Bunuelos

As I was skimming my bookmarks for recipes "saved for later" I found this Latin-American desert and thought to give it a try.

I used the recipe found at cooks.com to make these. They're kind of like a doughnut, elephant ear sort of treat. They're not too sweet, more doughy than sugary for sure. They're not as airy as a doughnut but kind of bread-like.

They're not bad. I'd probably make them again, if I were in the mood for them, but it's not a seasonal "I have to make those" recipe for us.

Mine were a little more bubbly than they probably should be. I think you can tap them to get the bubbles out when frying. I didn't necessarily let them sit very long either...that could have something to do with it.

Prerequisites:
4 eggs
1/4 Cup of sugar 
2 1/4 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp vegetable oil (I used canola because that's what we had)
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt


Cinnamon-Sugar Topping: 
1 Cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Oil for frying (at least 1 inch deep in pan)

I started with the eggs and sugar, since that would take a while to get them "thick and lemon colored".

I decided to sift the flour. When searching for the best recipe I saw a few that said to sift, and thought "hey, why not, I never use the sifter anymore?" so here goes...nice powdery texture.

Then I checked on my eggs, still thickening, not quite the texture I think we need...

Add baking powder, salt, and stir the flour together. Eggs are still just eggs and sugar. I'm lucky I didn't forget to add the oil at the end.

We're going to have to roll them out, so time to flour the counter. It always feels a little taboo to me to dump flour all over the place. Aidan decided he wanted to help so he made his best attempt at carrying the chair over and made a bigger (MUCH bigger) mess.

Mixin' mixin' mixin'...

  I added the oil (don't forget!!).

 Then gradually the flour.

This is looking sticky...

Good thing we put all that flour on the counter...

I kneeded the dough and got the insides covered with flour so it wasn't unbearably sticky anymore, and then pinched off a piece to roll out.

On to the wax paper it went to set up (I guess? maybe dry out is a better word for it) and I pinched the rest into balls and started rolling. With some help...

In the mean time I let the oil get hot.

Here goes...

 They bubble up quite a bit when frying.

 Messy, messy, messy.

 Cinnamon-sugar prepared to coat the bunuelos with.

Pretty yummy. Particularly for people who aren't big on sweets. I, however, prefer things with three cups of sugar in them.

I'm happy to announce that in about an hour and twenty minutes I will be on Thanksgiving break, so I will hopefully be able to make more posts. It's not that I ever quit being busy or doing blog-worthy activities, I just forgot to capture them on camera and take the time to share. Hopefully I'll have the chance to get a few more things done between reading academic papers and preparing my research paper due in December. Care to learn about the Late Devonian Mass Extinction?

Until next time, I've got one last class to go to.

Salvadoran Chicken Soup

As promised, here is the recipe for Aidan's Aunt's Chicken Soup. I've tried to give some measurements, though most of it is done to taste, or by looks. After all, this is soup we're talking about...you can pretty much take anything you want, mix it together, add some water or broth and cook it down until you think it's done.

Rough Ingredient List:
(numbers in parenthesis are my amounts but up to you)

1 Split Chicken

Tomato (1)

Onion (1)

1 tsp Consomate Chicken Flavor

1/2 tsp Salt

Potatoes (5)

Zucchini (1)

1 Cup Long Grain Rice

Achote

Yerba Buena (Mint) (1/2 tsp)

Cilantro

I started with a BIG  pot to cook it all in. Our usual large pot would probably have worked but been just a little too small, and this pot is just a little too big. I only filled it about half way. (This is the lobster-roasting pot.)

Then I cut up and washed a whole split chicken, and added it to the pot.

You can probably use pretty much any piece of chicken you'd like. The first time I made it I heard about how I'd bought the wrong kind of chicken because someone was expecting legs only. Guess what, it tastes just fine and I distinctly remember the original chef using a whole chicken at some point. The moral of this story: use what you have/what you like. I will definitely try legs next time for the sake of having less bones.

Then I added enough water to cover the chicken. The first step is to boil the chicken. We'll cook it until the meat is just about falling off the bone. Or longer if you like.

It took me about an hour just to boil the chicken. In this time the fat and impurities float to the top. Then I took a spoon and removed as much as I could.

Here are the "impurities" I'm talking about...

Eventually it starts to subside.

There is probably a better tool for this, but for now I use a spoon and a bowl for the process.

While the chicken was cooking I cut up the vegetables. I used one tomato and the better half of an onion. Again...it's really up to you how much you want to add/leave out.

Cookin', cookin', cookin'...I had to add some more water at some point to keep it well covered.

I put the tomato and onion aside because they won't take long to cook and I had more to prepare.

I love the potatoes in this soup...that's the Irish in me coming out. See that second to last one? It didn't make it. It was replaced. Too soft, probably not good anymore. Ahem, wash and peel...

Then I cut them up into large pieces. Sorry, I forgot that picture.

I cut up most of a zucchini, I quartered the bigger slices and halved the smaller ones.

Towards the end of the chicken cooking, I added the tomato and onion.

This isn't exactly what Aidan's Aunt uses, but it's the same idea. Chicken & tomato flavor.

I added about 1 tsp of the Consomate, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Then I added the potatoes and zucchini.

Long grain rice is important, too.

I used about 1 cup for this batch...last time I had way too much, this time it was about right. Again, it's really up to you and your taste.

Here's the secret ingredient: Achote. I think. It's like a paste, I don't know much about it except it was handed to me when I was told what to put in the soup. I'll soon be learning where and how to buy this. For now, I used just a little bit, it has a really strong smell.

I used my cilantro for this, too. I really don't like chopping the cilantro though, it's kind of a pain. Last time I used fresh mint ("Yerba Buena" in Spanish), too, but I didn't know we had some in our garden this time, and I used dried flakes instead. It tastes ok, but it looks different.

There's still a lot of fat in this batch...it doesn't look very appetizing, but it is!

More to come soon!!