eG Foodblog: Panaderia Canadiense - Salt Cod, Squash, and Sweets: Semana Santa in the Sierra

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I just realized it's already almost dinnertime, and I haven't told you anything about what I've been doing all day….

 

I started off by eating a leftover cinnamon bun and drinking a mug of local cola - I was feeling sluggish and wanted a sugar and kola boost.

 

Then I made granola bars.  These ones have cranberries and raisins, by special request.

 

The peanut paste is so thick that it has to be heated with oil and honey to get it to a malleable consistency (but this makes it much easier to melt the marshmallows, so it's not necessarily a bad thing….)

 

I feel like I need to say a word or two about Ecuadorian peanut paste.  This is not peanut butter in the sense that North Americans would recognize it - it's much stiffer and thicker, and generally just contains peanuts and a bit of oil.  This is because Ecuadorians don't approach ground peanuts in the same way that North Americans do.  It's an ingredient for thickening sauces, not a breakfast spread.  If you want a breakfast spread you have to beat more oil into it.

 

I'll have photos of the finished bar momentarily - my camera is recharging at the moment.

 

Lunch was a bit more of a production number - jaffled turkey and cheese sandwiches on pan injerto.

 

I don't know how I lived before I was given a Jaffle Iron.

[Deryn]

I do wish I had known (well, I knew but didn't really think too much about it) about Ecuador as being a land of little people before I bought my house in Nova Scotia. I never met the person who designed and put in the kitchen here but I think she must have been very tall ... I swear the counters in this house are either higher than normal or I shrank. I should have just bought in Ecuador where the world appears designed for hobbits like me - and saved myself having to use a table or a stool to do much around here. I am glad though that you found the exception to the (Ecuadorian kitchen design) rule, Panaderia, because obviously for you doing all that baking on a lower counter would have been very difficult.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[JeanneCake]

Like everyone else, I am thoroughly enjoying your blog.  As a fellow baker, I am also exhausted at the end of the day (in fact, I am debating whether I should even sleep because I have to be back at the bakery in 5 hours....) and I am definitely thinking to follow you in that jello nightcap!  Anything that will help my knees to stop throbbing after a long day!

 

Thank you for sharing this week with us!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Dinner last night fell into the category of "we are uninspired" - whenever this happens, it means that by default dinner will be roast chicken breast and potatoes with some sort of steamed veg on the side.  No exception here.

 

The evening's activities consisted of working for the Church: making three massive loaves for the Bishop's midnight mass on Saturday.

 

These are quinua challah in three-and-a-bit pound loaves; they'll be consecrated and then shared with the congregation as part of the mass.  I'm quite happy with how they came out this year, although I think the twist could have browned better on the side crust.

[Shelby]

The breads are beautiful!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Oh my goodness, I hit you with random snack food and didn't explain myself.  Manitoba is a brand of traditional candied peanuts and I swear to you, they are so addictive that Mom now calls them "bag of peanut crack."  They manage to be sweet, salty, crunchy, and chewy all at the same time, but never to excess in any one area - they're covered with a very light shell of panela and have a really intriguing molasses and salt flavour.  We are hard-pressed to leave peanuts in the bag for next time.

 

If I'm doing a marathon of intricate things, like these breads or larger fondant-decorated cakes, Manitoba are what keep me going.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[blue_dolphin]

46 minutes ago, Panaderia Canadiense said:

Manitoba is a brand of traditional candied peanuts and I swear to you, they are so addictive that Mom now calls them "bag of peanut crack."

 

I must say the brand name seems quite appropriate to your blog!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

5 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

I must say the brand name seems quite appropriate to your blog!

 

The first time I bought them, it was with the thought "oh hey, Manitoba-style boiled peanuts!  Awesome - never thought I'd see those again once I left Canada!"

 

It wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It was far, far better.

[Deryn]

Aside from just driving across the prairies (numerous times), I have only spent about 3 weeks in Manitoba (Winnipeg in January mostly) so I guess I have not spent enough time there (or perhaps it was just not 'peanut' season?) since I have never even heard of Manitoba-style boiled peanuts. Or boiled peanuts as being a 'thing' anywhere in Canada for that matter.

 

The first time I ever tried boiled peanuts was when I moved to NC and took side trips to shop in Greenville SC, and along the highway that leads there I succumbed to one of the many homemade signs that advertise them at roadside stands and stopped. This may be sacrilege to many of you in the south but I wasn't that enamoured of them. They are interesting and ok but didn't leave me craving more.

 

The Manitoba peanuts you get in Ecuador, Panaderia, sound much more delightful! Perhaps you could get into the export business and if they are that good, I would be happy to market them here! I could probably get them to go over well as I know the locals here have sweet tooths!

