret Recipe Club will take a break in the month of December, but we’ll be back in full swing next year!

Karen, it was great to spend time stalking your blog!
I hope you are having fun on your Reveal Day…

ONE YEAR AGO: Turkey Day, Tryptophan, and Fluorescence

TWO YEARS AGO: The Ultimate Apple Cake

THREE YEARS AGO: Trouble-Free Pizza Dough

29Oct2012

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CASHEW CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS

Posted in Appetizers, Poultry, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Drum roll please….. This is my first anniversary as a member of The Secret Recipe Club! One year! Obviously, I was counting the days for this Reveal Day, and jumped on my assigned blog the very minute I got the email notification. This month I am cooking from Loving Life, a fun blog hosted by Kirstin, the super busy Mom of two teenage daughters, who also home schools them. I get tired just thinking about it. The mystery is how does she find the time to cook and blog? Superpowers? Probably. I chose a recipe from her blog quite quickly, because it is one of the favorite dishes we used to order at a place called BJ’s in Oklahoma. Light, refreshing, flavorful, Phil and I would share that as an appetizer almost every single time, but I had never made it at home. Great opportunity, which I grabbed right away! 😉

CASHEW CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS
(adapted from Loving Life)

for teriyaki sauce:
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. Sesame oil

for chicken:
3/4 lb. chicken breast or tenders, diced in small pieces
6 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup diced baby-bella mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped cashews
1 tsp. soy sauce
canola oil
6-8 butter lettuce leaves

for topping:
2 carrots, peeled & julienned
1/2 Tbs. Sesame Seeds

Mix all sauce ingredients, making sure the brown sugar dissolves.

Place some canola oil in a non-stick pan and cook chicken till cooked through and lightly browned. Add green onions, mushrooms, cashews and 1 tsp. soy sauce. Cook until mushrooms soften. Add teriyaki sauce. Cook stirring often on medim-high heat until sauce began to caramelize a bit on the chicken. Lower heat to “low” and continue to cook a bit longer or until your desired consistency is reached.

Serve on lettuce cups, adding julienned carrots and sesame seeds on top.
.
ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

We absolutely loved this recipe! Next time I might just up the amount of sauce a little bit, but other than that, no changes… This post gives me the opportunity to share with you a very special gift we received from our friend Cindy. She probably got tired of me complaining about the electric stove in our new home, and one day I got this box delivered with an induction-type single burner cooktop! Not only it works great, but it is a life-saver for me, due to another small problem in our kitchen: no ventilation. I had pretty much given up on frying or sauteing fish or meat. With this cooktop, I was able to install a cooking area on our patio, and voila’: no more offensive odors! Plus, it’s is such a nice setting, don’t you agree?

Cindy, thanks so much for such a thoughtful gift!

For the full round-up on the Secret Recipe Club, click on the cute blue frog. To see which recipe was chosen from my blog this month click here to visit Lindsay’s blog…

Kirstin, nice to “meet” your blog! Have fun with today’s reveal day!

ONE YEAR AGO: Clay-pot Pork Roast

TWO YEARS AGO: Panmarino

THREE YEARS AGO: A Classic Roast Chicken

1Oct2012

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: A TRIBUTE TO DANIEL

Posted in Poultry, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Food bloggers love to organize group events. You have Yeastspotting, World Bread Day, Sourdough Surprises, In My Kitchen, Daring Bakers, Meatless Mondays, Black and White Wednesdays, and of course, The Secret Recipe Club, of which I am a participant. Unfortunately, sometimes tragic events take place, and a cloud of deep sadness contaminates what until then was all about fun. Recently we learned that one dear member of The Secret Recipe Club passed away. Daniel, a young father of two kids, married for only 6 years, died shortly after cooking a nice barbecue dinner for his whole family. You can read the heart-breaking tribute written by his wife Meredith (who is expecting their third child) by clicking here. A couple of beautiful articles written by his brother can also be found here and here.

To celebrate Daniel’s life, SRC members picked one recipe from his blog (The Haggis and the Herring) to cook and blog about. As we always do on this group event, everyone publishes the article at the same time. Here is my contribution, a cider-glazed chicken with the colors and the taste of Autumn.

