Sima- Finnish Fermented Lemon May Day Drink

Drinks

Girl Cooks World

-

January 14, 2016

Sima- Finnish Fermented Lemon May Day Drink

What would you say if I told you that with just a couple lemons, some sugar, yeast and water you could be enjoying a tasty home-brewed, slightly alcoholic drink tomorrow night? Pretty impressive, right?

A number of my friends have gotten into either beer or wine making. I’m thinking I’d rather just stick with the Finnish technique of adding some yeast to some flavored sugar water… that seems a whole lot easier and a whole lot cheaper.

This is traditionally served in Finland on May Day (along with crisp donuts called May Day Fritters, aka tippaleivat). Doesn’t drinking some homemade brew and eating donuts sound a whole lot cooler than dancing around a May pole? Score one for the Finns.

Also, I’m not quite sure if the raisins provide any flavor or only act as an indicator to tell when the drink is ready. The raisins spent all of Sunday doing liquid gymnastics, rising and falling for hours before finally settling at the top. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh and the taste? Pretty great. If you like hard apple or pear cider, this should be right up your alley.

Sima- Finnish May Day Lemon Drink

Yield: Approximately 1 gallon

Ingredients:

* 14 cups water
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup plus 4 teaspoons sugar, divided
* 2 lemons, washed and thinly sliced
* 1/8 teaspoon yeast
* 16-20 raisins

Directions:

In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Add the brown sugar, 1 cup of the white sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the lemon slices, stir and let sit until lukewarm. Transfer the liquid to a nonreactive (non-metallic) container and add the yeast and stir. Partially cover and let sit for 8 hours or overnight. Tiny bubbles should have formed around the perimeter of the liquid.

Strain the liquid into sterilized bottles. Place one teaspoon of sugar per quart of liquid as well as 4-5 raisins. Cork tightly. Let stand at room temperature until the raisins have all risen to the top of the bottles. Refrigerate until use, letting out some of the pressure from the bottles from time to time, if necessary.

Creamy Mocha Coffee Caramels

Girl Cooks World

-

July 22, 2015

0

I know I’m late to the party on this one, but Fany Gerson’s cookbook My Sweet Mexico is a total gem. I’m usually stumped as to how to end Mexican meals (I mean, a girl can only eat so much flan or Mexican chocolate ice cream). Well, that certainly won’t be a problem anymore- this cookbook is chock full of interesting and diverse recipes for sweet breads, candies, cookies, and frozen treats. Seriously, this book has it all. I currently have about a dozen recipes bookmarked with little page flags.

These creamy mocha coffee caramels actually morphed from Gerson’s milk fudge recipe. I swapped out some evaporated milk for coffee and ended up with these soft, creamy and chewy coffee caramels. I used café de olla, because I had some on hand, but feel free to use any kind of coffee.

11/7/11 Update: I went back to make these again just to make sure they worked with regular coffee (they did) and to add some extra photos to illustrate the consistency you’re looking for when to pull them off of the heat. The photos above will result in caramels that actually don’t need any refrigeration.. they set up perfectly at Hawaii room temperature. If you stop just short of this, the caramels will require refrigeration, but I actually liked the texture of my earlier batch of refrigerated caramels better. In any case, you have some flexibility here.

When you’re stirring you should be able to coax the mixture into a mound; when you stop stirring it’ll creep back towards the edges. The photo on the right is after cocoa powder was added- at this point the mixture could be coaxed into a little ball. And while you don’t need a candy thermometer, you do need patience… a half batch simmered away for about an hour to get to the finished stage.

Creamy Mocha Coffee Caramels

Adapted from My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats

2 (14-ounce) cans of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup café de olla, or other kind of coffee
6 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch salt
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
parchment paper or aluminum foil and waxed paper

Lightly grease a loaf pan (approximately 9-inch by 5-inch) and line with parchment paper or aluminum foil, leaving a little overhang on each side.

Combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk, café de olla or coffee, butter, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is very thick and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Pour half of the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and spread evenly. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining mixture and stir to combine. Pour the mocha caramel over the coffee caramel and allow to come to room temperature. Place in the refrigerator until chilled. Remove and cut into bite-sized pieces. Wrap pieces in small squares of waxed paper.

Store in the refrigerator.

Cucumber Agua Fresca with Lemon and Mint

Detox
Drinks

Girl Cooks World

-

June 7, 2014

0

Cucumber Agua Fresca with Lemon and Mint

Just about every Moroccan cookbook I saw had a recipe for a cucumber salad with mint leaves, lemon and, in some variations, orange blossom water. I gave it a go and, frankly, was totally underwhelmed. Maybe it was the fact that I’d grated the cucumber, which quickly became rather limp and lifeless, but the salad definitely wasn’t a keeper.