 

p.s. Those breads you made for the Church are to die for! You are so talented and hard-working.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Darienne]

Just a second opinion on boiled peanuts:  Cherokee, North Carolina, and we thought they were awful and that probably someone made them taste good...but we never tried again.

 

I'd be happy to try your 'Crack peanuts' sometime. 

[Panaderia Canadiense]

1 hour ago, Deryn said:

Aside from just driving across the prairies (numerous times), I have only spent about 3 weeks in Manitoba (Winnipeg in January mostly) so I guess I have not spent enough time there (or perhaps it was just not 'peanut' season?) since I have never even heard of Manitoba-style boiled peanuts. Or boiled peanuts as being a 'thing' anywhere in Canada for that matter.

 

The first time I ever tried boiled peanuts was when I moved to NC and took side trips to shop in Greenville SC, and along the highway that leads there I succumbed to one of the many homemade signs that advertise them at roadside stands and stopped. This may be sacrilege to many of you in the south but I wasn't that enamoured of them. They are interesting and ok but didn't leave me craving more.

 

The Manitoba peanuts you get in Ecuador, Panaderia, sound much more delightful! Perhaps you could get into the export business and if they are that good, I would be happy to market them here! I could probably get them to go over well as I know the locals here have sweet tooths!

 

p.s. Those breads you made for the Church are to die for! You are so talented and hard-working.

 

I was thinking of a sort of boiled shelled peanut that's kind of sweet (unlike ones from the Southern US which are salty but otherwise quite bland); I've only ever had the sweet kind at country fairs and music festivals in Manitoba - nowhere else in Canada.  I quite like them.  Hence my excitement.

 

Manitoba-brand Maní Confitado must be exported to at least one English-speaking country as well as Central America and Mexico, just judging from the way they're labeled (Cacahuete is Nahuatl for peanuts and it's the word used north of Panamá, but in most of South America they're Maní instead….)  I can hook you up with the company if you'd like - I suspect they're already getting as far north as New Jersey so Canada shouldn't present any special hurdles.  They're labeled within an inch of their lives.

 

EDIT - just checked the back of the package (and ate a few more) - they're a Colombian product; website at www.manitoba.com.co

Edited March 26, 2016 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[kayb]

Just want to tell you, as Easter approaches and with it, sadly, the end of this week of blogging, that I have very much enjoyed your blog. I've learned so much, and the travelogues through Ambato and environs have been just fascinating.

 

Maybe one day I'll be ambitious enough to undertake fanseca, my one adventure with salt cod having been, shall we say, less than successful.

[rotuts]

All blogs are wonderful.    all the time put into them, the hard work, the pics ....

 

This blog is Exceptionally Wonderful

 

thank you for making the extra-ordinary effort.

 

Sending you and your family and friends a Happy Easter.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Well, I'll be in and out all day today and tomorrow.  My mission today is to produce around 200 hot cross buns and some other tasty sundries for sale at the Cathedral tomorrow - I'm slowly introducing the tradition of Hot Cross Buns at Easter to Ecuador, with excellent reception here in Ambato.

 

This morning after delivering the altar breads for tonight's midnight mass, Mom and I stopped in at El Fornace, a wood-fired pizzeria and coffee-house, for breakfast.  We're being typical Ecuadorians this morning - coffee and cheese toasts!

 

 

They were just banking up the fires in the oven, so no pizza for us.

 

In the atrium, El Fornace does its best to fool you into thinking you're on a Piazza in Italy.

 

While we waited for our coffees, there was complimentary hot buttered bread with ají.  This is an excellent example of what I was talking about yesterday - Ambato-style ají sauce which is not very spicy but has a rich, creamy texture and a nice tang from tree tomatoes.

 

Breakfast was triple-decker Andina cheese toasties.

 

Latte and Mocha.  El Fornace does quite good gourmet coffee.

 

And once we got home, it was time to make 200 buns' worth of dough.

[Deryn]

Ok .. it is obvious I need to haul out all my father's old Spanish dictionaries and grammar books - and learn the language. Thanks for the link to the Manitoba site, Panaderia - it is fortunate it has pictures though since the only word I really recognized was Macadamia (which is one of my 2 favorite nuts!). I will have to think carefully though about whether I want to ship in large boxes of anything from Columbia (perhaps that is best left to larger, more established companies who already have a good relationship with Customs) .. but I will definitely look for the peanuts and/or macadamias where ever I go from now on. 

 

Wracking my brain for the kind of nut you are talking about - I can taste them, see them but can't name them either right now. Not beer nuts but larger, round, with a crunchy sweet coating?  

