Mock Bacalaítos – BacalaFREEtos

2 Jun

Ok… you’ve made the Potato Leek Soup, you garnished it with the fried Leek Rings… but what do you do with the left over batter from the Leek Rings?  Do you throw it out?  Of course not!!!

Let me tell you the story about the Bacalaíto…  what’s a Bacalaíto?

Bacalao is the word in Spanish for Codfish – the salted dry codfish.  They one that looks like an old dried-out shoe sole.  I mean, the fresh codfish is also called bacalao, but you need to preface it by saying it’s fresh bacalao, because traditionally the codfish eaten here is the dried out kind.  Enough with the cod lesson…

Well, a very traditional Puerto Rican fritter is made with the rehydrated and de-salted cod mixed in with a flour batter.  If you go to any Puerto Rican street fair, there will be several stands selling these fritters…  one of my favorites when attending the Fiestas de San Sebastian…  So now that I am vegetarian, how do I satisfy my cravings on these delicious and greasy fritters?

Well, I learned that honestly, if you season the batter well enough, the fried flour mixture will taste exactly like a bacalaíto, but without adding any of the codfish.  Newsflash to all traditional bacalaíto makers… it’s even simpler to make because you don’t have to de-salt and rehydrate anything that once was alive…  it’s the Mock Bacalaíto.  I’ve tried to look for a better name… but locals would not know what it is if I call it something else besides bacalaítos…

UPDATE 1/25/2011 – My friend Angie has coined a NEW NAME for these fritters – BacalaFREEtos… as in Free of Bacalao, KarmaFREE Cooking, and they’re Fried (fritos in Spanish) it’s just too clever huh???  So that’s how we’re calling them from now on.  Angie – you have full name rights on this one!!!

 People can’t believe they taste so much like the real thing… the secret is in seasoning the batter well.  Here’s how…

 

MOCK BACALAITOS

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour – this will work well with spelt flour too
About equal parts of water
1 tbs sofrito
½ tbs of Kosher Salt
½ tbs of Pepper
Canola oil to fry

 

  1. I’ll be honest, I have never measured the amounts of the seasoning…  but the batter should taste well-seasoned.  You need it to taste like something, not just like wet flour.
  2. In a large skillet, heat about 1 ½ inches of canola oil.  Make sure the oil is very hot before frying the first batch.  Try inserting the back end of a wooden spoon into the oil and the oil will be ready when you see bubbles around the wood.
  3. Using a large spoon or ladle, pour some of the batter into the oil, like making silver-dollar pancakes.  Wait until the batter has set a bit on the first “bacalaito” before you pour on another ladle.  If they fuse to each other, they’ll be difficult to turn.
  5. Fry on one side until the batter turns crisp and golden brown on one side.  Flip and fry some more until evenly golden.
  6. Transfer the fritters onto a plate with paper towels to drain the excess oil.  No need to season them again.

Enjoy them as a snack with your favorite natural soda or natural juice drink.   Give these to anyone at a party and you’ll see them flying off the plate.  There are restaurants here that serve these as appetizers even.

This is definitely not food for everyday…  this is a fried snack to eat sparingly.  But believe me, I make a batch of these before going to any street festival so that the smell of the real kind will not lure me in… trying to keep those temptations at bay…

And to all those Puerto Ricans out there… there’s no need to do without these Puerto Rican delicacies when you go vegetarian… 

Buen Provecho!

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Leek Rings

2 Jun

In this Good Eats show, Sprung a Leek, Alton Brown suggested that onion rings were invented when someone dropped a sliced onion in pancake batter and that we would have been better off if he would have dropped leeks in the batter… because leeks have less moisture and onions and therefore, remain crisper after frying.

Once again… my dear friend Alton is right!!!!  I loved these Leek Rings and as a garnish to the Potato Leek Soup they work amazing.  They are crisp, oniony and incredible snacks… I must say, I ate all the Leek Rings leaving nothing for when my mom tried it.  Sorry…  I am a bad daughter, I know…

 

LEEK RINGS

About 2 cups of canola oil
1 leek, cleaned and trimmed of dark green parts
1/3 cup of whole-wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup of water, plus a few tbs more
Salt and Pepper to season the batter
Garlic Salt to sprinkle onto the rings after they’re fried

 

  1. Because we need the leek in rings, we need to cut the rings first and them dunk them in a large bowl or sink full of cold water to clean them thoroughly of any sand or dirt that they come with, particularly if you’re buying organic.    Cut the leeks in ½ inch rings. No green pasrts this time…
  2. Separate them into layers very carefully.  They might break open.
  3. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over high heat.  When you insert the back end of a wooden spoon, bubbles should form around the spoon end.  Careful, do not insert a moist wooden spoon, as the water in the spoon can make the oil splatter…  I learn these lessons the hard way… and make sure the pan is thoroughly dry to begin with…
  4. In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, water and seasonings.  Dunk the leek rings in the batter and transfer carefully into the hot oil in small batches.

  5. Watch the leek rings so they do not stick to much to each other.  When they’re light golden, remove them from the oil and place them in a paper towel to drain the excess oil.  Sprinkle them with garlic salt to taste while they’re still warm.

 

Enjoy as a garnish for our Potato Leek Soup or by themselves as a snack.  Yummy!!!

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Potato Leek Soup

2 Jun

Ever since I read in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat that one of the reasons our French female counterparts were much thinner than us in the Americas was because they consumed a great amount of leeks… this beautiful green vegetable has captivated me immensely.

I always thought French women were thinner because they ate smaller portions, they walk everywhere and that to the French overall, quality is much more important than quantity.  And thinking about the Latin/Hispanic culture, so completely opposite to that of the French – quantity is more important that quality of the ingredients, where so many people live sedentary lives and take the car to go to the corner store… we should incorporate more leeks into our diet… actually, not should, we MUST!!!

