Tag Archives: food

enchiladas de mole

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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 This dish has some yummy elements that I am sure if we look at the chemical composition of the flavour molecules of certain ingredients, they must look alike or lock well together; whatever it is, Mole Enchiladas do taste delicious, and I think that this is to do with the combination of ingredients.  Simple ingredients like corn tortillas, a well poached juicy chicken, mole, raw onions and sesame seeds and of course a little crumbled cheese.  These ingredients combine so well that a good dish of enchiladas de mole is memorable.

To start your very own memorable experience of making enchiladas de mole -like with ALL cooking you will need to have good ingredients, so I would suggest a good bird, yes an expensive one that has had a good life, one that has been able to see the sun, to walk about and that has been properly fed, a good organic chicken that is going to produce superb stock and most important juicy meat for the enchiladas.  Poach the chicken in plenty of water with half an onion, a couple of peeled cloves of garlic, some bay leaves and a little salt.  To poach a chicken perfectly, it is important that you never allow your liquid to come to the boil, otherwise horrible scum will form.  If you keep your bird in its water just below boiling point, the stock will be clear as water and keep its flavour.  Pass the stock through a colander or sieve and reserve to make the mole sauce later on.

I think the best parts of the chicken for enchiladas are the legs, just for the reason that they are more juicy.  Once the chicken is poached, cool down and then shred it with your fingers, reserve, always submerged in some of the chicken stock, this is so that the chicken does not dry.

Make your mole sauce… I am not suggesting here that you go and grind 40 ingredients on your knees on your metate as you would make a cup of coffee; the whole process is quite complicated.  These days you can get good brands of mole: Dona Maria and Xiqueno are good brands, the former being a commercial brand available in many parts of the world and the latter one, an obscure brand from Veracruz that is just delicious.  Make your mole sauce by sauteing the mole paste in a little sesame oil and then add a little chicken stock, whisking and stirring all the time to avoid lumps.  Add a little stock and stir constantly, add a little more and so on, until you have a good thick sauce, with a similar consistency to that of creme anglaise, custard, double cream or heavy cream.

Proceed with your tortillas.  You can make your own, or you can buy them… always corn ones -flour tortillas work for other things, but not for enchiladas de mole.  Sautee the tortillas in a little hot oil for a couple of seconds, literally pass them on hot oil and then dip them in the mole sauce, put on a plate and put some of the shredded chicken on one half, fold the tortilla in half; this is one enchilada.  Repeat the process so that you have three enchiladas on one plate.  Pour some mole sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle some crumbled cheese like fetta, decorate with chopped onion or some onion rings and scatter plenty of sesame seeds on top.  Some people pour some soured cream on top as well.

Put a napkin on and never wear white -mole sauce stains clothes forever! and sit down and enjoy every mouthful of Enchiladas de Mole!!!

Thank you for the comments on my blog, thank you February for being here, promising more light and better weather and thank you customers and people that employ me, I shall not get so discouraged, work always comes to me and January lasts for 31 days and I will try to keep this blog more up to date more often!

… some thoughts on Mole

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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My blogger chum Chad asked me recently to write something on Mole.  At the time I was a bit busy and I think this was also a subconscious excuse not to write on the subject… The reason is that for a Mexican to write on Mole is getting into sticky ground; every Mexican has his/her views on the matter and they are the best, full stop!

In the UK people relate the word to little creatures that live underground, to The Wind in the Willows, to that ‘Mexican chocolate sauce’, or worse still to eating little animals that live underground covered with a chocolate sauce!  Nothing could be further from the truth; to write about Mole is to write about our identity as Mexicans, to write about our history, to touch on many aspects of our folcklore, it is to write about flavour combinations and even to write about food science, it is to challenge families and to create rivalries through recipes…. it can become a telenovela… yes we Mexicans are a complicated lot.

In fact I did think to write my dissertation on Mole… but since this is just a blog, I am going to say just a few simple things.  For instance, did you know that it is believed the word ‘mole’ is derived from an indigenous word, possibly nahuatl: ‘molli’ or ‘mulli’ which means sauce? I have also heard it is derived from the Spanish verb ‘moler’ which is to grind… see? it is not that easy with this sauce.

The origins of mole are also unclear, some say that it existed well before the arrival of the Spaniards and yes many of the ingredients are original to Mexico and the american continent.  There are tales of Spanish and creole nuns, like Sor Andrea de la Asuncion, who was famed for her ability to create perfect food -a kind of 17th century Heston Blumenthal, who concocted this divine dish for the viceroy in turn and other celebrities of the time.  This story might well be true; it could also be related to an appropriation of the indigenous by the colonials… The story that I like best, because is full of folklore, it touches on the kitsch and again it is similar to a telenovela (soap opera) involves a nun, a saint, a draw full of spices and a bit of magic of course… The nun might well have been Sor Andrea de la Asuncion, and how she was completely burnt out from so much cooking and therefore felt uninspired; the guests were coming to eat her latest delicacy and she just did not know what to cook that day.  As it was the norm, she asked San Pascualito-the patron saint of cooks and of the kitchen to help her. Then she turned, stumbled against a draw that was full of spices that went on the pot and hey presto: Mole anyone?  I wonder what do they do on a stressful day at The Fat Duck? maybe we should tell them about San Pascualito.

