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Food & Drink

Hola! It’s me again, the Colombian friend :)

 

 

So, as you all know is easter this week, woohoo! But in Colombia it is called ‘Holy Week’ because we are a ‘very’ religious country (bah...) Colombia has always been greatly influenced by the Catholic church in its law and governance and of all the dates that Catholics celebrate, the most important is Easter. Meaning that we get the Holy Thursday, the Holy Friday and the Monday that follows off, woohooo!!! (That is what most of us think).

 

 

Every year, for one week (especially Thursday, Friday and Saturday), the most devout parishioners suspend their daily Masses and processions to commemorate The Passion of Christ, his death and resurrection. Others, however, take this as a vacation week for walking, partying and relax with family and friends. But, actually on the Holy Friday, every place where they sell alcohol has to close till 12am, when every young person resumes to party again… (Guilty).

 

 

 

It goes against the faith eating beef and pork Friday the time of Lent between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday .

 

 

 

From all of the Holy Week’s religions events, the one that is the most important is the “Via Crucis” or in English it would be The Way to The Cross or The Stations of the Cross. On this day, I would say that about 80% of Catholics go out really early in the morning, to walk through all the stations to crucifixion. Every Church organises its own Via Crucis so people from the community can come. I’ve only done it once, and I almost die from dehydration (never again, I my life is the personification of a ‘via crucis’).

 

 

 

So, in this very brief description of a normal Holy Week in Colombia, you can see how my culture and religion, keep walking the thin line that divides the faith, acts of sin and religious acts of the mundane. Let’s just say that my country is for everyone!

 


On Friday (and apparently also Thursday, but I will ignore that…) we can’t eat beef or pork so, we usually always eat dishes where fish is the main feature with coconut rice and green plantain. It is delicious check out this pic:

This is a basic dish I am sure every Colombian has had at least once in their life for Holy Week and for sure more than 30 times in their daily life ha! It is a basic fried fish (usually Tilapia) with coconut rice, green plantain (fried, yes, because who said we couldn’t) and the normal boring salad: Tomato, lettuce and cucumber with vinaigrette.

 

 

That’s all for today guys! I hope this is enlightening and might teach you a thing or two about my country!

 

 

Till next time folks, share it if you like it!

 

Irish Soda Bread

 

Happy Tuesday you lovely readers,

 

It is just myself and Nathalia in the office on this wonderful sunny day as Ben is off doing a training course and Mel, Lee and Sam have all headed to London for the Wearable Technology Show! Check out Mel’s write up on who she was looking forward to seeing down there right here!

 

Well, my wonderful mother is in town YAY and as it’s St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday I thought I’d share an Irish recipe today with you all …

 

Irish soda bread is so yummy and I probably shouldn’t eat as much of it as I do but oh well!

 

So to make your very own you will need …

 

  • 250g of plain flour

  • 250g of wholemeal flour

  • 100g of porridge oats

  • 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

  • 1 tsp of salt

  • 25g of butter

  • 500ml of buttermilk

 

To make all your bread dreams come true …

 

  1. Throw the oven on to 200C/Gas 6/Fan 180C.

  2. Mix the dry ingredients in the bowl and rub in the butter (Have the butter cut into small pieces).

  3. Pour in the buttermilk and fold quickly with a spatula/knife.

  4. Bring dough together with your hands super gently!

  5. Shape it into a round loaf.

  6. Pop on the baking sheet and put a cross along the top.*

  7. Bake for 30-35mins until you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. If it’s not quite ready leave it upside down and back for a few more minutes.

  8. Pop onto a wire rack and let it cool down and then eat it all!

 

*The cross is to let all the fairies out but it also helps the bread to cook through!

 

I must love bread because the only two recipes I have wrote for Coffee & Craic have been for bread … I’m not ashamed!!!

 

Now, excuse me while I go eat 3 loafs of bread with my Ma!

 

Smooches,

Cassie

x

Arepas or corn bread (for english people to understand)

 

Hola! I’m Nathalia, the colombian friend. As every single colombian I loveee dancing, especially to salsa (cause I am from Cali.. yeap, my city is the salsa capital of the world, look it up), I kinda like coffee, I know me, being colombian should love it but, it just makes me really ‘crazy’ , anyway, I am getting off track. I also loovee food, cooking it and obviously eating it and eating it again and again.. yeah, yeah.. I love eating.

