From Argentina With Love

Rosca de Pascua--Easter Bread Ring--From the Archives

 

With Easter just a few days away, I thought I'd repost my original recipe for Rosca de Pascua, the traditional ring-shaped bread-like cake served in Argentina at this time of year.  Easter marks the end of the Lenten season-- the beginning of which we marked by celebrating the Tres Reyes and eating its signature cake--the Rosca de Reyes--the Rosca de Pascua's cousin.

Next year I'd like to make Rosca de Pascua and finally get around to baking it with the hard-boiled eggs nestled in the top of the ring.  After baking, the real eggs are removed and replaced with life-sized chocolate eggs.

But not this year--my suitcase is laid out on the bedroom floor, steadily being filled with things I'll need to take on my trip to Argentina.  This Easter, we'll be eating Rosca de Pascua at my in-laws' house in Mendoza!  I can't wait to see what homemade treats my suegra Florencia is cooking up for us.

I'm  excited to see how they interpret the holiday in Argentina--what delicious, traditional foods are served, and whether they, like us, dye eggs, hunt for them, and eat truckloads of chocolate.  I'm bringing along some chocolate bunnies from home for the kiddos just in case!

And of course I'll be sharing all my adventures in Argentina with you along the way--stay tuned!

Facebook:Rebecca Caro or the From Argentina With Love group page, and twitter @RebeccaCaro.

 

Rosca de Pascua

Easter Bread Ring

For the Bread:

3 tablespoons yeast

3/4 cup warm water

pinch of sugar

1 lemon, zested

1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

4 cups flour

1 egg, beaten, to paint the top of the bread

 

For the pastry cream:

2 egg yolks

1 cup warm water

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons corn starch

a dash of vanilla

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, swish around some warm water to warm the bowl.  Dump the water, then add in the 3/4 cup water, the yeast and the sugar and dissolve.  Let sit for about 15 minutes, until the yeast is risen and bubbling.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix the lemon zest, butter, vanilla, 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk, egg, and beat together.  Add to the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on low speed for 5 minutes.  Add in the flour a cup at a time, mixing to incorporate, until you have added all 4 cups.  You will be left with a sticky, dense dough.  Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, set in a warm place covered with a towel, and let rise for 1 hour.

After the hour is up, punch down the dough and remove it from the bowl.  Put it on a floured and oiled counter top and roll in to a long, even cylinder.  I found it easier to do two smaller cylinders and connect them at either end to make the ring, but you can do it either way.  You can use a buttered and floured ring pan, a bundt pan, or (as we did) a rimmed round pizza pan with an empty 28 oz. can in the center.  (Empty the contents of the can first, clean out, remove both ends and the label.  Butter and flour the part of the can that will touch the dough)  Lay the cylinders of dough out on the pan to form a ring.  Cover with a towel, set in a warm place, and let rise 2 hours more.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Start the pastry cream--heat the egg yolks, water, sweetened condensed milk and corn starch in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly.  As the mixture gets hotter and comes to a boiling point, stir more rapidly.  As it starts to thicken, remove it from heat.  The consistency should be like a pudding, not thick enough to stand on its own.  Stir in the vanilla.

Spoon the pastry cream onto the top of the ring of bread.  It will ooze over the edges, that's ok.  Paint the remaining space of the bread with the beaten egg.  Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the bread is a nice golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  Decorate with confectioner's sugar and sliced Maraschino cherries.

Buñuelos de Manzana --Apple Fritters

 

My appetite for books is as voracious as the one I have for food--there's nothing I love more than getting into a really good book.  My favorite stories are rich in sensory details--they bring me in with the sights, smells and tastes of the story.

Monica, friend and Uruguayan transplant, recommended The Invisible Mountain, by Carolina de Robertis(also an expat from Uruguay). De Robertis' first novel tells the story of three generations of women living in Montevideo at the turn of the twentieth century.  For me, the book has shades of Chilean author Isabelle Allende's work--a lyrical and engaging writing style, wrapping the highs and lows of the country's political and economic upheaval of the time around the characters' lives.

I couldn't put it down.  And the description of the ordinary, day-to-day things the characters did--eating and drinking--brought the story to life for me.  Two lovers meeting on a park bench and sharing a gourd of yerba mate, or eating fancy bizcocho pastry in an elegant salon gives so much presence to the story that I felt like I was in the room listening in on the conversation.

Likewise, in the humble barrio where most of the story takes place, there is a lot of buñuelo eating going on.  Buñuelos are fritters--fried dough balls with something added in; a sweet like apple or quince paste, or a savory--chard or seafood.  Fritters have a long history in the American South, as well as in South America--but the recipes do vary slightly.  It's likely that the snack has its origins in Spain, but fried dough is on the menu of almost every cuisine in the world, and each culture adds its own flavor variation.

