Japanese Noodles with Bulgogi

Having some leftover Bulgogi, the Korean marinated meat (I will publish the recipe later), I decided to make my own version of Ramen. I assembled with some Japanese noodles and chopped vegetables, and here it is, whatever we can call it (maybe not Ramen).

Ingredients:

Bulgogi meat, ready to eat. If you are in a hurry and can't wait for the recipe, you can check it in my other blog and click on the flag to translate. You may also find Bulgogi in Costco. It is similar to mine, only it is a bit sweeter. 

Japanese noodles or other Asian quick cooking noodles, cooked according to instructions in its package, and drained. You can use instant noodles.

Meat or vegetable broth (Optional: add bonito flakes to the broth (which gives a flavor of fish broth). Add some soy sauce, too.

Sliced grilled mushrooms
Grilled asparagus
Firm tofu

1 tablespoon olive or sunflower oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
1 cup shredded carrot
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons corn kernels (frozen or canned, drained)

Chopped green onions

Preparation:

While making the beef bulgogi, prepare the carrots: In a skillet, heat the two types of oil (olive/sunflower and sesame). Add garlic and ginger and fry for 2 minutes. Add the carrot, fry for about 3 minutes, it should be still slightly crunchy. Add corn, stir. Add soy sauce and stir. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembling: in each plate:

Put a little pasta. Add a little of its broth on top. Add the cooked bulgogi, mushrooms, asparagus, tofu, carrot and corn mixture, and sprinkle with a little of the chopped green onions.

Note: You can use other vegetables instead of those. There is no tofu in my picture, I didn't have then.  But I have eaten meals like this at restaurants which came with tofu.

Brazilian Truffles in the Microwave (Brigadeiro)

Brigadeiro is the name of the famous Brazilian sweet that we have in children's parties. It is a chocolate and condensed milk mixture rolled with nonpareil sprinkles. The recipe is easy. The difficult part is to know when the cooking is done. While hot, the dough will always be soft. When cooled, it has to be hard enough to be able to be rolled into little balls, if it is too soft, it's a lot of trouble to roll, it will stick to our hand. If it is too hard, then the taste is not the same....

I am sorry about all the talk for one of the simplest Brazilian treats. But people who have not grown with them are not used to the process, I thought it would be useful to describe it in detail.

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk 
4 tablespoons chocolate powder (Nesquick)
1 tablespoon butter

Equipment: deep refractory glass bowl for use in microwave oven.
WARNING: Do not use plastic. The sweet gets very hot. Be careful when handling the container with its hot content. It can break if there is a sudden variation of temperature.

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients with a spoon directly in the bowl. Place in microwave at HIGH power for 2 minutes. Wait 1 minute. Remove, stir until smooth (the butter is melted on top).

Place in microwave HIGH power again, for 1 minute. Wait 1 minute. Stir.
Repeat the process until it totals 6 minutes or by testing consistency: using a teaspoon, get a little bit of the sweet and drop it in a shallow plate containing some cold water. If mixture is soft but not very liquid, it is good to roll the sweets.

Wait until it cools down. If it is still a bit soft, you can take it again to the microwave, but the rolling will have to be delayed, since you will have a hot mixture again. It is better to make it one day ahead.

Rolling the sweets:
In a large, shallow plate, drop some nonpareil sprinkles.
Apply a little butter or margarine in your hands. With a teaspoon, get a little of the sweet mixture and put it in your hands. Shape the balls, rolling. When the ball is shaped, drop it in the plate with the nonpareil. Move the little ball around the plate, so that the sprinkles stick to the dough. Put the decorated balls in candy cups.
Notes:

If you want to eat the sweet with a spoon, cook the dough only for a total of 4 minutes only. It is softer this way, and easier to serve. You only need little plastic cups and a very little spoon that fits inside it.

For larger amounts of the candy, double the ingredients. But time is not always double, although it takes longer to cook to the right consistency. For example, for 3 cans of condensed milk (3 times the recipe), I usually cook for 3 minutes in the beginning, wait 1 minute, stir. Cook for 3 more minutes, wait 1 minute, stir again. From then on I cook for 2 minutes at a time, stirring always in the end. In my microwave it takes about 15 minutes. 

