Panaderia Canadiense

Alternately, if you want to go black/orange and you've got access to chocolate syrup, you can try Electric Tigers. 1 oz white rum 1 oz cointreau or other orange liqueur orange juice to top (using an old-fashioned glass) chocolate syrup. Run the chocolate syrup around the inner rim of the glass and allow it to form stripes down into the bottom. Meanwhile, shake the rum, cointreau, and orange juice together and then carefully strain into the center of the glass. Yummy. They're sort of like a Terry's chocolate orange in a glass.

I've always considered fingerlings to be soup potatoes - they do unmake themselves when boiled for soupish amounts of time, and add a nice weight to the broth.

OK, and just an explanatory note on the teaser photos. The fish that you were all wondering about was a red-bellied Piranha. Kerry - Tilapia have a very different body shape from that, and they're also much much bigger. I shall endeavor to eat a tilapia just for you during the blog! Apologies for the photo quality; it was taken with a first-generation camera phone. That is indeed a Cuy, or rather, half a Cuy. And the twist of leaves are Ilex guayusa, a relative of Yerba Mate that's native to Ecuador's Amazon basin - it's for preparation of tisane (although Guayusa might actually fall into the realm of true tea, since it's full of caffeiney goodness.) I'll talk more about Guayusa in the blog itself, as it's one of my fave drinks when I can get it. The three volcanoes (from the top: Chimborazo, Tungurahua, and Cotopaxi) are all visible from my house.

Put a honey-whole-wheat sponge on to fluff up, then go downtown for an errand that I think should take me only half an hour. Yeah, three hours later when I got home it had outgrown its 2 gallon bowl, popped the saranwrap cover, and gooped out onto my countertops. It was on its way to the floor, and I swear that if I hadn't gotten there then, it would have developed sentience.... Now of course I know that I can't go further than the corner store while a sponge is on.

Gosh that looks tasty, Xilimnns.... Welcome aboard, too!

Salchipapas! This is essentially octopus-cut hot dog quarters with quickly pan-roasted new potatoes (or fries, if you're a lazy bum). Ideally, the potatoes should be cooked in the fat from the dogs.

I also missed this topic the first time 'round. A mention should be made of Fanesca, which is, in my humble opinion, one of the best uses out there for Bacalao. It's a traditional Easter dish in Ecuador (and was a traditional pumpkin-harvest dish before the Spaniards came). Here's the recipe I use when I make Fanesca; I got it from my Abuela Fidelina, who is from Cuenca and who is an excellent cook. Fanesca is dependent on the Bacalao retaining some of its delicious saltiness. Makes 50 plates, and takes about 4 hours on the day you're going to serve it (and about 2 hours the night before). INGREDIENTS 500 g (1 lb) long grain white rice 10-12 L (2.5-3 gal) Whole Milk (3% minimum), no other 1 L (1/4 gal) Full-Fat Cream (35% minimum), no other 4 C Peanuts, shelled and husked 6 C Leeks, the white portion only, chopped finely 6 oz (12 TBSP) Butter, unsalted 3 TBSP Butter whipped with achiote (annatto)* 2 C Garlic, blendered with enough milk to make it a liquid 2 kg (4.4 lbs) Bacalao. White Bacalao is best. Salt, black pepper, to taste 2 TSP Ground Cumin 4-6 TSP Oregano 2 TSP Ground Cinnamon 3 TSP Brown Sugar 6 C Squash meat, steamed until it is tender, and mashed (in Ecuador, a large squash similar to Acorn is used.) 4 C Pumpkin meat, steamed until it is tender, and mashed (in Ecuador, a large squash called Kobucha is used. It's called pumpkin, but it's not, really.) 6 C Lupines (Lupini beans), peeled 10 C White corn kernels, boiled until tender 6 C Green peas, steamed until bright green 6 C White cabbage, julienned and steamed 8 C Young fava beans, peeled and cooked 6 C Young strawberry or red beans, peeled and cooked 1 shot Sherry Brandy METHOD - THE NIGHT BEFORE 1. Boil the peanuts in enough milk to cover them, until they become tender. Blender these with the liquid they were cooked in, and set this aside. 2. Soak the Bacalao in enough water to cover it. 3. Cook and peel all of the grains and legumes. Reserve the water in which the corn was boiled. 4. Steam the cabbage, squash, and pumpkin. 5. Cook the rice in milk and set aside. METHOD - THE DAY OF 1. Boil the Bacalao in 1 L of milk. Drain and reserve the liquid. 2. Fry the leek and garlic in the butter and achiote butter until they glassify. 3. Add 1 C of the water in which the corn cooked, and boil until the garlic loses its metallic flavour. 4. Add the peanut liquid, and cook for 3-4 minutes. 5. Add the rice and 2L of milk, and a bit of all of the spices. 6. Drain and cut the Bacalao into tiny pieces. Add the milk in which it was boiled to the pot. 7. Add the squash, pumpkin, and cabbage. 8. When it comes to a boil again, add the grains and legumes one by one in the following order: lupines, corn, beans, peas, favas. 9. Add the cream, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the seasonings. 10. Keep stirring as it boils. Don't scrape the bottom or sides of the pot - that is where the stuff that tastes bad is collecting. Don't put a lid on it either - just stand there and stir. After about 3 and a half hours, the Fanesca is ready to eat. Serve it immediately.