Let’s start with this Potato Leek Soup.  It’s super easy and relatively quick to make.  I enjoyed the flavor a lot and most of all, I loved the fried Leek Rings as garnish…  hey, I speak French, love the French culture, but can’t take the Puerto Rican out of me…  This was a recipe I learned from Alton Brown in Good Eats.

Check it out…

 

POTATO LEEK SOUP

½ lbs of leeks, cleaned and dark and tough leaves removed
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
3 small potatoes, I used russet – washed well,  peeled and diced small
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup Half and Half
Salt and Pepper to taste

 

  1. First you need to clean the leeks well.  They always come full of sand and dirt in between the layers, even more so when you’re buying organic.  You can cut the leek lengthwise without disturbing the root end so that the leek will sort-of “fan out”.  Submerge in a sinkful of cold water and shake it well to dislodge any sand and dirt trapped in between the layers.  Or you can just run it under cold water. (Note to self:  in my dream kitchen I want a sink for the sole purpose of cleaning produce…)
  2. After the leeks are cleaned… finish cutting the root end and slice thinly.  I use the white part and the tender green parts of the leek.  These are somewhat expensive in Puerto Rico, so I try to use most of it as possible… 
  3. In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the leeks with a heavy pinch of salt.  Sweat the leeks for about 5 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. While this is happening…  prep the potatoes.  I usually leave the skin on my potatoes, because in the thin film between the peel and the flesh is where a lot of nutrition lies, but in this case, because it’s a creamed soup, the skins will just get in the way.
  5. Add the potatoes and the vegetable broth.  Increase the heat to medium hi and bring to a boil.  I covered it to make it happen faster.  Once it reaches the boiling point, reduce the heat to low, maintain covered and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, approximately 30 minutes.
  6. Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth.  I still left some chunky pieces of potatoes and it was a nice contrast to the smooth soup.  Stir in the half and half and add additional salt and pepper to taste.

 

The soup will remain warm enough to eat while you make these Leek Rings, which actually were incredible…

I also learned in the Good Eats episode that this soup is also called Vichyssoise, especially if served cold.  I am not too fond of cold soups so we’ll keep on calling it Potato Leek Soup.

Bon Appetit!!

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Daring Bakers Challenge – May 2008

31 May

To be a Daring Baker you need daringness…  but you also need to know your boundaries.  That’s what happened to me when I learned about May’s challenge.  We’re making WHAT!!!!!

Opera Cake…

Oh my gosh, they’re beautiful, dainty little cakes with a trillion layers…  cake, mousse, ganache, more cake and so on…  but I know where my limits are and if I had a tough time decorating Dorie’s Perfect party Cake…  for sure this would have just frustrated me to the core.  So in the interest of not adding more stress into my life, I decided to forego this particular challenge.  However, I do wish to share with you some of the creations my fellow Daring Bakers have made.

This month’s challenge was brought to us by 4 hosts – Lis from La Mia Cucina, Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.  Which is kind of cool, because Lis and Ivonne are the founders of the Daring Bakers group…  now saying this, I’m kind of embarrassed that I skipped this challenge… but here we go.

First, we start with Gluten a GoGo, who is one of my companions on the Alternative Bakers side of the Daring Bakers…  she is a gluten-free baker, so I highly recommend you visit her site if you’re in need for gluten-free inspiration.  Her Praline and Rooibos Opera Cake looks and I am sure tastes delicious too.  It’s made with Rooibos tea, which I have never heard of, but I will sure do some research on…

 

Secondly…  I loved this photo of Addicted Sweet Tooth’s  Apricot Pistachio Opera cake.  She’s a former pastry chef with a sweet tooth to envy…  this cake really looks delectable, no??

               

I also wanted to showcase a Vegan version and Bex, from How to Feed a Vegan who lives in beautiful Vermont made this rendition of the Opera Cake…  which goes to show you, there are no limits to making any recipe suitable to our dietary needs.  Opera cake’s original recipe is full of eggs and dairy products and Bex found a great way to adapt and conquer.

 

From the Canary Islands, I present to you Delicias y Tentaciones…  the blog is in Spanish (sorry to those of you who are not fluent in it) but I had to share her creation with you – a wonderful Orange and Saffron Opera cake.  Very beautiful, very Spanish.  Olé!!!  I’ve never been to Canarias, but the first time I went to Spain, almost everyone asked us if we were Canarios…  so I feel we have a “connection” there…  and isn’t this picture pretty?!?!

And finally, at A Beautiful Mosaic, this spicy Korean-American mama created this Marie Antoinette-inspired Opera Cake… Isn’t it beautiful?!?!

There’s more and more versions of May’s Daring Bakers Challenge Opera cakes… for that you can visit our Daring Bakers Kitchen Forum to check them out and maybe even join us in future challenges… 

For now, this is it… until June’s Challenge posting date that is!!!

Vegetarians are real people too…

26 May

I loved reading this column written by Taylor Clark in Slate Magazine.  I learned about it via Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks, one of the blogs I subscribe to.  She wanted to share some of her favorite things and now I am sharing it with you…

I loved it so much because as a vegetarian, I find myself often going thru life explaining to people that even though I have been a vegetarian for the last 10 years of my life, I still get aroused by certain smells of foods in my past…  that I am a normal person that craves real food, not just salads.  That I do eat more things than just “grass” and that no, I do not longer crave that piece of T-bone steak I used to eat in front of you…

 But why even bother writing to you about it… if Taylor did so here so eloquently…  Vegetarian Myths debunked

Please read and enjoy… and if you’re still a non-vegetarian, I hope this instills a bit of knowledge about what vegetarians and vegetarianism is all about… 

Thank you Taylor for bringing this explanation to the world… I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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