From Argentina With Love

Candied Orange and Lemon Peel--Cáscara de Naranja y Limón Azucarada

 

 

 

Every family has its own special holiday traditions.  Those rituals that bind us together during this festive season, whether trimming the tree with a collection of special ornaments gathered over the years, reading holiday stories while nestled in flannel sheets, or cooking cherished family specialties to share with family and friends.  Maybe it's the excitement children feel putting out their shoes for Los Reyes, or the family 'asador' putting on an unbeatable grill-fest.

Whether in the sizzling heat of the southern hemisphere's summer or the bone cold frost of the northern winter, the season brings us closer together, and wherever and whenever we gather, we are bound to break bread.

This is the first holiday season that our son, Esteban, almost five, is really 'into' Christmas.  So as we get into the rhythm of having a new addition to the family, I've been trying to solidify those favorite traditions from last year, to create the holiday memories that will be with them a lifetime.

Eating Pan Dulce (aka Panettone) is one of the traditions we most enjoy and hope to pass on--nothing says holiday to me like the smell of fresh pan dulce in the oven, its yeasty, sweet smell mingling with the orange and lemon peel studding the bread.  Cutting into one on Christmas morning is a special treat, a gift of its own. The first piece is eaten with a cup of coffee, as we sit bleary-eyed, around the tree opening gifts. 

This year, I decided to make my own candied orange and lemon peel for the pan dulce--a simple recipe that can be made up to two months in advance if you're one of those uber-organized folks, or the day before you make the pan dulce if you're not.  The flavor is much better in the DIY peel than the store-bought version, plus free of the preservatives and what have you that we would rather avoid.

Candied peel makes a wonderful homemade holiday gift, and can be dipped in dark chocolate, too.  It would be a great hostess gift, along with a tag attached with the recipe for pan dulce on it. Pan Dulce is sure to become one of your family's treasured holiday favorites, and even more so with the addition of your own handmade candied peel!

Candied Orange and Lemon Peel

Cáscara de Naranja y Limón Azucarada

This recipe makes enough for 2 panettone, about a cup each of orange and lemon rind, but this recipe is easily doubled or halved as needed.  I combined lemon and orange for convenience sake, but they can be made separately if that is your preference. The peel can be made up to 2 months in advance and stored in the freezer, or can be made one week in advance and stored in the refrigerator.  For the pan dulce, simply chop the strips of candied rind into small pieces.

5 lemons

5 oranges

3 cups water

4 cups sugar

Using a sharp knife, cut off the ends of each lemon and orange. Score the rind of the fruit in quarters, slicing just through the rind and not into the fruit.  Peel off the quarters of rind carefully, then slice into strips about 1/4 inch wide. Put all the peel into a medium sized saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the water and replace it with fresh water, and bring to a boil again. Repeat this blanching process two more times to remove any bitterness from the peel. (A total of 3 times.) Drain the water and reserve the peel.

In the same saucepan, combine the water and 3 cups of the sugar and heat over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Add in the rind into the sugar and water mixture and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and let simmer until the rind is translucent, about 45 minutes. Drain the rind, reserving the simple syrup, if desired, as a citrus simple syrup for cocktails and such.

Remove the rind and spread out evenly on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the remaining sugar. Turn the rind over and sprinkle with the other 1/2 cup of sugar.  To dry, either leave the rind in a cool, dry place in the kitchen overnight or bake for one to two hours in a 200 degree oven (checking frequently to be sure that the rind is not cooking, but just drying out).

Fresh Herb Gnocchi--Ñoquis de Hierbas Frescas

Today in Argentina people from coast to coast are meeting friends and family over plates of gnocchi (or ñoquis, if you're in Argentina) to celebrate one of my most favorite time-honored Argentinean food traditions--the habit of eating gnocchi on the 29th day of each month.

I recently got an email from reader Socorro in Miami, who reminded me that it's been a long while since I wrote about the traditions of this holiday.

