BOLO DE CENOURA (Mamãe/Vovo' Maria)

BOLO DE CENOURA (mamãe) Brazilian Carrot Cake

Receita inteira: (1/2 receita is the perfect amount for 12 small cupcakes)

- 04 ovos inteiros 
- 01 xícara de óleo 
- 02 cenouras grandes lavadas e sem casca
- 02 xícaras de açúcar
- 02 xícaras de farinha de trigo
- 01 colher de sopa de fermento em pó

M.F. Coloque Ovos, óleo e cenoura no liquidificador (ovos primeiro) e bata bastante...
Numa tigela coloque os secos (farinha açúcar e fermento) e mexa com as mãos, depois coloque o liquido batido e misture devagar com colher

Unte uma forma com manteiga e polvilhe farinha de trigo, asse em forno quente 200 graus (but on convection baking we used 375-350 F for 20-25 mins) por aproximadamente 30 minutos até dourar, e teste com o palito de está pronto.

COBERTURA (for cupcakes when using the 1/2 of ingredients above, we in fact used 3 times the amount below for the cobertura)

- 04 colheres de sopa de açúcar;
- 04 colheres de sopa de leite;
- 02 colheres de sopa de chocolate em pó (nescau, toddy, etc.)
- 02 colheres de sopa de margarina

Liège Waffle

Clipped from:  http://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-waffle-youll-ever-eat-90629


Gaufres de Liege
makes 12 waffles
6 tablespoons warm milk (no hotter than 110°F)
1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (230 grams) bread flour, sifted
1 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 medium egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, at slightly cooler than room temperature
140 grams turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar if you choose
Cooking spray
Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk; then add the yeast. Make sure that the milk is not too hot, lest it kill the yeast instead of promoting its growth. Place a plate or some kind of cover on top of the bowl with the milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside for about five minutes. When you check on it, the yeast should have bubbled up, looking light brown and spongy.
Meanwhile, mix the sifted bread flour with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the yeast mixture; then add the whole egg and egg yolk. Mix on medium speed until it is fully combined. The dough will be yellow and stiff, yielding only slightly to a poke.
Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for about thirty minutes.
Beat in the butter piece by piece; you do not have to wait for the prior piece to be fully incorporated before adding the next. When the dough has incorporated about half of the butter, the mixture will be like a very thick, somewhat broken-up paste. If you keep engaging the mixer on medium-high speed, the dough will eventually become a cohesive whole, looking smoother and more feeling more elastic. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
Kneading very gently, incorporate the sugar crystals just enough to get them evenly distributed. Work quickly so as not to soften the buttery dough too much.
Divide the dough into a dozen equal pieces, gently forming them into balls.
Place the balls of dough on a cutting board in a warmish place for fifteen minutes or so. During the last two minutes of this resting time, preheat your waffle iron until it is very warm, but not hot.
Spray the griddles with cooking oil. Place each ball of dough in a whole square or section of the waffle iron. Like regular waffle batter, the dough will start to puff up. Cook the waffles until the surface is golden to dark brown. Be sure that the waffle iron you are using is appropriately deep, or else the interior of the waffle will not be cooked through. If you are using a vintage stovetop waffle iron, flip the iron every thirty to forty seconds, lifting the iron to check the rate of browning. The browning should be gradual to allow the interior to fully develop.
Set the waffles on a cooling rack as they come out of the iron to promote a crispy exterior. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Any leftover waffles, if they are not dark brown, can be carefully re-cooked in a toaster for approximately thirty to sixty seconds. Leftover waffles may also be kept in an airtight container between sheets of parchment paper, for up to three days.

Hand Made Tomato Catchup (Catsup or Ketchup as you preffer)

from: http://www.grouprecipes.com/65666/moms-ripe-tomato-catsup.html

"Moms Ripe Tomato Catsup"

Disclaimer! Not my Mom! see above url for credits!

Ingredients

---

• 4 quarts ripe tomatoes (different color tomatoes will give different color catchup) *Be sure to peel, chop, and core your tomatoes before you start*
• 1 large onion - chopped
• 1 medium red pepper (or green...chopped)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon whole allspice
• 1 large cinnamon stick
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vinegar
• Have a little salt and paprika on hand.
• Jars with Lids 

How to make it

---

• Put tomatoes, onions, and pepper in pot and cook until soft. Press mixture through a sieve. Cook rapidly until thick. Around an hour.
• Reduce heat.
• Tie all whole spices in a cheesecloth bag and drop into pot. Add sugar and salt to mix.
• Cook on low about 25 minutes, stir frequently. Don't let ketchup stick to bottom of the pan.
• Now add your vinegar, paprika, and cook until thick. Again, stir often so ketchup doesn't stick to bottom of pan.
• Mixture should be boiling hot when you put into jars as usual, leave a little room at the top. Make sure your jar lid pops when you seal.
• Note - if you grow everything yourself, it will taste better. Try it!