 

One of my favorite side dishes is called “Arepas” which are actually just cornbread or corn cake, and the way I like them is with stuffed mozzarella cheese.. yummy… So, arepas have been around for ages in my country, long before my nan was born even, so definitely a very traditional dish in Colombia and Venezuela too.

 

In Colombia, the best arepas are those that are made straight from fresh white corn, which then involves boiling and grounding, but not pureed. But, come on!! now, we have pretty great stuff that comes ready so.. yeap, most colombians buy them already ready, which then we just grilled.

 

But, today's recipe is basically the same, the only thing that changes is that now we can buy a pre-cooked white corn flour, and saves you like an hour of getting the corn ready. Leave that to nan ha! Just kidding. Here in the UK, you can buy the flour from latino shops and the place I always buy it from is “Las Iguanas”, the name of this flour is: P.A.N. you will also need mozzarella cheese and colombian cheese but, if you can’t get it a great substitute is feta cheese (this is optional but, I am a very cheesy person so, if could put more cheese in I would). So, let's do it people!!!!!

 

Ingredients:

 

1 cup of P.A.N. flour

1 cup of warm water (maybe more or maybe less.. you’ll see)

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of oil

½ cup of feta cheese (optional)

 

Clap clap let’s get the kitchen party going!

 

Making the arepa dough (this will take a bit of practice, but you’ll get there). Is like making tortillas actually.

 

Step 1: In a large bowl mix by hand the flour and slowly pour in the water (this has to be a bit warm) and salt.

 

Step 2: keep mixing until the mixture is totally homogeneous without lumps.

 

*Nan’s little tip* By pouring the water slowly, you’ll see and feel the moisture of the dough until you can shape the dough without it being cracked. So, you can stop pouring in water when this happens.

 

Step 3: Pour in the cheese and mix some more.

 

Step 4: Cover the dough with a moist towel and let it rest for about 5 to 10 mins.

Step 5: Once the dough is ready it’s time to shape the arepa. You are supposed to shape it from a little ball you make with both your hands, and by pressing it back and forth between your hands it will form a disk about ¼-inch thick and 4 to 6 inches wide.

Step 6:  To finish you have to have pre-heated a grilled pan or a panni press, for at least 2 mins before putting in the arepas.

*Nan’s little tip* doing it on an actual grill would be awesome. in Colombia we even do them at BBQ parties, in the BBQ!

Step 7:  Put the heating down to low and grill the arepas for 5 to 10 mins in each side. The end result is supposed to be a little bit brown and crunchy.

Step 8: Put a slice of mozzarella on top if you want! Or even, you could slice through the middle half way and stuff it with your favorite fillings. My personal favorite is mozzarella chesse, grilled onions and shredded chicken breast.

 

There you go people! ready to colombianize yourself with this recipe? I hope you like it!

 

Chaoo!

 

Eggs Benny

 

So, as you all know I wasn’t the biggest fan of our Cassie’s latest recipe, as I hate bananas just as much as she loves them. I’ve chosen one of my favourite dishes in the world, I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

EGGS BENNY! I love eggs in every way, shape or form but these are the king. Especially mine. So you’re normal eggs benedict sauce is a little different from my own, which is my own special recipe which is twice as tasty and twice as easy.

 

You’ll need:

1 x English muffin

4 x Eggs

A bit of Cayenne Pepper (this totally depends on your spice factor)

1 x Pinch of salt

1 x tbsp of lemon juice

2.5 x tbsp of butter or marg

Bacon/ smoked salmon/ smoked ham/ veggie alternative

 

Before you give it a go (and don’t cheat using one of those plastic things) I’d say practice making a few poached eggs. There’s a worldwide heated debate about this, but I find the best way is as follows:

  1. Boil the kettle.

  2. Crack an egg into a glass (weirdly, I feel like a wine glass works best because you can use the stem to be able to get the egg closer to the surface of the water when you lower it in, without burning yourself). If the yolk breaks, you’re in trouble. Make sure your egg is all intact.