Buñuelos are the type of snack shared with family or intimate friends over a coffee or a mate--good problem-solving food.  It's not fancy company food, and it's not expensive.  It's simple, homemade fare--total comfort food--that can be made, as so many recipes I adore--with the ingredients you already have on hand.  LIkewise, they can be adapted, a little of this and a little of that--no need to run out for a single ingredient; just change it up.  (Don't have apple?  Use banana instead.)

With these apple buñuelos, the apple is shredded, though I found recipes using apples sliced in rounds and battered, or cut in small pieces and mixed in.  The shredded version is light, airy, and only vaguely sweet and appley--though I bet the other versions are just as tasty. 

Invite a friend over, share a mate and some buñuelos and enjoy some good conversation.  Ina book club?  Make The Invisible Mountain one of your selections, and bring a plate of buñuelos to share while you talk about it.  Both the book and the fritters are something you'll enjoy sinking your teeth into. 

 

Buñuelos de Manzana

Apple Fritters

This is a very basic recipe.  It can be adapted as needed for savory (take out one tablespoon of the sugar) or sweet--you can also add more sugar to taste.  Add in whichever filling you like--from banana to quince, some are even filled with pastry cream--the basic batter is very versatile.

Serves four to six (depending on how many disappear into each belly!)

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons oil

2 Granny Smith apples (or any variety you like) peeled, cored and grated

2-3 cups neutral oil (like canola or vegetable) for frying

confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and two tablespoons oil.  Mix together well, there should be no lumps in the batter.  Stir in the shredded apple until well incorporated.

Meanwhile, heat the 2 cups oil over medium heat.  During the course of the frying, I had to replenish the oil twice during the frying process, reheating the oil each time.  When the oil is hot enough for frying--you can test the heat by dropping a little of the batter into the oil--it should sizzle.

Using a tablespoon or small scoop or ladle, drop some of the batter into the oil, about three or four fritters at a time.  Fry until golden on one side, about two minutes or so.  Flip the fritters and fry on the other side until that side is also golden brown.  The oil needs to eb hot enough for frying, but not so hot that the outside of the fritter gets too brown or fried without the center being cooked.

Remove the cooked fritters with a slotted spoon or spatula to a paper-towel lined plate.  Let cool, then dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.  Serve with coffee or yerba mate.

Rosca de Reyes--Kings' Cake

 
 The tradition of El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (literally, the Day of the Three Magi Kings)--aka the Epiphany--is a holiday that originated in Spain and is now celebrated in Hispanic cultures around the world on January 6th.

The Magi are those three Wise Men--the kings who traveled to Bethlehem to visit the infant Jesus and bring him gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. The holiday is meant to celebrate the appearance to the world of the baby Christ.

As part of the tradition, which marks the end of the Christmas season in Spanish-speaking countries, children write letters to the Three Magi asking for gifts, much like American children write to Santa Claus.  And just as children leave carrots out for Santa's reindeer, Argentinean children leave out grass and water for the Kings' camels.

The children's little shoes are left out on the night of January 5th by the door of the house, and on the morning of January 6, they find a gift there.  (Below, a picture of our Esteban's shoes filled with chocolate coins.) 

 

Tortas Fritas--Rainy Day Fried Bread

 

This morning as I bustled around getting ready to take Esteban to preschool, the wind was blowing but the sun was shining; an autumn chill was in the air.  On our drive, the weather was a bizarre mix that defines Colorado's typically atypical seasonal weather--bright morning sun in the East, and a wall of black clouds looming on the horizon.  Miraculously, a bright rainbow was seen, too, and it seemed to lead right to our son's preschool--the thought of his teachers 'bringing' the rainbow to school just delighted him.  After drop-off, I lingered to talk to another mom and coo over her new baby, and by the time I left ten minutes later, the weather had completely changed.  It was now a despicable, blustery mess.

We have an expression in Colorado:  "If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute!"  It sums up our mercurial climate perfectly, since things here can change in a heartbeat.  I dashed to my car.  The wind was whipping fiercely, gold leaves skittered sideways across the road, and icy rain pelted my windshield.  I only had one thought as I raced home.

 

Medialunas--Sweet Crescent Rolls

 
 
 
I know I've been away for awhile.  A loooong while.  Will you forgive me? 

I won't bore you with the details, but to make up for it, I'm giving you a long-awaited, quintessentially Argentinean recipe--medialunas.  The medialuna is the Croissant's cousin from the south--a little smaller and a little sweeter, and the tastiest to wake up to. 

Puff pastry is not as complicated to make as its reputation, it just takes a long while, just like any true love, to get to the good stuff.  But, also like love, it's totally worth the wait. 

The name, medialuna, has a celestial sort of romance all its own--literally, it means 'half moon', bringing to mind the 'moony,'  sweet days of a new love.   The stars have aligned, and everything you eat--when you remember to--is just a little more delicious than usual.