 

Someday, not in this blog perhaps (but when you are rested up in a few weeks), perhaps you could share your hot cross bun recipe with us all, Panaderia, please. I know Easter will be over by then, but, in my house, I can make fanesca and/or hot cross buns any darned time I feel like it. And now you have me craving hot cross buns - a decent version of which I have not had in many years now. Meanwhile, take it easy if you can. I am sure you won't admit it - and you are young yet - but the blog added a lot of work to your already busy life, and had to be tiring this past week. Thanks again to you (and your wonderful parents) for sharing so much with us all.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

8 minutes ago, Deryn said:

Wracking my brain for the kind of nut you are talking about - I can taste them, see them but can't name them either right now. Not beer nuts but larger, round, with a crunchy sweet coating?  

 

Someday, not in this blog perhaps (but when you are rested up in a few weeks), perhaps you could share your hot cross bun recipe with us all, Panaderia, please. I know Easter will be over by then, but, in my house, I can make fanesca and/or hot cross buns any darned time I feel like it. And now you have me craving hot cross buns - a decent version of which I have not had in many years now. Meanwhile, take it easy if you can. I am sure you won't admit it - and you are young yet - but the blog added a lot of work to your already busy life, and had to be tiring this past week. Thanks again to you (and your wonderful parents) for sharing so much with us all.

 

Not quite beer nuts, rounder, crunchy sweet coating that's more like they've been battered than candied.  Some Japanese sweet-coating peanuts are close.  Manitoba Confitada (peanut crack) look like this:

 

Hot Cross Buns!  I'm happy to share a recipe, but let me cut one down from the 50-bun size I use….  And yes, it has been an exhausting week and blogging is much more work than I ever remember it being, but it's always worth the effort to share!

[IowaDee]

I really, really will hate to see your blog end!  You have a special way of transporting us right into your life in a wonderful way.  The local Chamber of Commerce should hire you to market Ambato.  I promise a population uptick!  Again, thanks for sharing with us.

[kbjesq]

I don't want this blog to end either, and I agree that @Panaderia Canadiense should be appointed as social ambassador for Ecuador. I'm going to make a quick 5 day trip on April 25th, just because of this blog! And I am looking forward to getting some peanut crack upon arrival. LOL 

[Shelby]

Say it ain't so!  It can't already be a week.  Thanks so much PanCan   You are inspiring.

[Deryn]

Happy Easter, Panaderia - to you and yours, and to all the wonderful Ecuadorians who posed for the pictures you posted here or who helped you explain so much to us all over this past week!

[Fava]

Thanks so much for this wonderful blog! I truly enjoyed reading along! Having spent a couple of weeks in Ecuador in 2013, I was smitten with this wonderful country and you opened the door some more to allow more than just a glimpse into its culture. Much appreciated. 

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Thank you all!  Hopefully when I get back from the Cathedral the forum will be letting me post photos again, and I'll finish up the blog on a high note.  I'm slightly sleep deprived right now (200 hot cross buns, 50 pieces of cake, 36 pieces of cheesecake, and sundry other goodies will do that).

[Panaderia Canadiense]

So, let's start with yesterday's lunch and dinner.  Lunch was chicken salad sandwiches on injerto, with slices of a very mild queso fresco.

 

Dinner, because I was too exhausted to consider any other options, was provided by my neighbour Belén.  On Saturdays and Sundays in my barrio, I've got quite a staggering selection of street food available - there's community league football in our park, and number of enterprising neighbours bring out their portable kitchens to cook on the street.  In general, there will be fried chicken, whole fried fish, fritada, llapingachos, and sometimes even empanadas de viento for dessert.  Belén makes the best fried chicken and potatoes with coleslaw.

 

For those interested in spicing, this is chicken dredged in flour seasoned with Maggi powder, Sabora Rojo, and black pepper before frying in a mixture of chicken fat and sunflower-seed oil.

[rotuts]

Im very happy so many of your 'Food-Associates'  allowed you to post their Pics and their Food Set Ups.

 

very nice.  after you recover, please thank them from all of us at eG that enjoyed your Blog sooooo much.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For the curious, I spent my entire night rotating pans of hot cross buns through the oven.  The final count was 174 buns (plus a few mutants), which baked in trays of 15.

 

I also baked three cheesecakes in our most popular fruit flavours (raspberry, passionfruit-mango, and strawberry-blackberry)

 

I don't have pictures of selling at the Cathedral, which runs five full-capacity masses on Easter Sunday - the volume of people who mob us with our little stand of carts is phenomenal, and it's not the kind of environment one takes a camera into.  I came home with a few pieces of cheesecake but otherwise cleaned out, and with Easter greetings from everyone I know (about half of the congregation).