The amount of cooking time also depends on the condensed milk. If the can of condensed milk is sitting in the pantry for a long time, it is almost turning into "dulce de leche", and it is more consistent. Therefore, less cooking time is needed. 

Personal opinion: I prefer the taste of  "Brigadeiro" made in a saucepan, although after sprinkling the nonpareils, only a few people notice the difference between the 2 versions.

* I had an Anchor glass dish that got broken into thousands of pieces while I was stirring the hot mixture. The cause may have been that he was placed on the counter a little wet, or perhaps the container could not stand high temperatures. I'm using a Pyrex for a long time now, it is "doing well". But now I always wait for a minute before removing container from microwave and stirring its content.

Another presentation (spiders for Halloween):

Bananas with Melting Cheese and Chocolate or Cinnamon

This is a very simple dish that we make in the Northeast of Brazil. We call it "Cartola", whose ipsis litteris translation would be  "Top Hat". We usually eat it for dinner, together with some other things (bread, milk, coffee), or as a snack. 
The traditional version has cinnamon, but I am not very fond of cinnamon, so I use chocolate powder instead (this is chocolate in my photos). The amount of cinnamon to be used should be just a little sprinkle.

Ingredients:

2 bananas
1 tablespoon butter, or less in a non-stick pan
cheese slices: cheddar, mozzarella or another that will melt easily (shredded cheese is fine)
chocolate powder (Nesquick) or cinnamon
sugar to taste

Preparation:

Cut bananas in half lengthwise. Melt butter in skillet. Place half bananas side by side, let them fry until golden in lower side.

Flip carefully, they will be so soft they may break apart.

 

Place the cheese on top of bananas so it covers all of them. Fry a little bit more. If the cheese slices are too thick, cover the pan, turn off the heat and wait for the cheese to melt.

Transfer to a plate, sprinkle with chocolate powder or cinnamon, and sugar.

Here I used a Mexican blend of shredded cheeses (cheddar, Monterrey jack and colby), the taste was great.

Turkey Pot Pie Brazilian Style

Turkey leftover usage, first chapter.
Since I had so much turkey leftover after thanksgiving, I have already made 2 different dishes. This version of the classic chicken pot pie has a Brazilian accent: hearts of palm and olives. Everybody in Brazil uses olives in their chicken pot pies. The taste is a bit different from the American version. If you don't have hearts of palm, don't worry. You can replace them by a little bit more turkey.

Ingredients:

2 sheets of baking pie dough, ready to bake (I used Pillsbury, the box comes with the 2 sheets)

For the filling:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups cooked turkey, diced
3 tablespoons chopped onions
2 tablespoons chopped green olives
3 tablespoons cooked corn (canned or frozen)
3 tablespoons chopped hearts of palm (optional) 
3 tomatoes, peeled and seeded, chopped (you can use canned tomatoes, or prepared tomato sauce)
5 oz cream cheese
pepper to taste
2 boiled eggs, chopped (optional)
salt, if needed
egg yolk (optional)

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 400 F.

Heat oil in large skillet (that fits all the filling), add the onion and fry until golden. Add the turkey, mix. Add the olives, corn, hearts of palm and tomatoes. Mix well and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add the cheese and mix until well dissolved. Add pepper. Finally, add the chopped eggs, mixing again. Taste and add salt, if needed. Turn off the heat. Fill a round pie baking dish with one of the dough sheets, pressing the inside and the borders. Add the filling. Cover with the other dough sheet. Tighten the edges with a fork or with your fingers. Make 4 small slits on top. For a golden look on the pie top, brush with egg yolk.
Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for about 35 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

Tip:

Cut some strips of aluminum foil to cover the edge in the last 15 minutes of cooking, so it does not burn.
Or use a special disc like the one in the photo, available in cooking stores.

Variations:

Replace the corn with green peas, or use both.
Omit the hearts of palm.
Replace the turkey with chicken, shrimp, ground beef or ham.