But the bright side was that it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to try out some new agua frescas and this flavor combination sounded promising. Just a couple minutes later I was enjoying this light, refreshing drink.

Some cucumber agua fresca recipes call for a rather large amount of mint and lemon. I’m sure those are great, but I really wanted the cucumber to shine in this version. For those of you who are lucky enough to have cucumbers in your garden, this would be a great way to use up any surplus.

Cucumber Agua Fresca with Lemon and Mint

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 very large cucumber, cut into large chunks
6 cups cold water
1/3 cup sugar
10 mint leaves, plus extra for garnish
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)
lemon slices for garnish (optional)
cucumber slices for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Combine the cucumber, water, sugar, mint leaves, lemon juice and orange blossom water in a blender and blend until very smooth.* Strain into a pitcher and add some mint leaves, lemon slices and cucumber slices for garnish. Serve immediately over ice.

* Note: if your blender pitcher is on the small side, just blend the cucumber and other ingredients with 3 cups water and then add the other 3 cups to the pitcher; mix well to combine. For more drinks’ recipes, click here.

Frozen Coconut Rum Drink

Drinks

Girl Cooks World

-

April 15, 2014

0

A true Type A personality, I tend to get pretty disappointed when a recipe doesn’t turn out. But sometimes it leads to something even better. Case in point: the gizzadas (Jamaican chewy coconut tartlettes) I attempted were a total failure. The filling was too watery and the pinched dough of the crust didn’t hold up. The good part is that I only tested half a batch, leaving a good amount of frozen young coconut left over and so back to the drawing board, i.e., my stack of Jamaican cookbooks, I went.

I kept coming back to a super simple drink recipe… coconut water with rum. The cookbook author kept referring to it as the “man’s drink” of Jamaica. Well fellas, thanks for the idea but we ladies like to do it up a little bit. And so this simple pairing of rum and coconut morphed into a gorgeous, pure and dazzling white frozen drink. Sweetened with condensed milk, the coconut shreds and ice give the drink body while the rum gives it just a little kick. I’m seriously wondering how these things aren’t a staple at tropical beachside bars around the world.

The only thing in its way? The lack of snazzy name. Perhaps the Coconut Rum Blizzard? Or the Whiteout?

Frozen Coconut Rum Drink

Ingredients:

* 1 cup frozen young coconut, partially thawed
* 3 Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
* 2 Tablespoons rum, your choice of white, gold, or coconut
* 2 cups ice
* Toasted coconut, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

In a blender, combine the coconut, sweetened condensed milk, rum and ice and blend until smooth. Top with toasted coconut, if desired.

Note: frozen young coconut can be found at many Asian grocery stores.

Carrot Truffles

Girl Cooks World

-

September 22, 2013

0

When searching through Greek cookbooks, I noticed that the use of carrots in sweets and desserts was a recurring theme. I debated between trying this recipe and one for carrot jam; it was the hefty dose of coconut in these truffles that sealed the deal. Shredded carrots gets cooked in a sugar syrup until candied and chewy, flavored with some vanilla and lemon and combined with shredded, unsweetened coconut.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that these are healthy, but they definitely have a nutritional edge over your average candy. These colorful truffles would also be great with some add-ins, such as candied ginger, pineapple or even raisins. Anything that you’d think would work in a carrot cake would likely work here as well.

Carrot Truffles

Yield: Approximately 2 dozen truffles

Ingredients:

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and grated
1 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups dried, unsweetened coconut, divided

Directions:

Combine the carrots and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Mix in the lemon zest, vanilla extract, and 2 cups of the coconut. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Shape the mixture into small balls and roll in the remaining coconut.

Adapted from Vefa’s Kitchen

Burmese Chickpea Tofu

Recipes

Girl Cooks World

-

March 26, 2013

0

I can probably count the number of times I’ve eaten tofu in the past couple years on one hand. Sure, there are a lot of recipes that I love that use the stuff (like this one and this one), but I just never really jumped on the soy bandwagon.

So what’s a girl to do when she wants a neutral vegan protein base for recipes but eschews soy because of the potential health risks? Thankfully the good people of Burma have the answer: chickpea tofu.

This dish reminded me of the old math question: how many combinations can you make with __ numbers? Because with just chickpea flour, water and salt you could either end up with French Socca crepes, or this Burmese tofu. And probably plenty of other dishes currently unknown to me.

Use this in place of regular tofu in your favorite vegan or vegatarian recipe, or wait it out for a couple days for a recipe for a punchy Burmese tofu salad that’s packed with plenty of fresh herbs and a kicky garlic, ginger and sesame dressing. It’s worth the wait, I promise.

Burmese Chickpea Tofu

Yield: about 2-1/2 pounds

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes`

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpea/garbanzo bean flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (optional)

6 cups water, divided

Directions:

Combine the chickpea flour, 2 cups of water, salt, and turmeric, if using, in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth, pressing the mixture through a sieve, if necessary, to remove any lumps.

Grease one 9-inch by 13 inch or two 8-inch by 8-inch baking dishes with a neutral oil.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed wide, shallow pot. Turn heat to medium-high on your induction cooktop. Give the chickpea mixture a stir to ensure that the mixture hasn’t separated. While stirring the water with a wooden spoon, slowly and carefully pour the chickpea flour mixture into the simmering water.

Lower the heat to medium-low, stirring continuously, until the mixture has thickened and is nice and glossy, about five minutes. Pour immediately into the prepared baking dish(es).

Let cool to room temperature and then set in the fridge for at least one hour. The longer it sits, the more water will drain out of the tofu and the firmer it will get.

Adapted from The Burmese Kitchen: Recipes from the Golden Land by Copeland Marks and Aung Thien and Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Duguid.

If you have any leftover chickpeas, you can use them up in this delicious chickpea yogurt recipe from RecipeLibrary.net

Quick and Easy Spinach Egg Drop Soup

Soups

Girl Cooks World

-

January 22, 2013

0

I was pretty much floored the first time I saw a friend of mine make egg drop soup. I mean, who knew that making the popular Chinese appetizer basically just involved heating up a lightly spiced broth and stirring in beaten eggs in a steady stream until they cook into delicate ribbons?

Millions and millions of people, apparently. I guess I’m just a bit slow on the uptake.

Most egg drop soups are far from filling, however, so in an attempt to make this into something of a one-dish meal I used more eggs than usual as well as a substantial amount of spinach. The spinach wilts down to far less than its original volume but still provides plenty of bulk and a nutritional boost.

And just like these shrimp and egg pancakes, this soup would be the perfect weeknight meal when both time and energy is in short supply.

Quick and Easy Spinach Egg Drop Soup

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

* 5 cups chicken broth
* 3 cups packed baby spinach leaves
* 3/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
* 3/4 teaspoon Vietnamese fish sauce
* 3 well beaten eggs
* salt
* 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion

Directions:

Bring the chicken to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the spinach leaves, sesame oil, and fish sauce and cook until the spinach begins to wilt.

Stir the mixture until the broth is quickly swirling around the saucepan. Slowly and carefully pour in the eggs, continuing to stir the broth with your other hand. The eggs should cook upon contact with the broth and create ribbons. Taste and add salt, if necessary.

Ladle into individual bowls and top with green onion.

Adapted from Quick and Easy Chinese

White Marble Alternatives for Kitchen Counters

Marble Alternatives

Girl Cooks World

-

November 29, 2012

0

White Marble Alternatives for Kitchen Counters

I did plenty of cooking and baking for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday week, but didn’t have time to take any photos. So I’m back, much sooner than I hoped or anticipated, with another kitchen renovation post. I’m hopeful that this post will help my fellow kitchen website design addicts who check Gardenweb forums and/or Houzz incessantly looking for photos of countertops.*

(*p.s. Does anybody else out there carry around half a dozen quartz samples to examine them in different lighting? I’d love to know I’m not alone…)

If any of you saw Something’s Gotta Give, then you might remember the kitchen above, which was, quite possibly, more popular than the movie itself. But after almost a decade (!!!), it seems like the tides are shifting from black to white countertops.

You may have noticed that there’s plenty of Carrera and Calacatta (which has more dramatic veining) marble in my inspiration photos. I considered getting Carrera or Calacatta counters for, oh, about five minutes or so… just about the amount of time it took for this little sample I bought home (below) to get some major etching and staining from a little test I did. You can see the discolorations in the marble sample below.

By contrast, the quartz samples completely resisted staining, even after I left spills on them for more than 24 hours.

Marble might be a great choice for some people (those who like patina, those who don’t actually cook in their kitchens, etc.), but I don’t want to worry about guests accidentally spilling wine or tomato sauce on my kitchen counters.

While not necessarily any cheaper than the real thing, quartz has recently become a popular alternative to marble. And just as you’ll find lots of variation in marble, which you can see in the pastry slabs above, there’s plenty of variety in quartz as well. Below are some of the light colors available from Silestone, one of the most popular quartz manufacturers. Silestone is one of the only major quartz brands that sells out of a big box store- Home Depot.

I gathered as many light-colored and marble-look quartz samples that I could find and then threw in some Kashmir White granite and Corian Raincloud for good measure. Here’s the round-up.

