Caramel… The Chilean way.

 In Chile, well at least in my Chilean family, homemade caramel is a must have. You can of course buy caramel flavouring in the supermarket but real caramel is best made from Nestles’ condensed milk. You might see Nestlé’s tinned caramel, as it is stocked in limited supermarkets but it doesn’t taste as good as the one you make yourself. Making caramel is simple:

Place a medium sized pot on the stove, fill it with water and bring to the boil. Once the water is boiled, place two tins of Nestlé’s condensed milk in the water, ensuring that the water covers the tins entirely (the paper must be removed from the outside of the tins). The tins need to simmer in boiling water for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is very important that every 20 minutes you top up the water, as it will slowly evaporate. The tins must be covered with water at all times, or you run the risk that the tins might explode. The easy solution to this is to set a timer to remind you every 20 minutes. When topping up use boiled water from the kettle. After 1 hour and 20 minutes your caramel is cooked. Turn off the stove and remove them from the water, then let them cool (put it in the fridge to speed up this process.) Once cooled the caramel is ready to eat!

There are many ways you can eat the caramel. (Keeping in mind that there are no healthy options) I have a couple of favourites:  

-       Straight from the tin on a spoon

-       On toast, waffles or pancakes

-       Dip chocolate into the tin        

In Chile caramel is used in many (very complicated to make) cakes. A simple way to eat caramel though is on Alfajores. These are simple biscuits, which the caramel is sandwiched between. The following recipe is taken from my Grandma’s cookbook, a book she wrote filled with Chilean recipes that she spent years writing, collecting and compiling for the family. The Recipe:

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

¾ cup plain flour

1 ½ tablespoons of Pisco or brandy.

In a bowl, and using a fork, mix the egg yolks with the pisco or brandy then add the flour mixing well to make soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface, lightly knead and roll out very thin. With a fork prick all over then cut rounds of 4.5cm diameter. Place on a baking tray and bake in a hot oven (200 degrees) for approximately 6 – 8 minutes. When cool sandwich together with caramel and enjoy!  

For those who haven’t heard of it before pisco is a very popular alcohol in Chile, most commonly used in a drink called a pisco sour (I’ll have the recipe in my next post). It is available for purchase in Australia.


Anyway that’s it from me, good luck cooking and enjoy!!

Cathedral Jelly

Here’s an idea for a simply made delightful dessert

Cathedral jelly

Although not Filipino in origin, has always been an essential dish in family gatherings. The name ‘Cathedral’ or ‘Cathedral window’ describes its appearance – colourful cubes of jelly against a white creamy backdrop to resemble stained glass cathedral window. Easy to make and pretty to look at, its bound be a hit for the little ones. Commonly made during Christmas time featuring green and red jelly!

Ingredients
300ml sour cream
40ml gelatine
600ml thickened cream
300ml condensed milk
4 x 85g packets of jelly
1 x large jelly container
1 x medium jelly container

Quantities of ingredients are variable to the volume of the jelly containers. These steps are a two-day process as the coloured jelly must settle before it is mixed in with the creamy white jelly

Preparation
(Day 1)
Empty 4 jelly packets in 4 separate plastic containers and mix with 250ml of hot water
Leave for a couple of hours to cool down then place in the fridge overnight to settle

(Day 2)
Mix all contents of sour cream, condensed milk and thickened cream into a bowl an stir thoroughly
Mix 40ml of gelatine with 250ml of hot water and stir thoroughly. Once there are no lumps mix the gelatine in with the sour cream, condensed milk and thickened cream
Slice coloured jelly into small squares and place them into the jelly containers
Pour mixture into the jelly containers and seal the jelly container tightly
Place containers into fridge upside-down so that the jelly will maintain its shape and leave overnight

When taking the jelly out of its container to serve, open up the container bottom first, use the plate to cover the bottom, and then tip the container over so that the jelly will maintain its shape

And the result....

Welcome!

Welcome newcomers!

How would we start you ask? With Starters of course!!

The Greek Dolmades are fantastic bites of mince with rice cooked in stock, wrapped in vine leaves. This entree is so traditional that any little woglet will tell you that if their grandma's dolma wrapping skills were anything to go by, she would out roll Snoop Dogg(now lion) any day of the week.


Ingredients

50 vine leaves
100-150 grams minced pork
3 quarters cup olive oil
1 small onion minced
Parsley minced
1 quarter tea spoon pepper
Mint (optional)
1 cup rice
1 tsp1 tomato sauce or 2 cups tomato
1 - 2 tblsp lemon juice
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt


Preparation

Wash the vine leaves and put them in warm water to get soft. The color will change and will go darker than they are.
Put the olive oil in a pan to warm and lightly cook the minced onion.
Add the minced ground pork and leave it to lightly cook.
Add the rice, pepper, parsley, mint, tomato sauce mixed in wate. Leave them to cook for 3-5 minutes and mix occasionally.
When the mixture cools, put one teaspoon of filling on each vine leave and wrap them up. Be careful as some leaves might be bigger or smaller than others so sometimes you might need to fill them with less or more than one teaspoon.
Put all the Dolmades in a pot. Place a small plate on top of them to keep them in place and add the water and lemon juice, or chicken stock if preferred.
Let them cook on low heat for about half an hour.

You should have a batch to serve 6

From the Greek guy, Kali Orexi!