123 Cookies

This is a classical cookie from my childhood. We would help my grandma shape the dough, a bunch of kids, cousins, together... Later I got the recipe and started making them at home, I was still a child then.
Now I make them with my daughter. They are so easy. 
They are called 1-2-3 because the recipe is: 1 part of sugar, 2 parts of butter, 3 parts of flour. In Brazil we use metric system, so it's easy to memorize: 100g sugar, 200g butter, 300g flour.

Ingredients:

4 oz sugar
8 oz butter
12 oz flour
sugar to sprinkle

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 oF.
Mix sugar, butter and flour until smooth.
Shape dough to little balls and arrange them in a cookie sheet. If you wish, press a fork on the dough to flatten the cookies.
Bake until just starting to get golden.
Sprinkle with sugar right out of the oven.

Leek and Pear Soup

This was made by my friend Celia. Her soups are wonderful, this one is no exception. I loved it. Then she sent me the recipe, so that some more people can enjoy it. Besides, it is very easy to make.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 lb leek (remove the dark outer leaves), chopped in big chunks

1 1/2 lb pears (peeled)

1 tablespoon pear liquor

1/3 cup dry white wine

3 cups chicken broth

¾ teaspoon salt

Pepper (optional)

Freshly chopped parsley to garnish

Preparation:

In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the leek until soft (10-15 min).

Add pears, pear liquor, and wine. Bring to a boil.

Pour the chicken broth, bring to boil, and simmer for approximately 15 min, until the pears are tender.

Puree in a blender until smooth.

Reheat in the saucepan, and then add pepper (if using.)

Serve with freshly chopped parsley.

Pasta with Pumpkin and Fried Sage

And what did I do with what was left of the two pumpkins I used to make the Shrimp in a Pumpkin? I washed the inside, scraped the content, cut into pieces and used some of it to make the recipe below. My friend Julia had made something like this many years ago, one day I did my version and I liked it, so I never asked for the recipe ...

Ingredients:

pasta cooked al dente
3 tablespoons butter
a bunch of fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 cup cooked pumpkin (still firm), cut in 1/2 " cubes
Parmesan cheese shavings

Preparation:

While the pasta is cooking, fry the sage in 2 tablespoons of butter on low heat. It will be done when the butter turns a little dark (do not let it burn) and the sage is crisp. Reserve.
In the same pan where you fried the sage, heat 1 tablespoon of butter, fry the onion until it gets golden. Add the diced pumpkin. Stir and fry for a few minutes.
Serve the pasta with the pumpkin pieces and the fried sage, together with the browned butter (used to fry the sage). Sprinkle some parmesan on top. Serve immediately.

Fresh Sage

Fried Sage

Shrimp in a Pumpkin

Hi. I have a recipe blog in my native language (Portuguese) for almost a year. I live in the U.S. and some people have been asking me to publish the recipes in English. I have to say that I am already so busy maintaining the original site that I barely have time to work on the English version. But here it is, the first one I am proposing for this week, since we are approaching Thanksgiving and everybody wants to see recipes with pumpkin.

It is a very easy recipe, indeed. It's from my country, Brazil. And the good thing is, even if you don't have a pumpkin, you can still make the recipe, it just won't look as nice.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized pumpkin *
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped into tiny squares
6 large tomatoes, chopped, or the same amount of tomatoes taken from a can of tomatoes (preferably Italian) 
2 lb. jumbo shrimp shelled and clean, raw (no tails on)
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley, to garnish

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 ºF.
Wash the pumpkin. Cut a lid out of it, and scrape the seeds out. Brush the outside of the pumpkin with a little olive oil. Put the pumpkin on a baking sheet, take it to the oven for roasting, for approximately 20 minutes. The meat inside should be soft but the pumpkin should still be firm.
In a large saucepan, fry the onion in olive oil. When the onion has a golden color, add chopped tomatoes (and their juices). Cook for about 5-8 minutes. Add the shrimp, stir well and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the cream cheese and mix well. Adjust salt and sprinkle some pepper. Stir once more. Remove and place this mixture into the pumpkin. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and garnish with parsley. Bake for a few minutes.

When serving, scrape chunks of the pumpkin so that they come together with the shrimp cream.

Serve with white rice. 

* If you don't have a whole pumpkin, you can serve it in a baking plate.