While gnocchi came to Argentina along with the influx of Italians who immigrated to their new home in the early 20th century, the tradition of eating this dish is distinctly Argentinean.  Newly arrived Italians ate gnocchi on the 29th of each month to honor the saint day of San Pantaleon, a Venetian patron saint who healed the ailing and would only take a simple meal (such as gnocchi) for payment.  

Pionono de Atun y Morrones--Pionono with Tuna and Roasted Red Peppers

 

If there were ever a quality that would make a food lovable, for me that quality would be versatility. Take the humble Pionono--a handful of basic ingredients (above) blended together to create a spongy cake that has just about as many filling options as you can dream up.

In the mood for something sweet?  Spread your Pionono with Dulce de Leche, or maybe Nutella and crumbled nuts.  Or spread it with a soft gelato, then roll and freeze to make an ice cream cake.  Looking for a brunch option?  Whipped cream and strawberry-filled Pionono make a great  brunch dish.

In the mood for something savory? Fill your Pionono like a sandwich--with layers of ham or salami or turkey, provolone cheese, sliced olives, roasted red peppers and hard boiled egg.  Or whipped cream cheese with Roquefort crumbles mixed in.  Or like this version, it can be filled with tuna salad spiked with fresh herbs and roasted red peppers.

The humble Pionono, a staple in Argentina's kitchens, makes a great party appetizer or something different to bring to a potluck.  And last week we had it paired with a hearty quinoa salad--it was the perfect small plate to go with a grain, both playing an equal part as main dishes on the plate.

What are your favorite filling  ideas?

Pionono

Pionono (Jelly Roll)

5 eggs

5 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon honey

5 tablespoons flour

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a stand mixer, put the eggs,sugar, and honey, and beat on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper and grease with butter or spray with cooking spray.

After 8 minutes, you should have a fluffy batter. Add the flour in all at once and beat for one minute more, until incorporated. Pour the batter onto the cookie sheet and spread gently with a spatula (you don't want to de-fluff the batter!) Make an even layer covering the cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 6 minutes.

Wet a cotton (not terry-cloth) towel and put it flat on the counter. Sprinkle it lightly with sugar. Lift the parchment paper off of the cookie sheet, and lay the pionono face down on the wet towel, paper-side up. Carefully peel the corner of the paper off, and continue, careful not to rip the pionono, until the paper has been removed. Fill with filling as below or as desired by spreading the chosen filling evenly across the pionono.   Roll carefully (too long on the wet towel is not good) and slice. Arrange on a plate to serve.

Relleno de Atun con Morrones

Tuna and Roasted Red Pepper Filling

Salmon would also be a nice option here, just substitute the 2 cans of tuna for 2 cans of skinless, boneless salmon. 

2 cans tuna, drained

2 tablespoons (or more, to taste) mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (tarragon or basil would also be nice)

1 egg, hard-boiled, peeled and chopped (optional)

2 roasted red peppers, chopped

Place the tuna in a medium mixing bowl, and flake with a fork.  Stir in the mayonnaise and mix well until combined.  Add in the lemon juice, and then fold in the parsley, hard-boiled egg, and roasted peppers.  Spread the mixture across the pionono as described above, before rolling and slicing.

 

Alfajores Mendocinos--Mendoza Style Alfajores

I've eaten my fair share of alfajores, I'll confess that now. Two buttery cookies sandwiched with gooey dulce de leche, then rolled in coconut along the edges, dipped in a bath of white or dark chocolate, or simply dusted in a blanket confectioner's sugar--who among us can resist such a sweet?

But I thought all alfajores were pretty much the same--with more or less the aforementioned combination. That is, until Katie at Seashells and Sunflowers invited a group of bloggers (myself included) to participate in a round up of Regional Alfajores.

As it turns out, every region has its own twist on the traditional alfajor--there are Alfajores Marplatenses from the coastal Buenos Aires province and the area around Mar del Plata--represented by Katie, who followed her sweetheart from the U.S. to Necochea. Aledys, who followed her sweetheart to the Netherlands and writes her blog, From Argentina to the Netherlands, For Love! writes about Alfajores Cordobeses, hailing from her home province of Cordoba. Meag at A Domestic Disturbance is writing about the alfajor from the province of Santa Fe, Alfajores Santafesinos, while Ana from Ana Travels writes about Alfajores de Maicena, and Paula from Bee My Chef (she's also a contributor at Buenos Aires Foodies) made Alfajores Salteños from the province of Salta. Please visit my fellow contributor's blogs to see their delicious riffs on the regional alfajor!