I wasn’t a fan of the busy pattern on the granite and the Corian felt to plasticky to me. And although they look nice in these small sample sizes, I wasn’t a fan of the Silestone Bianco River or Silestone Lyra on the larger samples that I saw in various showrooms.

I threw the White Cliff out of the running because I don’t want a pure white… I’d rather a little texture to keep things interesting. So that left me with Silestone Yukon Blanco, Silestone Lagoon, Caesarstone Misty Carrera, Cambria Torquay, and LG Hausys Viatera Cortina.

As I mentioned in my last kitchen renovation post, the Silestone Lagoon and the Caesarstone Misty Carrera are very similar. From afar they definitely read as grey.

And the LG Hausys Viatera in Cortina seems like it’s a pretty good match for the Cambria Torquay. They’re both creamy whites with grey and taupe swirls/veining.

Here are some photos of the large samples at a showroom that I visited. In my mind the Torquay looks much more natural while the Bianco River almost has a snow leopard print feel to it.

Here’s that same sample of floor Tiles next to a sample of Silestone Lyra. You can see that the Lyra definitely has a squiggly quality to it.

And there’s that Cambria Torquay sample one more time next to the Silestone Yukon Blanco. The Yukon Blanco is a greige/grey that has a slight variation and texture to it… you might be able to see some subtle creamy white swirls. It reads much more neutral or warm than Carrera marble, which typically has very cool grey tones.

Most of the photos that I’ve seen of Cambria Torquay online have been in bright, natural light, which always made the veining seem very subtle. This harsh, indoor lighting inside the Homeowner’s Design Center really seems to make the swirling/veining more pronounced.

And finally, here’s the display sample of the LG Cortina. I have several dozen other photo comparisons of the samples above, so if any of you are looking for more photos of one of the quartz varieties mentioned above, just let me know…

Tater Tot Nachos Supreme aka Totchos Supreme

Girl Cooks World

-

October 15, 2012

0

Tater Tot Nachos Supreme aka Totchos Supreme

About a month ago a friend told me about a bar in Honolulu that served nachos made with tater tots instead of tortilla chips. “You can eat those, can’t you?” he asked.

Of course, there’s never a simple answer to that question when you have Celiac, but my interest was piqued and I decided to make a version at home. I never anticipated blogging about them because really, how good could they be? Wouldn’t I have heard of them before?

I guess not. I’m now wondering how I made it thirty plus years without tater tot nachos, or totchos, in my life. Perhaps the food blogs that I frequent are too healthy? I decided that even though this isn’t my normal type of post/recipe, it was my civic duty to help spread the word. It took me a couple weeks to remember to pick up the ingredients and take photos, but here they are, in all of their cheesy, beefy glory.

Tater tots are baked until super crispy and then topped with seasoned beef, cheese sauce, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, green onion and crumbled bacon. And although I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, you’re probably going to want to go with that prepared cheese sauce you buy from the supermarket or for website for these. It’s pure junk food heaven.

If you’re able to show more restraint than I am, you can also go with this slightly healthier version that Julie posted, coincidentally, the week after I’d had eaten totchos for the first time. I’m psyched that the word is spreading. If you like these you could try a homemade tater tot casserole recipe.

Tater Tot Nachos Supreme aka Totchos Supreme

Note: I wrote the recipe to make extra of the ground beef, since I like to use the leftovers for tacos. If you’re not interested in making extra seasoned beef, you can reduce those ingredients (onion, garlic, beef and spices) by half.

Yield: 4 as a main course or 8 appetizer-sized servings

Ingredients:

32-ounce bag gluten-free frozen tater tots (get the extra crispy variety if you can find them)
3-4 slices bacon
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. very lean ground beef
1 Tablespoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
~15-ounce jar gluten-free salsa con queso/cheese sauce, heated in the microwave
salsa
guacamole
sour cream
several green onions, finely chopped

Directions:

Prepare the tater tots using the oven method instructions on the package. Err on the side of overbaking because you’ll be adding a lot of wet toppings, and you want the tots to remain as crunchy as possible.

While the tater tots are baking, fry the bacon until crisp in a large frying pan. Remove and set aside to cool. Ladle out all but about 1 Tablespoon of the bacon grease. Add the onion and garlic to the frying pan and cook over medium heat until softened. Add the beef and stir to mix. Once the beef is no longer pink, add the chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir to incorporate and then cook several additional minutes until the flavors have melded and the meat is cooked through.

Once the tater tots have finished baking, use tongs or a spoon to transfer to a large platter or individual plates. Top with the seasoned beef, salsa con queso, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and green onions. Crumble the bacon over the top and serve immediately.