Pan Dulce

Recently I was in Costa Rica, I visited a place called the Durika Reserve. I ate there something called Pan Dulce and liked it so much so that I asked if I could have the recipe. Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 grams of butter
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon liquid vanilla

Mix the sugar with the milk and vanilla. Add the melted butter and mix until the mixture has cooled down. During the cooling down dissolve the sugar in the mixture.

Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture. The dough has a slightly thicker consistency than that for pancakes make. Add the desired flavor (cocoa, raisins, peanuts, strawberries, etc ...).

Place the dough in the pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 ° C until the cake from the inside is dry.

Tiramisu

A classic desert and very easy to make

Ingredients:
- 500 grams of mascarpone
- biscuits, it can be the traditional ones but you can go any direction depending on what you like
- pure dark cacao
- a cup of good dark strong coffee
- 6 spoons of amaretto
- 4 egg whites
- 5 egg yolks

Let the coffee cool down and add the amaretto. Soak your biscuits (but not too long) and make your first layer in the tray.

Add 3 spoons of sugar to your egg whites and whisk it until you got a smooth mixture. Add 3 spoons of sugar to the egg yolks and do the same. Now add the mascarpone to the sugary egg yolk and mix it so you have a yellow creamy mixture. Work the sugary egg white mixture under the mascarpone mixture without breaking the texture of your whisked egg whites.

Spread with a spatula a layer of your mascarpone mix on the first layer of cookies. Add another layer of cookies and mascarpone mix and continue until the tray is full. Let this rest overnight in the fridge and right before serving sprinkle the cacao over the top.

I made variants working with speculoos, working with cacao in the mascarpone mix, you can go as crazy as you want once you understand the basics of this recipe

Squid with rice, and red curry coco cream

Sometimes you have moments where you just want easy uncomplicated food. This recipe was one of these quick and dirty moments where you have a number of things in front of you and you start improvising.

Ingredients:
- Squid
- Rice
- Eggs
- Thai spinach
- Red curry paste
- Coconut cream
- Coriander
- Spring onion
- Chili peppers

Chop up the chilies, spring onions, coriander and spinach. Keep everything separated.

Rince your rice and put it in the rice cooker. Heat your oil up and spice it the way you like it. I personally use things like cloves, but watch out not to burn them. Put in the squid. Squid is not the easiest fish to prepare, you got to make sure it is cooked but be careful not to overcook it. Take the heat away and put the squid aside.

Put in the spinach and you will see it shrink in a matter of minutes. Once it is completely soft, take it away from the heat source.

Once the rice is ready put it in your wok with some oil. Add the coconut cream to it and your red curry paste. The amount of curry paste depends on how intense you want the taste. I personally don't use a lot. Mix in the spinach and then the squid. Let is simmer for a couple of minutes on a high heat. Take the heat away and break your eggs on top of it and mix them under the everything. Bring in the chilies, spring onion and coriander just before serving.

Enjoy.

Butternut mash

Thanks to my girlfriend, I had the experience to encounter the butternut squash. There is this delicious butternut soup she makes with it and since for Easter my family was coming over and they never ate it before I wanted to do something with it. I was not going to make the soup due to some food allergies some family members have. I started wondering what I would do with it and came up with the idea of making a mash.

Ingredients:
- 1 butternut
- potatoes for 6
- Cream
- Italian hard cheese
- Bread crumbs
- Flat leaf parsley

First you start with making dices of butternut. I used my microwave to steam them tender, which takes in mine something like 8 minutes. The idea is basically they must be tender enough to mash it down. While the potatoes are being cooked I already mashed the butternut. Once the potatoes are tender you add them bit by bit and mash it with the butternut.

To make sure I would not end up with just another yellow/orange mash I added finely chopped flat leaf parsley to it since the dark green contrasts nice with the mash. Depending on how the texture of the mash is you add some cream to have a smooth mash. Be careful not to add to much because you would end up with something you don't want.

Next, put it in an oven dish and put grated Italian hard cheese on it with some bread crumbs so it makes a light crust on top of it. Put it in the oven grill for a dozen of minutes so the cheese and bread crumbs can do their work.

I've served this with some nice chicken and we had a very nice Easter with the necessary Belgian chocolate easter eggs.