As for the Alfajor Mendocino, in digging around I found a number of unique takes on 'traditional' alfajores. Some were made in a rectangular shape, filled with strawberry jam, some with arrope, a honey syrup, and some dipped in white chocolate--very different from the usual idea of alfajores.

The most typical alfajor from the province of Mendoza is infused with just a hint of anise, filled with sticky dulce de leche, and coated with a sugary meringue called baño blanco. I love the adaptations of this cookie whose origins go as far back as the Moorish occupation of Spain, and I hope you enjoy this version, as well as the regional alfajores of my fellow bloggers!

Alfajores Mendocinos

Mendoza-Style Alfajores

This recipe makes about 2 dozen small (2-inch) or 1 dozen large (3-inch) alfajores. The dough can easily be doubled, and the baño blanco makes enough to cover 4 dozen small alfajores. I made these bite-sized alfajores using the rim of an egg cup, you can use a juice glass or any size round cookie cutter. The dough freezes well for up to 2 months, and the prepared alfajores can be stored in an air-tight container for about a week.

For the cookies:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

3 eggs

3 eggs, separated (reserve 2 of the whites for making the baño blanco)

2 tablespoons anisette (anise liqueur)

2 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup dulce de leche (homemade or storebought)

cooking spray or additional butter for cookie sheets

For the baño blanco:

1/2 cup water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs, whites only

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, yolks, butter, anisette and sugar. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry, and stir until a uniform dough has been made. Form the dough into a ball (it will be sticky), wrap in saran wrap, and refrigerate for at least a half hour or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using cooking spray or butter, grease a cookie sheet. Generously flour a countertop or work surface and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. If the dough is sticking to the counter, remove the dough, put down more flour, and roll out the dough again.

Using a round cutter, (egg cup or juice glass also work) cut the cookie rounds out of the dough and put them on the baking sheet. Ball up the remaining dough and repeat the rolling and cutting process until the dough has been used up. If you fill a cookie sheet and put it in to bake and have dough leftover, replace the dough into the refrigerator until you roll it out and bake it. (This keeps the dough from rising too much). Put the cookies in the oven and bake for 10 minutes (maybe 12 minutes if you are making the larger sized cookies.) They should not brown on the bottom or edges, but they should be dry on top when you tap them. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Fill a pastry bag with the dulce de leche (or just smear about a teaspoon or more onto a cookie) and pipe a heaping teaspoon of dulce de leche onto one cookie. Place another cookie on top, making sandwiching the two cookies with the dulce de leche in between.

To make the baño blanco, combine the sugar and the water in a small sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat until it reaches a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar in the water, and continue to boil until the sugar syrup thickens slightly, about ten minutes. When spooned, it should be thick enough to create a 'thread' of syrup drizzling back into the pan, but not thick enough to be caramelized.

Meanwhile, beat the reserved egg whites with a beater on medium high speed until they stiffen slightly and are white and fluffy, about three to five minutes. When the sugar syrup is to the right consistency, slowly drizzle it into the bowl with the egg whites, beating continuously. You will have a glossy creamy meringue. It shouldn't be stiff, rather, able to be painted on to the alfajores. Using a pastry brush, paint the outside of the alfajores with the meringue. Set on a cookie sheet or work surface lined with wax paper and let dry for several hours.or overnight. The baño blanco will eventually be a dry crust on the outside of the alfajores.

Ñoquis del 29--Gnocchi for the 29th

 

This is why we pinch pennies all year long, spend our limited vacation time from work to visit family on the other side of the planet instead of go to Disney World, and travel from Denver to Dallas to Santiago to Mendoza and then drive three hours to Bowen; transit time: about 24 hours each way.

