Breaking bread

I’ve always found that to be an odd expression. The phrase itself sounds innocuous to me, but the meaning behind it makes sense. To share, to open one’s home and/or heart to another, to be welcoming. Philosophically, the idea of breaking bread is a great one. In reality, the idea of having to share my bread with someone, elicits murderous thoughts. No. Really. Don’t touch my bread!

Luckily, when I bake bread, the recipe results in enough of it that I’m able to, even if begrudgingly, share it with one or two people. Tops. You get the picture. So, a few weeks ago I made some bread. Panamanian bread, something we call Pan Micha.

Rumor has it, this recipe was brought to my homeland by the French when they attempted building the Canal. I have no verification for that story, but I do recognize some similarities with French miche bread. Thin, golden crust and soft, light inside. What I do know for sure, if that you will find michitas anywhere there is a bakery in Panama. 

I remember walking to school and stopping by the corner bakery–the aroma of freshly baked bread wafting in the air–and ordering ‘una michita con queso blanco y mantequilla‘ (a buttered michita stuffed with white cheese). Aaaaah, the bread would still be warm, the butter and local cheese melting into the center. Heavenly.

I found a recipe for it here, so I won’t retype it, just follow the link. What I want to tell you about, is how we ate them, after all, eating them is the best part.

You know I’m a traditionalist, so mine had butter and Queso Fresco. Nothing else needed. I did toast them a bit.

The Hubbz is a different story. He’s a man of excess, so he added some roast beef we had in the fridge. In Panama, we would’ve used ham or chorizo.

The bread was good, but not as light and airy as I remember michitas being, my quest for the perfect recipe continues.

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris

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The benefits of knowing people in Mexican places

Yesterday I introduced you to Lesley of Mija Chronicles fame. She’s an expat living in Mexico City and she loves food, particularly that of the Mexican persuasion. She posted this recipe for Pan de Elote just a few weeks ago, I made it the day I read it. I’m sure  that gives you a good indication of how fantastic it is. I’m SO happy I made this. My waistline isn’t happy, well, I don’t think my waistline cares one way or the other. The mirror…, that’s a different story.

Moving on. I will redirect you to her post for the actual recipe, no need to re-invent the wheel. Believe me, you WANT to see her post. You may actually want to EAT her post, but I don’t think computer monitors will taste quite the same.  A few notes about the recipe and the steps to bring it together.

Her recipe was made with white corn, which is commonly available in Mexico, but I wasn’t able to find it here in Houston. The best I was able to get was 2-color fresh corn, but still, it was mostly yellow.

I was 1 ear of corn shy of 4 cups of husked corn kernels. Upon closer inspection, I only had 3 cps. Gulp. Unwilling to take such a massive risk, and because The Hubbz will always make an emergency run for me, I asked him to get me more cobs. Crisis averted.

Because I suck at following recipes, I missed the part where it said to grind HALF of the corn…, you should do that.

I did use the unsalted butter, but added a pinch of salt for that ying yang effect. I would also suggest using a bit less of the sugar since the US corn tends to be so sweet.

For this recipe you will beat the egg whites to punto de turrón or to soft peaks for the non-Spanish speakers. Check it out, I’m holding that bowl over my head.

And you want to fold these beautiful whites into the rest of the batter without losing all that cloudy fluff. So, take just a bit of the whites and mix them into the batter, then fold in the rest of the whites. This will make folding the two together easier and more uniform.

And when it baked for 55 minutes or so, it came out looking like this. Can you hear the choir? Aaaaaaaaaaaaah…

The Hubbz and I ate this in 2 days. I’m not proud of it, but this is about full disclosure. This isn’t cornbread as we know it here in the US, it’s not even the cakier version of it. This is a cross between a souffle and an angel food cake. Lesley describes it as a buttery corn cake, and it is all of those things. We especially enjoyed this cake with a bit of queso fresco sprinkled over the top. Ying Yang, baby.

Another keeper!

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris

Medianoche & midnight turkey cravings

Wondering whatever you will do with all that leftover turkey? I know I am! I mean, as much as I enjoy the whole meal, I get tired of the original spread after a day of leftovers. I know lots of people enjoy making their leftover turkey into sandwiches, I’m not a big sandwich fan. Can’t tell you why, just not a fan. However, every now and then… something happens and I want one.

Medianoche literally means midnight in Spanish and that is the name given to this Cuban specialty. They say these came about as a snack offered to night club patrons in the wee hours of partying. I totally understand that. When I’m out late drinking and dancing (not that it has happened in a while), a need a little nibble of something. And, believe me, when you’re on the sofa watching a good movie later on, you’ll be so glad to see this beauty toasting up.

No recipe again, just the ingredients. I should mention that the Medianoche is pretty much the same thing as a Cuban sandwich, except for the type of bread used. If you have a bread that is eggy and slightly sweet, you’ll end up with a Medianoche. On the other hand, if you only have something like a baguette, it’ll be a Cuban sandwich. I used Hawaiian sweet rolls in lieu of a brioche, which aren’t readily available in Houston. The ham is a Boars Head Sweet ham, it wasn’t as sweet as the honey-roasted and worked beautifully. As for cheese, I went with a full-blood Swiss, I wanted to taste it in the sandwich.

