All roads lead to… make meringue

It all began more than six years ago, when I had the great fortune to try out the authentic “pastéis de Belém”, Lisbon’s pastry specialty. I can only describe, like a creamy and sweet little piece of heaven tarts. The original recipe is a well-kept secret. I have mixed feeling about that. On the one hand, it is wonderful visiting a place with something unique in the whole world, I feel that make it special, but on the other hand as soon as you get home, you would find out that you really want the recipe or at least close as possible to do it.

To this day, my mom and I still trying several times with pastry cream modified and adapted, although results were not always good. However we ended eating it. 

After a series of failures, my mother had a brilliant idea.  Due dates back 18^th century and were made by nuns, means the recipe must be simple, my mom concluded. So she purchased a cookbook, it took me by surprise, and -guess what- the book is a guide to Spanish dessert made at monasteries. 

I opened the book, have a glance and realize I knew almost nothing about it. Finally, I found one recipe “Natillas Asturianas”. I think could be work. Further, what could go wrong? I have in my hands the recipe, indicating the steps to be followed to succeed and of course, one big picture should look like. Egg yolks, check. Milk, check. Sugar, check. Lemon, check. Everything is under control.

That is a huge mistake. Long story short, it is not how I thought it would be. I don`t need the secret recipe, because whatever I do, I hardly ever follow recipes, even regular recipes.  I am hopeless.

After this, the only thing left to worry about is deciding, what can we do with egg whites? 

If you answer is meringue, you can read my mind. You may think that’s so simple to do, I assumed that too. Search the internet for information about it, surprisingly for me, a lot of hints and tips. Of course, I already knew some of them like “bowl and utensils must be impeccable clean”. But I didn’t know about “aluminums bowl react with the eggs”. 

As if that were not enough, I really wanted was a big challenge. So I resolved to whip egg whites by hand, you know using only a whisk. I needed to know how much time I spent on this. 

Tomorrow, I tell you the great deed.

It’s not a classic Bolognese sauce

It’s not that I planned to take a long time; I was hesitant to write quantities and measures, because, as you know, this is a homemade recipe and it is very difficult to be precisely. So I choose not to. 

Still, I looked for other recipes to compare my mom’s recipe. Sure, a few ingredients are missing, it is not a classic one, but I assure you it tastes good.

I personally love to eat this with sauteed vegetables or a salad, gives it freshness, I believe. 

However, I have good news. I think it is might be useful for you. Maybe you like green olives, you can eat it, and you wonder how you could include into your dishes. Well, feel free to do it.

Garlic cloves

Onion

Green bell pepper

Ground beef

Tomatoes

Green Spanish Olives (stuffed with red pimento peppers)

Capers

Salt

Olive oil

For removal the tomato skin, dip in boiling water for one minute, and then put into cold water. Remove the seeds too. Put the tomatoes, a quarter of onion, and a quarter of green bell pepper in a food processor or a blender, set aside.

Put a large saucepan on a medium heat, and lightly fry the rest of finely chopped onion and chopped garlic in olive oil. Add the rest of chopped green bell pepper, stirring now and then, until it’s soft. Add the ground beef, breaking up with a wooden spoon and let it cook until starting to brown.

If you want, you can add chopped capers and green olives. Then add the tomato, onion and bell pepper mixture to the large saucepan, stir well the mix.

Bring to the boil and then reduce the temperature and cook slowly until the sauce is thick.

Don’t forget a pinch of salt if necessary. 

Voilà!

Everyday life

This is how we started; “peel the garlic” my mom said to me. Then, she starts to wash, peel, chop, boil and grate… meanwhile, I still peeling garlic.  

All right, maybe I am overstating, but it is very close to reality, trust me. The truth is I am really slow; I take my time to do things carefully and well. That is why I missed what was happening, as well as the details and little secrets of the homemade cuisine.

I must make an effort to pay attention, if I want to learn to cook. Because I have a very loose memory, it helped me to have a notebook and pen to write down every single recipe.

It’s not all bad though. For peel garlic, I learn a trick; however is not a new one. Before I used only a knife, now, it is all about garlic crush, and let me tell you… it is more fun! 

I have a pasta recipe, but I will not give you today. I still have to translate the entire recipe and it is a lot a work to do. Please accept my apologies.

Trial and Error

Usually, I am not very good making dessert, believe me. Consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, I ruined it. For example, if the recipe requires four egg yolks, I use two whole eggs, logical in my view. Naturally goes wrong and I conclude by saying to myself “I’m no good at this thing”.  The next day I get over it and get back in the kitchen. 

I know the principal idea was to do mom’s recipe, but sometimes I like to experiment. Today I really want to make something with chocolate, but I didn´t know what to do. I found the solution, Hervé This’ Chocolate Mousse. Amazing how easy it is, use water and chocolate only. Really blows my mind.  

With this recipe, you thought that the most important is chocolate, I agree, but a whisk is the key, I think. It’s not so obvious. I try with an electric mixer, doesn’t work, the texture becomes grainy, I don’t like it. 

I love to see the mixture thickens before my eyes. It’s exciting. I am crazy about simplicity and this is so simple!

It is important choose a high quality chocolate. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow this friendly advice. So I got a mousse with a good texture like I wanted it, but without chocolate’s exquisite taste.

Here we go!

Chop the chocolate. Pour chocolate and water in a saucepan. Stirring with a wire whisk until chocolate is melted. Put the saucepan into a bowl filled with ice cubes, and then whisk again. Continue until desired consistency.

Done!