Neapolitan Tomato Sauce - Fast Cooking

Though slow-cooking pomarola is quite tasty, there are times you'll want something quicker -- that's when this classic Neapolitan tomato sauce, known as Marinara in the US, comes into play. It's perfect for pasta, but will also work well with rice or pizza. To make about 1 1/4 pounds of sauce (in other words, a jar), you will need:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) ripe plum tomatoes
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 12 fresh basil leaves
* 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation:
Set a large pot full of water to boil. Meanwhile, wash the tomatoes and remove the brownish patches where the stems were attached using a sharp-pointed knife. Dump the tomatoes into the boiling water, blanch them for about a minute, and remove them with a slotted spoon.

Peel the tomatoes, discarding their skins, seed them, slice them, and put them in a bowl. When you are done heat the oil and the garlic in another pot (traditionalists use one made of terracotta), and stir in the tomato filets before the oil garlic begins to crackle. Season with salt and pepper, simmer over a low flame for 10 minutes, stir in the basil leaves, simmer for five more minutes, and it's done.

Figure about 1/4 cup of sauce (or more to taste) and 1/4 pound of pasta per serving; serve the pasta with grated cheese on the side.

Note:To keep the sauce from becoming heavy, it's very important that the oil not not get too hot before the tomatoes are stirred in. Also, some Neapolitan cooks of the older generation made this sauce using lard rather than oil.

Tuscan Tomato Sauce Recipe - Pomarola

from: http://italianfood.about.com/od/vegetablesauces/r/blr0022.htm

In mid-July they begin to arrive: Cases of freshly picked sun-ripened plum tomatoes, and Italian houses fill with anticipation, because there's no dish quite so refreshing on a hot day as a bowl of pasta seasoned with lots of freshly made pomarola and a handful of grated cheese. This recipe expands well, and most households make gallons of it when the flood of tomatoes reaches its peak in August, forcing the prices down. It can also be adapted to canned plum tomatoes.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2-3 pounds (1 - 1.5 k; if they're watery, you will want more) plum tomatoes, cored and chopped
• A clove of garlic
• A stick of celery about 6 inches long
• A small carrot
• A quarter of a medium onion
• A bunch of parsley
• A fresh or dried hot pepper, ribbed and seeds discarded (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A scant half teaspoon of sugar (optional)
• A bunch of basil

Preparation:

Pomarola can be made either with or without sautéing the other vegetables.

If you sauté them it will be richer, and if the tomatoes aren't vine ripened, you may want to. However, the sautéing does curb the tomatoey taste of the sauce, so if your tomatoes are of the really good vine ripened variety, you will want to forgo it. Also, pomarola made without sautéing is easier to digest.

If you do decide to sauté, begin by mincing the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, red pepper, and parsley. Sauté them in a quarter cup of olive oil; meanwhile, core and cut up the tomatoes. As soon as the onion has turned translucent, add the tomatoes and a teaspoon or so of salt to the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, till the tomatoes begin to fall apart.

If you decide not to sauté, place the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, pepper, cut up tomatoes, and parsley in a pot, add just a few drops of water, and simmer till the tomatoes begin to fall apart.

Regardless of the procedure you chose, once the tomatoes are cooked, you should crank the pomarola through a food mill, discarding the skins and seeds. Or, if you'd rather, puree the sauce in a food processor. If you do, you may want to add a half teaspoon of sugar to counter the tartness of the tomato skins (many Italians do). In either case, check the seasoning and return the sauce to the fire until it has thickened somewhat, and a drop put on a plate no longer gives off a huge watery halo (depending on how water the sauce was to begin with, this can take up to an hour).

When the sauce is done, stir in the basil leaves and turn off the heat. Transfer the sauce at once to clean sterile jars, sealing each from the air by pouring a thin layer of olive oil over the sauce. Screw the lids onto the jars, and once they have cooled, refrigerate them.

If you decide to expand the recipe, fill a couple of jars for immediate use, and put the rest in sterilized jars without olive oil. Next, put a rack in a pot large enough to hold the jars, set them in it, and fill to cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the jars for about 35 minutes (for pint (500 ml) jars -- figure 45 minutes for quart(1 l) jars). Let the jars sit in the water for 10 minutes, and then remove them to a rack and allow them to cool for 24 hours before tapping the lids with a knife to check the seal (it should ring true; if one does not put the jar in the fridge and use it as needed). Store the jars in a cool dark place, and when you open them seal what you don't use immediately with a thin layer of olive oil.

Last thing: If you get a hankering for pomarola before tomato season begins, you can use canned plum tomatoes. You'll probably want to sauté the herbs in this case.

Figure about a quarter cup of pomarola and a quarter pound of pasta per serving. After you've cooked and drained the pasta, stir in the pomarola and a dab of butter, then serve it with freshly grated Parmigiano (or pecorino romano if you cannot get fresh Parmigiano). For a variation, heat the pomarola over the stove, and, assuming that you're serving four people, stir in a half cup of fresh cream when it begins to bubble. When the sauce is heated through, use it to season your pasta, which is now Rosé.