Whatever story you go for, the truth is that Mole is a kind of national dish to Mexico, the state of Puebla is famed for its Mole and the state of Oaxaca is called the land of 7 moles.  If you go to any Mexican market you will find mole sold by the kilo and of course families pride themselves in making their own family recipe which is usually a secret.

A good Mole can have up to 40 different ingredients, but the basic ones are: chillies, usually ancho, pasilla and mulato, garlic, onion, sesame oil, sesame seeds, oregano, marjoram, some day old tortillas, bananas, raisins, almonds, possibly a little stale bread and many more.  Traditionally all these ingredients are ground on a metate, by hand and then fried with lard.  The final ingredient is a little bit of bitter chocolate, which is essential to add flavour and a velvety texture.  This will resemble a heavy paste and to make the sauce, we add stock from a poached bird; turkey being the traditonal one to use -although these days more eclectic birds like duck and even other kinds of game are used.  The poached bird is covered with this sauce and served decorated with sesame seeds; this is a far cry to some people’s ideas of eating a chicken mixed with hot fudge sauce!

Being someone that really goes more for the sensation that food has on my tastebuds rather than for the looks of the restaurant or who is sitting at the next table; I’ll have to say that poached turkey topped with a heavy Mole sauce scattered with some sesame seeds in some busy convent like restaurant is not my favourite way of eating this… to me Mole can be one of those memorable food moments that I would take to a desert island…in fact Mole is included in my funeral!   At least to me the best way is to eat it is in the shape of Enchiladas de Mole.

In my next post I will write on Enchiladas de Mole and why I like them.  This might not be the aristocratic or trendy way of eating mole… but it is so very good!

Save our local shops / NO to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington!

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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This is an old rant on corner shops, but surprisingly or rather NOT surprisingly, nothing changes, please say no to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington by signing this petition,just click here

Last week, I heard somewhere that if trends carry on as they are, the corner shop will disappear in a few years… I remember now, I heard this on Radio 4.  There was a slightly sarcastic comment saying that it will be a ‘shame’ to loose those shops that sell overpriced and dusty tins of rice pudding…

…the corner shop contains features that makes us remember dusty, half empty shelves of expensive items that are near their sell by date, and maybe the owners  of these shops will need to review their stock in more ways than one in order to keep their shop and not to sell it to a developer that will transform it to a ‘charming flat with a shop front feature’.

However there are other kinds of corner shops, and these are the ones that I feel we should support.  I happen to live in an area that thankfully has not yet been invaded by hypermarkets, supermarkets or their ‘city/express’ equivalent.  My nearest supermarket -if it can be called that, is an organic one where we can find fabulous produce and all eco-friendly-organic goodies that cost a lot of money.  There are as well a myriad of small shops that sell produce aimed at the local Turkish community, and it is these type of shops that I think we should try to support.  In my part of London these are mainly Turkish, but depending on the area where we live, these shops can be Indian, Bangladeshi, Greek or Portuguese.

What I like of these shops is obviously the things they sell, in my case we can find large chunks of fetta cheese, wonderful yoghurt, freshly baked flat breads and the usual basket containing bunches of fresh dill, coriander, parsley, basil, mint and spinach.  These goodies sit happily next to neat rows of dried pulses, nuts and rice, Turkish tea and coffee as well as the usual -often dusty, packets of breakfast cereal and digestive biscuits.

The staff at these shops are usually friendly and welcoming, sometimes they give me free chillies, other times they let me pay later, once I was even able to use their fridge! These guys are always there, 365 days open from 9 to 9, many times they are glued to the blasting Turkish version of the Oprah show; other times they are just chatting to their mates and -especially in the summer, this seems an OK existence.  However what we don’t see is that in order to keep their shops running, they have to get up at 4 am and buy fruits, veg and herbs.  I have been to Spitalfields to buy fruit and veg at that time in the winter and I know that is not exactly fun.  Then they have to be there in the shops all year round.  For the place to look open, they need to have their doors fully open too and that means living in the cold fo r half the year.

Then, there is also the problem of prices, at markets like Spitalfields, the price of the produce varies everyday, so our friendly shopkeepers are constantly having to juggle with prices, often making very little money if any at all.  As an example, my local shop sells avocados at 70p each, he buys at 50p so his profit is hardly what we can call a profit.  The bullets that resemble an avocado in a supermarket -the ones that have obviously not been ‘ripened for flavour’ cost the same amount.  I wonder how much to they get these at? it is certainly not 50p, otherwise the profits would not be so healthy for these guys.