Two dinners ago was Encocado de Corvina, a mild coconut-peanut creamy curry common in the northern and central coastal provinces. Also one of my faves, because even though it seems intimidating the first time you're served a plate of it, it's actually crazy simple to make. Normally this would be over golden rice, but I had a hankering for tallarin noodles. Corvina, of course, is better known to the English-speaking world as Sea Bass. Last night's dinner was simple roast turkey breast with carrots, new potatoes, and asparagus. Potatoes, IMHO, are just a vehicle for butter....

Liqueur Ahenho is literally "Aged Liquor" - I'd say you're looking at either a Rum or an aged Aguardiente (often now referred to as "reposado").

Wow, nothing nearly so fancy in my kitchen as you folks have been eating lately. Just plain old stone soup (by definition, that's soup made with the orts of everything in the fridge, although I cheated and picked fresh carrots out of the garden). To accompany it are Cachos, an Ecuadorian take on dinner rolls. They're made in the same way as Croissants but omitting the cold-butter-chill-dough step - the interleaving is with hot melted butter and you do it all at once before rolling them. The result is a springy, incredibly rich roll with a fantastic crispy crust and an interior texture somewhere between a standard roll and a Croissant. Mine were interleaved somewhere around 60 times; the long rolls in the basket are stuffed with sticks of Gouda.

Ask and ye shall receive!

I'm translating this from a spidery old script that Oma Salome gave me. She used rye flour. 5 C rye or whole wheat flour 5 C white flour 1/2 oz active dry yeast 2 C tepid water 1.5 C tepid, flat beer (I have a note about using ale instead of lager, but I've used both with no ill effect. The best Bierbrot I've ever had was made with stout.) 2/3 C molasses, warmed to tepid (I have a note about this being light molasses with lagers and blackstrap with ales) 2 tsp salt --- Mix 1.5 C of water with the beer and molasses. Soften the yeast in the remaining .5 C water and allow to froth, then add to the beer/molasses mixture. Separately, mix together the flours and salt in a large bowl. Once it's good and frothy, add the beer/molasses/yeast/water mixture, and knead until it's smooth and elastic and just a bit slack. Add a touch more beer if it seems too stiff. Butter and set aside to rise in a warm place until it's doubled in bulk. Punch, then double again at least once (and at higher altitudes, at least twice) more. Divide, form into balls, and rest for about 25-30 minutes, then form up however you wish. Oma considered that this recipe makes two round loaves; I make three longer loaves and reduce the baking time just a tad, although the 10 minutes on fast remain essential regardless of the size of the loaves. For two loaves: Fast oven (400 F) for 10 minutes with high humidity, then reduce to slow (325 F) for about 50 minutes, removing your water tray and switching to misting every 15-20 minutes. They're done when they sound hollow. Once they're out of the oven, you can if you wish immediately brush them with a bit of salt water; this seems to help the final crispness of the crust.

A reserved yes. Beer will also affect the flavour of your bread, and what you're really after is the reaction of maltose with heat. If you want, though, I can give you my recipe for Bierbrot, which uses beer as the liquid component. I've successfully made it with up to 50% w/w and it does have a nice crust and large bubbles. Actually, thinking on it, Bierbrot may indeed be what you were eating in Switzerland.

Generally when roasting nuts you lightly oil the pan, not the nuts - the heat and stirring are what give you enough oil to stick the salt. Almonds in and of themselves are quite oily and you do want a bit of that to come out; it's part of the distinctive flavour of roasted almonds. Do you have a paila or other roasting pan? What type of vessel are you using for the roasting? I ask because in my experience nothing beats a metal pan for this kind of thing; much less oil is needed and it's easier to maintain an even temperature.

Another possiblilty is to add a bit of malt extract (liquid or powdered) to the flour before the liquids go in - this improves whole wheat crusts immensely. That and a humid oven while baking. I'm also quite curious about white whole wheat flour - it seems like an oxymoron to me...

Whole-wheat sourdough with a traditional kneading process? To get that nice crackle there has got to be at least a bit of active gluten in the bread.

Don't eat them. Take them to your local extension office for a tenative ID, but even professionals are wrong (as others have pointed out) and it's pointless to play with your health that way. North America has so many toxic mushrooms that it's not even remotely safe to try those.

I'll let you know how that goes - I had dough left over last night after the bagels and loaf of bread, so I have 6 more breaded chocolate bars for brekkie. I shall be scaffling them on the bus on my way to Pelileo.... Oh, and I remeasured. They're closer to 5" long and 1" wide.

Ecuador. I'm in the middle of the Sierra.

I'm at 10,000 feet; they sell pressure cookers here with interchangeable valves that go up to 20 psi.

The bread dough is my basic honey whole wheat; the chocolate inside is a single stick (about 1/2 oz, give or take) of Universal Superior (the most widely available Ecuadorian bittersweet multipurpose drinking/baking chocolate, about 65-70% cacao), and the dimensions are about 3" long by 1/2" wide by however tall it ended up proofing. On top is black sesame. 20 minutes at 350 F with a mild egg wash.

Breaded chocolate bar. It was experimental, but I'll definitely be making more of them! I suspect, though, that they should be eaten while still warm from the oven.

Shredded green mango, beet, carrot, broccoli stem, chochos, and baby lettuce greens, in spicy peanut balsamic vinagrette, and topped with a bit of grilled chicken. Muy yummy.

That's rather clearly in India, folks.

I'm going with Jenni as well. Ooh, this should be a good one...