It's so Esteban can make gnocchi with his abuela, and it's totally worth every sacrifice we make the other 364 days of the year.  Those moments are priceless to us.

On our last visit, we happened to be at my in-laws' house on the 29th--which Argentinaphiles will recognize as 'Ñoqui Day'--the day each month in Argentina that everyone eats gnocchi. 

Florencia, my mother-in-law, cooks in a humble kitchen--no high-tech gadgets (not even a microwave), the same pots and pans and dishes--featuring a ring of interlocking pink roses around the rim--they've always used.  It's not fancy or glamorous, (in fact, I'm always reminded of how well we can live while 'doing without') but the best tasting food is created in that kitchen.  Is love the secret ingredient? 

Maybe.  And a good measure of simplicity--wholesome ingredients, food mixed and made by hand, the recipes made from memory--from years of cooking every day.  But the essence of what makes the meals we eat at my inlaws' house taste so different--tastier--is conviviality--that spirit of sharing a meal--that we miss when we eat a breakfast burrito behind the wheel of our car.  What makes the meals we eat together so special is the time taken, with hands weathered alongside hands small, to make that meal.

And to sit down around the table--Ñoquis, a carafe of table wine, a siphon of seltzer, and literally break bread. 

There's a proverb in Argentina that goes "Panza llena, corazón contento." Or, 'a full belly makes a happy heart'--which to me encompasses just what it is to see my son rolling out gnocchi dough with his grandma, and then sit down, family style--to enjoy the delicious results.  My heart sings, and my belly is full.

 

Make some gnocchi on Sunday the 29th!  Following is the recipe I posted some time ago (at the link above) and here is a link to a recipe for both tomato and pesto sauce.  This recipe makes a plenty of gnocchi--enough for a group (we served 3 hungry men, plus myself last week and still had leftovers) or to freeze.  The freezing process will change the texture of the gnocchi slightly, it's a bit mushier.  The dough can also be frozen, defrosted and rolled out; if you do this, err on the side of less flour in the dough so you can add some more to firm up the texture when you are rolling it out.

(And I'm still working on the facebook icon to go with the twitter one above.  If you haven't already, please join our group From Argentina With Love--get updates, events, and giveaways. Thanks as always for your support!)

Ñoquis del 29

Gnocchi for the 29th

2 lbs. baking potatoes (about 6)

salt

2 eggs

1 cup fresh, good quality ricotta cheese

2-3 cups flour, plus more for dusting

Peel and quarter the potatoes, putting them in a medium stock pot with enough water to cover the potatoes with one inch of water.  Add a scant handful of salt.  Put the potatoes to boil until they are tender when pierced with a fork , but not mushy. Drain the potatoes.

Put the potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer.  In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, and ricotta, and mix well using your hands or a fork until a consistent dough is formed.  Be careful not to overmix. 

Add the flour a half cup at a time, mixing each time by hand until there is a soft, pliable dough.  The dough should not be sticky, and it should not be hard.  If it's too sticky or soft, the gnocchi will be mushy, but if there's too much flour, the gnocchi will be chewy and tough.  (This is the challenging part!)

Knead the dough a few times until uniform, and divide the dough in half .  Flour a work area, and roll the dough out into a long thin roll about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut these tubes of dough into sections about 1 inch long.  Meanwhile, bring a stock pot of water to a boil. 

There are a variety of ways to 'mark' the gnocchi-all just a style choice, since at this point, they are more or less done.  Here are some suggestions:  Mark an indentation in the center of each gnocchi with your index finger; or roll over the side of a cheese grater to make patterned indentations; or roll over the backside of a fork, or roll over the center of a wooden gnocchi tool.

At this point, the gnocchi can be frozen laid out on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  After they are frozen, they can be stored in a freezer bag.   Frozen gnocchi are just put into the boiling water like the unfrozen ones.

Drop the gnocchi one at a time into the boiling water. They are cooked when they rise to the top.  Collect with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate.  Serve with the sauce of your choice.  (Some nice choices are walnut Gorgonzola, tomato or white sauce.)