There is the question of choice, for some strange reason, we are led to believe that a large supermarket has a large range of items, well think again; next time you go into a supermarket look into the stock and ask yourself the question if there is really a large selection, or are you really being sold what they are telling you what you buy… I don’t want to portray large supermarket chains as evil guys that are planning your life, dictating what you should consume; however, it is extremely annoying to go to these places and then find that the only kind of cocoa powder they sell is their own brand, that you can only find ‘the most popular’ of meat cuts i.e. mince and two others, that their fish counter looks like a fishmonger but they cannot sell you the heads of the fish to make stock.  Instead they have oversized r ows where they sell oversized ‘family’ bags of all kinds of flavoured crisps… if we are not careful our families will be oversized in a very short time.

We complain and mock that the stock at local shops is nearly out of date and that they don’t often have what we want, and the reason for this is exactly because we don’t buy enough stuff from them. It is very difficult to always have the same selection of produce if half of it goes to waste, when there is really no need for that to be so.  If we bought more from these shops, then the stock rotates more often and we will find more choice and fresher stuff as well.  Regarding choice, well, my local shop does not sell 27 varieties of tortilla chips but they sell amongst other things medjool dates, white onions, shallots and large white eggs by the piece (10p each), and frankly I prefer this kind of choice, I like my ‘totopos’ (Mexican for tortilla chips) plain thank you.

What I am trying to say here is that I think there is enough room for both kinds of shops to survive, yes it is nice and comfy to take the car and buy a whole year load of dishwasher tablets and toilet paper, yes it is nice to buy two for the price of one items like chicken breasts… although we should ask if this is actually an ethical thing to do… and yes it is nice to be able to get cashback when we pay and to buy very cheap wine.  But it is also nice, very nice to be greeted by the local shopkeeper and to feel like a human being there.  It is nice to find weird and wonderful seasonal produce, pomegranates in September for instance, but it is nicer to feel that one is contributing directly to keep somebody in business.  Next time you think that your local shop is a weird place packed with dusty and expensive items, think again, yes things might cost a little more, but not much more and also think that this extra price keeps these guys in business and this includes the community feel that these shops bring.

Yes, there is the question of lifestyle, of living busy, of our life being made easier by doing all the shopping in one go, but have we actually stopped and thought how little we need to buy in a week? how much waste we create by buying lots of veg in one go and then spending all week eating out or eating take aways? Maybe, just maybe if we divide our shopping and spend 10 minutes at the local shop we will end up buying things that we did not know existed and we are prompted to use our imagination, we might find things that we have not seen in years -white eggs for instance.  Just doing a little bit of shopping at these places will help save them.  So why don’t we do it?

Last Saturday pm I had the misfortune to go to a large supermarket and just when I was feeling lost in the family size crisp department, amongst many upset people that looked more like lost robots than actual human beings; there was a cute Spanish girl having a fit, she said to her mother: ‘there is nothing I like about this shop and the only thing I like you won’t buy’.  Obviously she wanted to get some crisps, but what I thought interesting is that she did not like that place, and it seemed that most of us seemed unhappy there.  Then the question is, why do we carry on buying like if there is no tomorrow, when there is an option to buy stuff from our local shop? if we carry on like this, there won’t be a tomorrow for our little shops and we might come to regret that.

Flavours of Yucatan at Marylebone!

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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The food from the Yucatán area of Mexico is a cuisine in itself. Drawing from Mayan styles of cooking, combined with Caribbean ingredients and Spanish techniques, the result is food packed with flavours that explode in the mouth. For this class Sofia brings you traditional favourites that have made this cuisine famous for its delicate and exotic flavours. You’ll learn how to prepare Chicken & Lime Soup, Slow Cooked Pork with Pibil spices, Panuchos or hand-made Tortillas filled with Beans and topped with Chicken, served with Soured Orange Salad and Habanero Relish, Yucatán style Fried Plantains and Eggs Motul style (the Yucatán version of Huevos Rancheros). The flavours you’ll discover will brighten up even the darkest winter day!

Where: Divertimenti Cookery School, Marylebone High Street

When: Saturday 19th November 2011

Time:  11 am – 14.30 pm

Price £105 for a cookery demo followed by a hands-on class.

To book click here

East End Paradise my own review

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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After eating a wonderful brunch of omelette with herbs and rocket salad from the garden plus the very first minty broad beans, some rhubarb and strawberries and mint tea I feel extremely smug!

There are a few reasons for this feeling, first of all, it is very satisfying to continue having that dialogue with your patch of earth, and after many months of care, we now begin to receive something back and the allotment is so generous that from what we invest, it gives back with extreme generosity.

At this point in time, the hungry gap is over, now we begin to receive daily gifts in form of produce and this shapes the way we eat and also the way we live.  There is more to growing your own food than just putting seeds in a pot and eating what comes from the earth… give it a go, do that and then find out what happens next.

To grow your own food automatically puts you in touch with your local patch of earth and your surroundings, it makes you think seasonally, it inspires you to cook and live in a simpler way and it makes you part of the community and your surroundings… when things go right then you have the right to feel smug.

To grow your own food does not mean having to renounce living in modernity, it doesn’t involve retreating to some idyllic cottage in the middle of nowhere and it does not mean having to be rich and idle to afford the luxury of time and of not earning a living.  What it requires is the will of doing it, and to take what comes with the commitment.