  3. Get a pan and fill it ¾ of the way full with the boiled water and let it come to the boil.

  4. Then, get some malt vinegar and splash about a teaspoon amount in there.

  5. Then, grab a spoon, and start making slow circles then get faster (if you just go fast straight away you’re going to end up with 3rd degree burns), then, when you have a perfect little tornado in the centre, it’s time to lower the eggs.

  6. I usually leave them for about 2-3 minutes but it depends on the size of the egg too. You’ll need one of those big spoon things with holes in now.

  7. So I always switch the pan off so I can find the egg amidst the bubbles, the carefully get it out with your holey spoon and then pop it on a bit of kitchen towel for a minute, so it can soak up extra water while you make your other egg.

  8. Repeat with your second egg!

 

The first time you go to make this, you’ll probably be all flustered and hot and the kitchen will be a mess because there’s a few components that you gotta get on the go.


 

So this is the order I’d do it in:

 

  1. First of all, make the first part of your sauce. So in a bowl, mix two egg yolks, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of lemon juice, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and mix it all together.

  2. Get your bacon under the grill, if that’s your addition of choice.

  3. Start to slowly melt your two tablespoons of butter in a pan.

  4. Pop the kettle on, slice your muffins and get them in the toaster.

  5. Once the kettle’s boiled, put the water in the pan (as above) and begin the egg poaching.

  6. Once your butter has melted completely, add this to the rest of your sauce in the bowl. Give this a good mix, you’ll see that it’s still quite watery. Transfer this back to the pan the butter was in on a VERY low heat, and stir and thicken to your taste. You can also have a little taste here to see if you want to add anymore pepper/salt.

  7. So, muffins out, bacon out and on the muffins, then the eggs on the bacon on the muffins, then the sauce on the eggs on the bacon on the muffins and voila.

  8. Enjoy!

Banana Bread Recipe 

 

So I’m a terrible cook (I know burning toast is such a cliche but this one time the only ingredients on my toast were flames and billowing black clouds!). But, surprisingly I can bake a mean loaf of banana bread. Now student life means I don’t own any snazzy weighing scales or mixing bowls for that matter so I use pots, cups and spoons… No joke! I genuinely believe they are the key to my successful bread making so maybe give it a try and let me know how you get on.

 

Right so, here’s all you need to know …

 

Ingredient list:

285g/2¾ cups  of plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ a tsp of salt

110g/½ a cup of butter

225g/1¼ cups of caster sugar

2 FREE RANGE eggs - ‘Will somebody please think of the hens!’

2-4 ripe bananas - This depends on how banana-y you want it to be

85ml of buttermilk - I never have buttermilk so normal milk is grand (semi-skimmed works perfectly fine too) with 1½ tsp of lemon juice

1 tsp of vanilla essence - Or 4 bottles because it may be the sexiest little bottle of joy ever … Upto you!

 

How happiness is made:

  • Right, pop the oven on to 180oc/Gas 4/350F.

  • Okay so for all you lucky sieve owners - sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl/stainless steel pot. If you’re like me and don’t own a sieve just get a fork and mix it around the flour for a minute and it’ll be grand).

  • In another bowl/pot, mix the sugar and butter together till it’s fluffy and you start considering trying a little bit.

  • Grab your eggs, mashed bananas, milk and vanilla essence (mmmm) and add them to your butter and sugar - I tend to add them bit by bit to make sure it is all thoroughly mixed through. Then fold in the flour again bit by bit.

  • Randomly I actually own a baking tin, so grease that bad boy up with some butter and put in your mixture.

  • Shove it in the oven and at about 40 mins take a little peek at it - If you have a fancy bread stick checker thingy or the classic knife pop it in it near the centre, if it comes out clean it’s done and if not then pop it back in the oven for another 10-20mins.

  • After checking your masterpiece again and the knife is clean as a whistle let it cool down and then pop it on a wire tray/anything you wish, to cool it further.

 

YUMMY!

P.S. Due to spoon measurements sometimes I shove in a little extra of whatever. This recipe doesn't have to be strict in that way!

Have fun baking and send in any pictures of your creations! Cass x

BANANAS ARE THE DEVIL - love Mel.



SO therefore for all the banana haters out there (I think there’s about 3 of us) I’ll be posting one of my delicious banana free recipes soon. I might even give you my secret Eggs Benny sauce recipe, but we’ll see.

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