So up for Chile was:
-Dobladitas (Chilean Breads)
-Huevos con piclco de choclo (baked eggs in corn sauce)
-Pebre Chili dip
-Micaos (potato cakes)
There was also a recipe for Calzones rotos (aka torn underwear cookies). Which sound like fun but trying to do 4 dishes in 1 night was already enough. So the cookies will be a rainy day project. You can cook cookies from any country so fine to do then.
Up first was the Dobladitas. The recipe said plain white flour - I only had high grade flour and can maybe use this as the only excuse as to why mine didn't come out exactly right.
I've never been good at following recipes. Like any dough I also used my mixers dough hook to get started. I love breads, pastas, anything with flour. I am a paleo villian. Yet, I tire when making dough, pasta, bread. Maybe it's an arm muscle thing. In any event I started kneading. And kept kneading. Thankfully after 5-10 minutes Matt offered to help. Kneading is his specialty harking back to our pasta family dinner nights. Fine by me. When it came to rolling out though ours did not look as smooth as the picture. Maybe it was a case of needing to sift my flour? In any event it made folding quite difficult so in most cases we only did a single fold.
While Matt was kneading I started the chili dip. Oh, I need to open a bottle of wine for the 2 tbsp it calls for? Oh ok, go on and twist my arm and make me have glass while I cook the rest of the food. I never thought about using wine in what is effectively a salsa. In any event opted for green chilis over red and a cab sauv. I also decided to use a red onion and thankfully limes, coriander and garlic from the garden.
While the flavors in the salsa (erhm, I mean dip) were mixing I also prepped for the huevos. This recipe reminded me a lot of Shakuska or Moroccan eggs where eggs are poached in tomatoes. I suspect cooking this in summer when corn is fresh and plentiful would be great. Instead I opted for pre-shucked corn in a pack. So much butter! Between the onions, the butter on top of the eggs, the dobladitas and then the pancakes I felt like I was swimming in butter. On the plus side my hands were softer than a babies bottom by the end of the night.
The dobladitas came out of the oven and looked as puffy as they did when they went in. But they smelled good. In went the eggs to cook while I started the pancakes. Hmm. Vegetable suet is not something I keep handy in the pantry. I thought I'd wing it and use crisco thinking that lardy shortening would work the same. I don't really deep fry and just don't seem to do it well when I try. I don't think I use enough oil. Must be my inner health freak trying to be healthy and sparing. In any event my pancakes just didn't fry up perfectly. Straggly bits of potato came off (much like a hash brown) and looked nothing like the picture.
When it came time to eat Matt and I sat down. There was a certain amount of excitment. Maybe it was the new food - the challenge laid out. I'm not sure yet, but we had a lovely evening.
The verdict:
The dobladitas tasted like scones. Or like the biscuits I used to make from Bisquick batter. I had originally envisioned them like a bread - sopping up chili dip, or corn/egg, but they were too thick for that. Instead they were eaten on their own - dipped in the dip and egg. And they were lovely alebit a bit filling with all the other food.
The huevos were good. Not quite as saucy as the Moroccan eggs I was envisioning but with a nice kind of earthy and corny (no pun intended) taste - particularly when the yolk mixed with the corn. The kernels also helped to give a different texture to the dish. I think in future it might be nice to blend a portion of the corn.
The salsa/dip WAS AMAZING. Wow. What great flavors. I was a bit worries about using green chilis as I almost always use red and know their potency a bit better. But this was great - not too hot and will be my new go to version of a salsa.
The potatoes were my letdown which I think is more a result of my cooking skills as opposed to the recipe. There were some crunchy bits but you could see from the picture I just didn't have it right.
Overall it was a great meal and the eggs and salsa will definitely be made in the future.
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