CIDER-GLAZED CHICKEN THIGHS
(adapted from Daniel’s recipe)

6 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 Tablespoon mustard
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1 cup apple cider

Trim excess fat and skin from the chicken thighs. Dry them well and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil on a cast iron pan or other large skillet with a lid, and brown the chicken pieces, skin side down first. Make sure they are golden brown before flipping them over. Remove the pieces as they brown, discard excess fat from the skillet, leaving one tablespoon behind. Saute the shallots until translucent. While they are cooking, mix the mustard with the cider vinegar and the herbes de Provence in a small bowl. Add the mustard mixture to the skillet, cook with the shallots for a minute or two. Add the cup of apple cider, return the chicken to the skillet and cook for 45 to 55 minutes, until very tender. Flip the pieces occasionally, but keep the pan closed and with very gently heat.

To serve, remove the chicken pieces to a platter, and reduce the cider cooking liquid until it forms a glaze. Spoon over the chicken.

to print the recipe, click here

It is a strange experience to go on someone’s blog and look for a recipe, when you know that person is no longer with us. Daniel was so full of projects and so excited about his family, about raising his kids, it’s very difficult to accept that a life could end so abruptly, with so much yet to experience and enjoy. The truth is, we never know how much time we have, so we must try to make the best of each day.

My profound condolences to Meredith and Daniel’s whole family.

(comments are shutdown for this post)

To see other recipes from Secret Recipe Club members made in Daniel’s memory, visit the links below.

24Sep2012

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CORN CHOWDA

Posted in Secret Recipe Club, Soups, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

Last Monday of the month = Reveal Day for The Secret Recipe Club! I could not be happier with my matching blog for this month: Beautiful Disasters, hosted by Casey, the coolest girl in the whole blogosphere. I first got to “meet” her when she made a flourless chocolate cake from my blog, and that was the most popular recipe of our SRC that month! How awesome is that? Casey is a hard working high school student, athletic, witty, and keeps a blog that is always fun to visit. I was thrilled to cook from her site. Being a young runner with a high metabolism and all, she’s got a ton of sweets to share, but I wanted to go for something savory. The weather is cooling down (Sally grabs the box of Kleenex), so I searched for a comforting soup. My first click on the index was for corn chowder. She starts her post with “Do you wish you had an accent?” Casey, you got me right there! I simply HAD to make your chowda.. 😉

CORN CHOWDER
(adapted from Beautiful Disasters)

2 cups corn kernels
2 Tablespoons butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 + 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons thyme
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
a few fresh basil leaves
scant 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups water
8 baby Yukon gold potatoes, cut in pieces
¾ cup half-and-half
1/2 Tablespoon white sugar

Heat the butter in a large pan. Let it melt, then add the shallots, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the shallot is soft and starting to get some golden color. Add the flour and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add the water, keep stirring. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the corn kernels and potatoes. Bring the chowder to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Transfer a little less than 2 cups of the chowder and the basil leaves to a blender and puree until smooth. Stir the puree back into the pan. Add the half-and-half then return the chowder to a simmer. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and mix in the sugar.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Delicious chowder, creamy, luscious, even if I took a few shortcuts with the recipe. Full disclosure: Casey did not use frozen corn. I am sure it would be even better with fresh corn and getting all that juicy corn milk, but I had to simplify the preparation to accommodate my schedule.

Now, back to the fascinating topic of accents. As any immigrant, I am often reminded that I have an accent. I don’t mind it that much, but I certainly wish I didn’t get in other types of trouble.

Allow me to share a quick story. Day one of lab move: I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off, asking our secretary, one of the moving guys, and a student “I need the doily. Have you seen the doily around?” All of a sudden, Phil gently grabs grabs my arm, takes me to the side and whispers “Sally, darling, you are looking for the dolly, not the doily“. That’s when I understood their small delay in answering my question with a sheepish “I don’t know where it is”. (sigh)

Casey, I hope you had a blast with your assignment too!
And for all my readers, don’t forget to click on the blue frog below to see the full list of posts by the members of Group D, the group that closes each month with a golden key! 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Oven-broiled Salmon over Saucy Spinach

TWO YEARS AGO: Butterscotch Brownies

THREE YEARS AGO: First Soup of the Year