Arroz de Polvo - Octopus Rice (Aug. 2024 update)

Original Algarve recipe clipped from www.recipesource.com

Ingredients

 ( use proportions below as a guideline, this time I was lucky to find those Beauties @Costco, but still used a similar proportion, see values in () for what I have used last"

• 600 to 800 g octopus (used 2.5Kg)
• 200 mL red wine (250ml)
• little water to make it up to 600 ea mL 
• 150 mL olive oil (200ml)
• a chopped onion (1 1/2 large onions)
• 2 garlic cloves (2 minced cubes from Trader's Joe)
• 3 tomatoes, skinned and chopped (used 3 large heirlooms)
• a large green pepper cut into snips (used 3, yellow, orange, red)
• salt, pepper and chilli powder to taste (no pepper or chilli powder but used bay leaves and green onions)
• 350 g rice (preferable a short-grain risotto rice like arborio) (made 6 rice cooker portions)
• Makes 4 servings (served 7-8 people)

• Cooking instructions:  
• On a large pot, boil water, add salt and once boiling, insert one whole octopus into the pot (legs first) Be careful since octopus is very slippery and you don't want it dropped in the pot and suddenly create a huge splash of boiling water !
• Let the water fully boil again, and let the octopus boiling for 2-3 mins
• Remove it from the boiling water (carefully again) and repeat with the all other octopus left, you can use the same water, no need to change
• Discard that water after completing the process for all the octopus you have
• Let it cool a little and cut off each of the legs, and the head
• Pre-cook the octopus meat (full legs and head) on boiling wine and water (proportions describe above), add bay leaf and little salt. simmer the octopus in the wine/water/condiments for 30 minutes. The octopus will exude liquid so that you are likely to end up with more cooking liquid at the end.
• Take the octopus meat out of the pot and let it cool down, make sure you retain all the "octopus soup" liquid, since you will use this 2nd boiling bath on your rice
• Cut the drained octopus into small pieces.
• Heat 150 mL olive oil in a large saucepan, add the chopped onions and cook gently, stirring, for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add the garlic (if cloves finely chopped), the tomatoes (skinned chopped), and the bell peppers (cut into snips). Season to taste with salt, pepper and/or chilli powder, green onions, etc.  Cook for a few minutes longer.
• Add the washed but drained rice, mix with all other ingredients so the olive oil will form a coat around the rice
• Transfer that into a rice cooker (easier process) or pot where you will be cooking the rice
• Use the cooking liquid from the octopus to deglaze the pan you have used, and pour that into the rice cooker/cooking pan
• Boil the octopus with the onion, garlic, salt, bay leaf, salt and wine so the octopus gets some more taste before cutting it into pieces and adding to the onions and tomatoes and herbs that will cook together with the rice!
•   if not using a rice cooker, you can follow instructions below: 
•     - Add the cooking liquid from the octopus and bring it to the boil. Add 350 g rice (preferable a short-grain risotto rice like arborio) and bring back to the boil, then turn the heat very low and put the lid on the saucepan. After 15 minutes, stir to ensure the rice is not catching on the bottom of the saucepan.  In 5 minutes more, taste a grain or two to make sure it is  soft.  The rice should still be quite damp.

clipped from www.europeancuisines.com Belgium: Belgian Waffles Gaufre de Bruxelles: Brussels-style waffle 1 kilogram flour (2.2 lb) 30 grams of yeast (one package of fast-action yeast) 25 grams of brown sugar 1250 ml of lukewarm water (use tepid sparkling water if possible) 250 grams powdered nonfat dry milk (Carnation or similar) 10 grams of salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or one small packet vanilla sugar (about 2 teaspooons) 400 to 500 grams of melted butter 6 to 8 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks For the waffle batter: Put the flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the flour: add the yeast and 250 ml of the lukewarm water. Add the brown sugar, powdered milk, the vanilla extract or vanilla sugar, and the remainder of the water. Mix the dough well: allow to rise for at least 20 minutes - 1/2 hour. During this period, melt the butter. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Add the melted butter: mix well. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks,: fold carefully into the batter mixture until evenly mixed through. Heat a large waffle iron. Spread each section with the batter, close and bake until done. Serve dusted with comfectioners' / icing sugar, or topped with whipped cream and fruit, or with melted chocolate or Nutella. Gauffres de Liège | Liège-style waffles For the gaufre de Liège / Liège waffle: 420 grams flour 7 grams salt (about a half teaspoon) 25 grams granulated sugar 2 eggs 50 grams yeast / one package fast-acting yeast 300 grams butter Around 20 centiliters cold water (preferably sparkling water) 270 grams pearl sugar Vanilla or spicery to your taste Allow eggs and sparkling water to come up to room temperature first. Sift the flour into a bowl: make a well in the middle. Melt the butter over hot water or in the microwave. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Beat the eggs well: add the butter and the yeast: mix well. Add the water and mix again. Add to the flour along with the granulated sugar and vanilla or other seasoning (cinnamon works well). Beat the dough for at least ten minutes. It will probably be sticky and difficult to work with. This is normal. After this beating, allow to stand and rise in a warm place for 15-30 minutes. 5 to 10 minutes before baking, add the pearl sugar. Heat the waffle iron. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto each quarter or section of the waffle iron. Bake until well browned. Serve hot off the iron, dusted with confectioner's sugar, or top with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.