I write this in the middle of May; at that magical time when evenings are long and balmy, when the natural world that most of the time we fail to see, calls upon our senses, this is a time of year we cannot ignore.  At this particular time, I think a lot about this, first because it is right in front of me, because I am lucky enough to have an allotment, and because of my research on urban agriculture.

It is at this precise moment when a beautiful book caught my attention: East End Paradise by Jojo Tulloh.  This book falls within the ‘cookery’ section and yes it contains many recipes and it is about eating food, but to me it is more than that… whatever more it has, it certainly fits my bill!

East End Paradise is a book about growing food and eating it, but it is also about other things too, it is a book that advocates for a simpler lifestyle that can be fitted within the permanent busy schedule of postmodernity, it is evocative and it is reminiscent of older styles of cookery writing that reminds us of Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David and Richard Olney; those dear writers on food who celebrated food for its simplicity and beauty, and whose lives revolved around the gorgeousness of creating something nice from what surrounds us.  Although Jojo’s book fits well within this pattern, it also fits within contemporary styles of having to juggle a number of factors like having a family with children, working and living in the city.  This book is not precious, it is generous instead, because it does not put the author on a pedestal from which she is going to instruct us on ‘how’ to grow food and ‘how’ to cook it.  In fact the recipes although they can be followed step by step, to me they are just hints, similar to the hints I always get in my head when I pick my own food or when it sits in front of me; what is precious is the fact that this book inspires to generate ideas and is not prescriptive.

As a novice food grower, this book is also illuminating in the fact that it shows –from the perspective of a normal human being; on issues of growing and processing food and also it shares beautiful and useful ideas like how to obtain seeds from your produce, as well as hints on using herbs and ‘weeds’ to make free tisanes.  It also inspires the reader to use alternative materials for gardening, like local wooden sticks as poles, coffee sacks as fleece and seashells for paths.

I have decided not to read this book in one go, I read it with the seasons, just a little bit ahead, so that I understand what needs to be done, that together with being on site at the allotment, means that I am learning lots and rescuing something precious I felt I had lost: the art of simple living.  In many ways this book has reminded me of the early days when we shared a house with John Craxton –himself an old friend of Richard Olney; when food was a cause for simple celebration and an excuse for socialising in a bohemian way.

This is a book that I don’t know where to place, maybe on the self of my future shed so that it can whisper tips on what to do with my patch of earth; it should probaly sit on the shelf reserved for Grigson, David, Olney, Stein, Slater and Barehan.  At the moment it is by my bedside table and I love reading it when I wake up with the light at 6.

I am very glad that there is a book like this around, something very refreshing for balmy evenings!

Tarta Pascualina / Easter Pie

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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As Easter approaches fast, I would like to share a seasonal recipe for a delicious pie that is eaten in Italy as well as in South America: Tarta Pascualina.  I first came across this dish in Mexico City, at an Uruguayan home, the one that belongs to the family of my very good friend Ana.

One day she offered us a spinach pie with eggs that was very different to anything I had eaten before ‘La Tarta Pascualina’ they called it.  Later on I found out that this dish originates in Genoa, port from which many migrants sailed off to find a future in the new world.  To distant lands these intrepid travellers went, and so to Argentina and Uruguay they arrived.   These migrants took with them the nostalgic flavours of home, particularly those which are linked to celebrations like Easter and they therefore took with them Tarta Pascualina.

This dish contains the word spring all over; it is made with the first young tender spring greens and it contains a high symbolic value because it is served at Easter time, hence the word ‘pascualina’: Pascua = Easter.  Since it is an easter/spring dish, it contains eggs which are folkloric symbols of resurection.

I first had this pie, not at Easter but as part of a South American buffet that my friend’s family hosted.  Julio her father was known for making this dish his speciality and delicious it was.  I remember eating this warm pie with a little tomato salad and it was very good.

My friendship with Ana has survived many years in spite of us being separated by thousands of miles and the memory of this pie stayed in my mind always.

Below is a recipe that is similar to the one Julio makes, however I have changed the pastry and here I use hot watercrust pastry, which is one of the easiest types of pastry and one that produces spectacular results.  I make a raised Pascualina pie by putting it inside a springform cake tin, filling with a spinach and pepper mixture and by placing some eggs inside, then the whole thing is baked, left to cool down and eaten with some garlicky tomato salad with basil, when you eat this, you will be transported perhaps to Genoa, but certainly to Montevideo.

An Easter egg from Rococo Chocolate

An Easter egg from Rococo Chocolate

Tarta Pascualina

For a deep cake tin about 20 – 23 cm in diameter:

450 g flour

1 tsp salt

100 g lard

100 g butter (you can use 200 g butter only)

225 ml milk and water mixed in equal proportions

Warm a mixing bowl and sift in the flour and salt, make a well in the centre

Heat the lard/butter or only butter in the milk and water until just boiling

Pour this mix into the well in the flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until thick

Continue working by hand to a smooth dough.

Cut in two, wrap in cling film and chill for about 30 minutes

Roll the pastry in two sheets of greaseproof paper until it is about 5 mm in height and the pastry fits the size of your tin, one is for the mould itself and the other one for the lid.

For the filling:

1 kg leaf spinach

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 red peppers, char-grilled and skinned, finely chopped

6 eggs

100 g grated Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Wash the spinach and place in a pan, heat up without adding any water, cook stirring until it completely collapses.

Sauté the onions with some olive oil until soft, add the garlic and continue cooking until soft.

Add the spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Cook and season accordingly

Take off the heat and add the grated cheese, 2 beaten eggs and the peppers.  Mix very well.

Put this mixture on the baking tin filled with pastry; make 3 spaces in the filling.  Break an egg and put its contents in this space, repeat with the other 2 spaces.  Put the pastry lid on the pie seal.  Using a fork prick the pie avoiding the eggs.  Brush with a beaten egg.

Put in the oven and bake for about 40 – 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. To un-mould, loosen up the sides using a knife and open the hinge (or spring). Brush with egg all over the sides and put in the oven for another 10 minutes so that the pie goes golden brown all over.

Seville Orange Marmalade / Mermelada de Naranjas de Sevilla

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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For those who happen to live on northern latitudes, January can be seen as a bleak month, when after all the jolly of Christmas, we are left over with extra pounds of belly fat, with short days that seem to take an eternity to become longer and with a desire for something exciting and new to happen.

The appearance of Seville or bitter oranges (citrus auriantium) at fruit stalls and markets certainly is no cure for winter nostalgia, but it can be seen as some kind of first aid: their bits of green/yellow and orange colour, provided by these fruits can be added to our seasonal cooking palette.  These fruits become like the first rays of sunshine, coming to our rescue from those winter blues.

And rescue they do.  Seville oranges are only available for roughly a period of six weeks from early to mid January and they are used mainly for making marmalade because they have a high pectin content and also because they are very sour and bitter as a fruit.

Gorgeous it is to see these oranges at the shops and glorious is the smell they produce when they are turned into conserve.   To make a large batch of marmalade every January not only gives you enough stock to spread on your toast for the rest of the year, it also gives you a sense of seasonality.

It is fun to turn the kitchen into a production line, invite friends and family and make large batches of marmalade, you can achieve a lot by sharing jobs and have a great time during the process.

So when you see Seville oranges at the shops buy loads, don’t eat them as a fruit, instead turn them into marmalade.  This in time will become something that will make you appreciate January.

Recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade

This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s cooking bible: The cook’s companion

Makes 1.5 – 1.8 litres

1 kg Seville oranges

3 large lemons

2 litres water

2 kg sugar

old jam jars and lids

labels

Begin by peeling the rind of the oranges and lemons using a potato peeler, then cut into long strips or julienne.  Juice the fruits and reserve the pith and seeds –this is important, the seeds are full of pectin that you will need later on.  Place these inside a muslin bag or cloth and tie well.  Put the juice, muslin bag, water and zest into a non-reactive saucepan [stainless steel] and bring to the boil;  as soon as this happens, reduce to a very gentle simmer, partially cover the pan with a lid and cook for one hour, stirring from time to time.  You want to reduce the liquid to about half of its original volume.  Take off the heat and leave covered overnight.

The day after, begin by squeezing the muslin bag very well of any liquid/pectin, remember any pectin is valuable, so you want to really squeeze as much liquid as possible from the bag.

Add the sugar to the citrus mix and stir well, heat up gently, stirring all the time, up to boiling point.   Once it begins to boil, stop stirring and leave to bubble for about 7 minutes or until it comes to setting point.  Test for setting using a thermometer, it should reach 104 C, if you don’t have a thermometer, just place a blob of marmalade on a cold plate and leave for a couple of minutes, push your finger into the marmalade, it should separate in two halves; this is setting point.  If this does not happen, continue boiling for a bit longer and test until you are able to do so.

Sterilise your glass jars: Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water and rinse well in hot water.  Submerge  into a large pan full of boiling water for 10 minutes, carefully take out of the bath and place upside-down over a clean tea-towel to drain.  Dry well by putting them inside an oven at 150 C.  Take out of the oven and avoid touching the insides of the jars and lids.  While these are still hot, fill them with hot marmalade and then screw on the  lids.  Do this with care.

Leave them to cool down, a vacuum should be created, you can tell this by feeling the concave shape of the lids when they are cold.  Label and date the jars… when you open a jar in July and see the date, you will remember the day you made this!

Rosca de Reyes / Galette des Rois / Epiphany Bread

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
1

… On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love left his shoe by the door and waited for the three wise men to leave a present.

Yes this is what happens on Epiphany night in many countries.  In Mexico many people celebrate this night almost as much as Christmas eve, because this night is also loaded with symbolism, it is the night when the three wise men finally arrived to give gifts to the baby Jesus; and as such it is expected that the men will arrive and deliver a present to children… you just need to leave your shoe by the windowsill or by your bed or by the Christmas tree and the morning after there will be something there for you.

Of course this follows the previous night of families gathering to drink hot chocolate and cut the ‘rosca’. This is a bread/cake that is made on this night and it has the shape of a large ring, inside of which there is a token like a bean, a coin or even a plastic baby or person.  When you cut the bread, if you get the token, that means that you have to host a party on the 2nd of February that usually features tamales.

These breads used to contain one or two tokens or babies, as the world keeps turning, it seems that these have reproduced and now at least in Mexico City  roscas’ you can find as many as ten or more.  Personally I prefer the cakes that contain one or two tokens because then, the one who gets it, becomes ‘special’ a king for a day I guess.

This is not an exclusive Mexican tradition, it is an adaptation from other countries like Spain and France where they eat Roscon de Reyes and Galette des Rois, respectively.

Below is a simple recipe for a Mexican Rosca, this is followed by one for Galette des Rois.

This is another excuse for getting together, gather on the last night of this period, drink hot chocolate and have a slice of this bread, if you get the token, then make tamales at your place and invite more people.

Mexican Rosca

For the Bread

500 g strong white flour

100 g caster sugar

10 g salt

100 g softened butter

3 medium sized eggs

2 sachets or 14 g easy blend yeast

200 ml water

zest of 1 lime

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

2 plastic babies for the rosca, or substitute with a dried bean

100 g acitron [this is a candied cactus] if you can’t find this, substitute with candied fruits

Cover:

100 g soft butter

100 g icing sugar

150 g flour

2 Tbsp caster sugar

In the bowl of  an electric mixer, add all the powdered ingredients for the bread mix, then add the softened butter and cream, add the eggs, water and the zest of the citrus fruits, mix using the bread hook for three minutes at a slow speed, increase to a medium speed and mix for six minutes or until the dough is very elastic, you need to develop a lot of gluten here, leave to rest for 30 mins or 1 hour is your kitchen is cold.

Take out of the bowl and roll into two balls that you are going to shape into two long saugages that you are going to link into a ring, don’t forget to insert the tokens.

Place on baking trays that are covered with greaseproof paper.

Mix the ingredients for the cover by beating them in a bowl to fully incorporate.  Decorate the roscas by alternating the candied fruits and placing strips of the bread cover.

Leave to prove for another hour and place on greased in a medium hot oven 160 C fan, 180 C conventional Gas Mark 4 for 35 minutes.  The roscas are ready if they sound hollow when their bottoms are gently tapped.

Galette des Rois

Make about 250 g puff pastry [or rather buy...] and roll it out into two round shapes about 2 cm thick.  Place these on a baking tray that is covered with greaseproof paper.  Push a bean into the dough. Sandwich them together with frangipane cream before baking.  Trace a pattern on the top of the dough with the pint of a knife and brush it with egg.  Bake in a very hot oven at 250 C conventional oven, 230 fan oven, Gas Mark 9, until the top is golden brown.

Below is a simple recipe for frangipane:

125 g butter

125 g sugar

2 eggs

200 g ground almonds

½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time add vanilla essence and fold in almonds

With thanks to Ingrid Vargas-Cessa for giving me her version of this recipe for Rosca de Reyes that I have adapted.

Galette des Rois Taken from Larousse Gastronomique

Save our corner shops

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
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Save our corner shops / NO to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington!!!

 

This is an old rant on corner shops, but surprisingly or rather NOT surprisingly, nothing changes, please say no to Sainsbury’s in Stoke Newington by signing this petition,just click here

Last week, I heard somewhere that if trends carry on as they are, the corner shop will disappear in a few years… I remember now, I heard this on Radio 4.  There was a slightly sarcastic comment saying that it will be a ‘shame’ to loose those shops that sell overpriced and dusty tins of rice pudding…

…the corner shop contains features that makes us remember dusty, half empty shelves of expensive items that are near their sell by date, and maybe the owners  of these shops will need to review their stock in more ways than one in order to keep their shop and not to sell it to a developer that will transform it to a ‘charming flat with a shop front feature’.

However there are other kinds of corner shops, and these are the ones that I feel we should support.  I happen to live in an area that thankfully has not yet been invaded by hypermarkets, supermarkets or their ‘city/express’ equivalent.  My nearest supermarket -if it can be called that, is an organic one where we can find fabulous produce and all eco-friendly-organic goodies that cost a lot of money.  There are as well a myriad of small shops that sell produce aimed at the local Turkish community, and it is these type of shops that I think we should try to support.  In my part of London these are mainly Turkish, but depending on the area where we live, these shops can be Indian, Bangladeshi, Greek or Portuguese.

What I like of these shops is obviously the things they sell, in my case we can find large chunks of fetta cheese, wonderful yoghurt, freshly baked flat breads and the usual basket containing bunches of fresh dill, coriander, parsley, basil, mint and spinach.  These goodies sit happily next to neat rows of dried pulses, nuts and rice, Turkish tea and coffee as well as the usual -often dusty, packets of breakfast cereal and digestive biscuits.

The staff at these shops are usually friendly and welcoming, sometimes they give me free chillies, other times they let me pay later, once I was even able to use their fridge! These guys are always there, 365 days open from 9 to 9, many times they are glued to the blasting Turkish version of the Oprah show; other times they are just chatting to their mates and -especially in the summer, this seems an OK existence.  However what we don’t see is that in order to keep their shops running, they have to get up at 4 am and buy fruits, veg and herbs.  I have been to Spitalfields to buy fruit and veg at that time in the winter and I know that is not exactly fun.  Then they have to be there in the shops all year round.  For the place to look open, they need to have their doors fully open too and that means living in the cold for half the year.

Then, there is also the problem of prices, at markets like Spitalfields, the price of the produce varies everyday, so our friendly shopkeepers are constantly having to juggle with prices, often making very little money if any at all.  As an example, my local shop sells avocados at 70p each, he buys at 50p so his profit is hardly what we can call a profit.  The bullets that resemble an avocado in a supermarket -the ones that have obviously not been ‘ripened for flavour’ cost the same amount.  I wonder how much to they get these at? it is certainly not 50p, otherwise the profits would not be so healthy for these guys.

There is the question of choice, for some strange reason, we are led to believe that a large supermarket has a large range of items, well think again; next time you go into a supermarket look into the stock and ask yourself the question if there is really a large selection, or are you really being sold what they are telling you what you buy… I don’t want to portray large supermarket chains as evil guys that are planning your life, dictating what you should consume; however, it is extremely annoying to go to these places and then find that the only kind of cocoa powder they sell is their own brand, that you can only find ‘the most popular’ of meat cuts i.e. mince and two others, that their fish counter looks like a fishmonger but they cannot sell you the heads of the fish to make stock.  Instead they have oversized rows where they sell oversized ‘family’ bags of all kinds of flavoured crisps… if we are not careful our families will be oversized in a very short time.

We complain and mock that the stock at local shops is nearly out of date and that they don’t often have what we want, and the reason for this is exactly because we don’t buy enough stuff from them. It is very difficult to always have the same selection of produce if half of it goes to waste, when there is really no need for that to be so.  If we bought more from these shops, then the stock rotates more often and we will find more choice and fresher stuff as well.  Regarding choice, well, my local shop does not sell 27 varieties of tortilla chips but they sell amongst other things medjool dates, white onions, shallots and large white eggs by the piece (10p each), and frankly I prefer this kind of choice, I like my ‘totopos’ (Mexican for tortilla chips) plain thank you.

What I am trying to say here is that I think there is enough room for both kinds of shops to survive, yes it is nice and comfy to take the car and buy a whole year load of dishwasher tablets and toilet paper, yes it is nice to buy two for the price of one items like chicken breasts… although we should ask if this is actually an ethical thing to do… and yes it is nice to be able to get cashback when we pay and to buy very cheap wine.  But it is also nice, very nice to be greeted by the local shopkeeper and to feel like a human being there.  It is nice to find weird and wonderful seasonal produce, pomegranates in September for instance, but it is nicer to feel that one is contributing directly to keep somebody in business.  Next time you think that your local shop is a weird place packed with dusty and expensive items, think again, yes things might cost a little more, but not much more and also think that this extra price keeps these guys in business and this includes the community feel that these shops bring.

Yes, there is the question of lifestyle, of living busy, of our life being made easier by doing all the shopping in one go, but have we actually stopped and thought how little we need to buy in a week? how much waste we create by buying lots of veg in one go and then spending all week eating out or eating take aways? Maybe, just maybe if we divide our shopping and spend 10 minutes at the local shop we will end up buying things that we did not know existed and we are prompted to use our imagination, we might find things that we have not seen in years -white eggs for instance.  Just doing a little bit of shopping at these places will help save them.  So why don’t we do it?

Last Saturday pm I had the misfortune to go to a large supermarket and just when I was feeling lost in the family size crisp department, amongst many upset people that looked more like lost robots than actual human beings; there was a cute Spanish girl having a fit, she said to her mother: ‘there is nothing I like about this shop and the only thing I like you won’t buy’.  Obviously she wanted to get some crisps, but what I thought interesting is that she did not like that place, and it seemed that most of us seemed unhappy there.  Then the question is, why do we carry on buying like if there is no tomorrow, when there is an option to buy stuff from our local shop? if we carry on like this, there won’t be a tomorrow for our little shops and we might come to regret that.

How to make a starter for sourdough bread and how to make sourdough bread, step by step

Posted on by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton
1

This is the time it takes to transform a simple mixture of flour and water to crusty sourdough bread.

My friend lent me the book from Bourke Street Bakery and in it, there it was a step by step way of making sourdough ferment from flour, water, air and time.

Having heard horror stories of failed fermentations, I decided to follow this easy guide to great results.  What you need is:

1.     The best quality of strong flour that you can afford

2.     A good source of fresh water

3.     A set of scales

4.     Basic organisational skills

5.     A little patience

Day one: Begin by mixing 50 g of flour and 50 g * of water


Mix well, cover and leave in a warm place overnight.

Day two:  Make a paste by mixing 50 g of water and 50 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day three:  Make a paste by mixing 100 g of water and 100 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day four: Make a paste by mixing 200 g of water and 200 g of flour, fold this mix into your original mix, cover and leave to rest overnight in a warm place

Day five: Discard all but 100 g of the mix [the book says you can place what you won’t use into the compost].

The flour and water are mixed to a rough paste

The starter is folded into the flour/water mix but never stirred

The starter is folded into the flour/water mix but never stirred

* Richard Bertinet advocates for measuring water by weight and not by volume, it is more accurate

Repeat the steps from day two to five, every day for three weeks.  This time should be enough to make your ferment strong enough for making bread.

As the days go by, you will see that your mixture will start to bubble and smell ‘bready’.


It is important to feed the mix every day, otherwise at this stage,  you run the risk of starving and killing the ferment.  It is important to keep the mix in a warm place, an airing cupboard is good or any place that is draught free. DON’T put in an oven, over the AGA or over a radiator, you want warmth but not direct heat.  It is also important to work with clean utensils and to keep containers clean.  This is like a baby and as such, it needs to be fed and to be kept warm and clean!

If your mixture is too cold or hungry, it can develop a grey liquid in the surface, if this happens, please put in a warmer place or feed it with some more flour/water mix.

 

A grey liquid on the surface might mean the ferment is either hungry or cold.

If your mixture does not bubble anymore, it means it might be dead and you need to start again!

To be honest, if you are careful, you cannot go wrong.  Give it a go and when you are ready you can start baking the most amazing bread ever.

Once your ferment is mature, you can feed it less often, twice a week should be enough.  You can even put in the fridge for later use.   If you want to use your ferment from the fridge, feed it three times in a day as described below, this way you can revive your fermet at any time.  This means you can put your bakery on standby and go on holiday for instance.   Once you have mature ferment, you can also share with friends.  I have done this before and it is a great thing to do, however corny this might sound, it transforms lives, do it and you will see what I mean!

Below is an adaptation from the original recipe for sourdough from Bourke Street Bakery, it is not difficult, it just requires a little time and attention. Give it a go, the results are well worth the wait.  This is pure magic!

Begin by feeding the starter on the day you are going to start the baking process; this needs to be done whether you are using your starter/ferment for the first time, from the fridge or from ambient temperature, what you want is to get the ferment going!  Follow the feeding times as described below, this way you will not have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed this baby -a sure advantage of having a bread baby instead of a real one!

First feed about noon: 50 g flour and 50 g water, add this to 100 g of starter, remember to roughly mix the flour and water and then fold this onto the starter as you did when creating the starter.

Second feed -  eight hours after the first feed: 100 g flour and 100 g water,  same process.

Last feed – eight hours after the second feed or early in the morning: 200 g flour and 200 g water, same process.

Now for the bread! This makes 1.5 Kg of bread, that you can divide in three very nice 500 g loaves.

Ingredients:

400 g starter

600 g organic strong white  flour

170 g organic strong wholemeal flour – this particular flour blend makes a heavier mix, for a lighter version use only strong white flour

400 g water

20 g sea salt -ground

In the bowl of a food mixer, put the starter, add the flour and water.  Attach the dough hook and mix on slow speed for four minutes and then increase to the next speed and mix for another three minutes.  You should end up with a rough dough.   Cover the bowl and set aside for 20 minutes, add the salt and mix on slow speed for one minute and increase the speed to medium, mix for six minutes, you should have a very elastic dough that can be stretched to form a ‘window’.  To ensure that you have reached the right level of elasticity, take a small portion of the dough and stretch it within your fingers,  the dough should be able to stretch to transluscent without breaking, if it tears, knead it for another minute or so.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film, leave to prove for one hour by allowing to rest in a place at room temperature.

Take out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface, stretch to obtain a rectangle that is about 2 cm high and fold one third of the rectangle onto itself and repeat with the remaining third.  Turn ninety degrees and repeat the folding process.  Place the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film, leave to rest for another hour.

Take out of the bowl and cut into three pieces that should weigh roughly 500g each.  Shape the loaves by repeating the folding process described above.

Line three bowls with a tea towel and sprinkle liberally with flour, place the dough seam side up, cover with cling film and put in the fridge to prove overnight [eight to twelve hours is best].

The morning after, preheat the oven to 200 C.  Take the loaves out of the fridge and leave them to rest for a couple of hours or until they have grown by about two-thirds of their original volume.  To ensure they are ready to go in the oven, apply light pressure with your finger on the loaves, if the dough springs back nicely when you put pressure, they are ready, if the indent stays in the dough, they need further resting.

Turn the loaves onto a baking tray that has been covered with grease-proof paper, score using a serrated knife or a razon blade, make sharp indentations about 1 cm deep -this is your signature on the bread.

Put in the oven and if you want, spray with water, this will give a crustier loaf.  Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy fresh or lightly toasted, the best!