Medianoche Sandwich

Bread
Turkey slices, thick slices
Sweet ham
Swiss cheese
Pickles
Butter

Butter the bread slices, then layer with cheese, turkey, ham, pickles, and top with cheese. Put the other half on top.

If, like me, you don’t have a Panini press, add a bit of butter to a skillet and heat over medium low temperature. Place the layered sandwich in the skillet, then press down with another pan, weighing it down, if necessary.

Allow the sandwich to toast for about 3 minutes per side. Make sure the heat isn’t too high or you’ll end up with burnt toast.

Slice the sandwich in half diagonally before serving. For more shots, follow the link to the photostream.

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris

Shrimp Toast-Panamanian Style

A few months ago I tried my hand at these yummy shrimp toasts, they turned out delicious. A few days ago I had some leftover shrimp and bread, so I thought I’d make them again. This time I went for a Latin twist, as promised. There are a couple of things I should point out about the ingredients.

Bread last time I used sliced white bread, crusts removed and cut into triangles. This time I had a few bolillos (French rolls) laying about, so I just sliced those into rounds and called it a day. Also, it is best to have day old bread.

Recao: In Panama, you can go to the little corner store and ask the store keeper for as much recao as you need, it is usually sold in 25 cents increments. I know. Crazy. Anyway, to us, Panamanians, recao is a combination of aromatics used as the base for most dishes we cook. These aromatics will be diced, sliced, chopped or pureed depending on your recipe needs.

Recao verde has garlic, onion, green bell pepper, parsley, green onions and culantro.

Then there’s recao rojo, which consists of onion, garlic, red bell pepper, culantro and tomato. This is the one used for this recipe.

Shrimp Tostadas

3/4 cp shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 cp onion
1/4 cp red bell pepper
2 tbsp each cilantro and parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp hot sauce (preferably habanero based)
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 egg whites
2 tbsp cornstarch
12-15 bread slices
Oil for frying

Place all the aromatics into a food processor and chop until fine. Then add the shrimp and pulse until the shrimp is pretty fine. Change the blade to a dough hook or transfer to a mixing bowl and add the hot sauce, eggs, cornstarch and butter. Mix well.

Slice the bread, if necessary, to about 1/4 inch thickness. Top each slice of bread with 1-2 tbsp of the shrimp mixture. Keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to fry them.

Use a medium-sized skillet and add enough oil to come up to about 1-inch and heat over medium heat. You want the oil to be hot enough to sizzle, but make sure it is not too hot or it will brown the outside before cooking the inside.

Brown the toast side first. Don’t stray away too far, the bread will brown rather quickly. Flip to the side with the filling and allow it to fry for a few minutes. Remove from the oil and allow it to drain before serving.

These make for a great snack and freeze well if you don’t want to cook them all at once. Serve warm and enjoy!

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris

Mellow Bakers: Pizza Pizza!

Another month, another group bake. This month the Mellow Bakers are working on pizzas, among other breads. I love pizza, well, I love pizza crust. But it is tough to find one that love. There’s a pizza place that’s been around for ages, Antonio’s Flying Pizza has, quite possibly, the best pizza in Houston. Hand-tossed, with a crisp, thin center and pillowy, chewy edges. They also have an awesome sauce and DO NOT overuse it. OHMY!

Well, thanks to Mr. Hamelman, I’ve found the 2nd best pizza crust. It’s on page 273 of his book Bread. I thought this was a good opportunity to have a few friends over and see what would happen when I tried my hand at pizza-making. Let me tell you, it went VERY well. I’ll walk you through it.

The dough starts off a day in advance with the fermentation of a biga. A biga is a pre-ferment. This produces organic acids which significantly contribute to the structure and development of the dough and, ultimately, the rise and flavor of the bread.

In this case, the biga needs to develop for at least 12 hours, mine went for a little over 16. I have to confess, though, this biga was quite different from the ones I’ve made thus far. It actually freaked me out! First, it was a VERY tough dough, the pre-ferments I’ve done before were anywhere from runny to medium-stiffness. Second, it rose like gangbusters! Within 3 hours it had tripled in size. Previous ferments developed very slowly. To avoid what I thought might’ve ended up being over-development, I put it in the fridge overnight and removed it a couple of hours before I was ready to make the full dough.

Crisis averted, I began working on the final dough about 3-4 hours before my friends were to arrive. Per the formula (that’s what they call bread recipes, how very scientific!), the dough needed to rise for about 2-1/2 hours before baking. Friends were due at 8ish, I began the dough around 3ish.

I opted to half the baker’s recipe, so I ended up with 5lbs of completed dough, which was then divided into 13 balls weighing approximately 6.5 oz each to make small personal pizzas. The collage shows the steps necessary prior to adding toppings and baking.

The oven is preheated to its maximum, 550° in mine, with the baking stone/pan left in the oven so it is smoking hot before the pizza goes on. A fellow Mellow Baker indicated they used the back of a cast iron skillet. This was a genius suggestion because we only have a medium sized pizza stone, but I do have large cast iron grill. And that’s what I used to bake these babies. Sprinkled some semolina on the stone and grill, then slid the topped pizzas over top.

They baked for about 10-15 minutes and were perfectly delicious. Check’em out.

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris