Feb 10 2013

Pastel de Queso

Pastel de Queso

Every day early in the morning around 5 am, the air in the streets at the market fills with the smell of dough being fried and red corn flour being boiled. This is the way some Bolivians start their day with a warm cup of red boiled corn and a delicious melted cheese inside the Pastel de Queso.

Filling:
8 oz Queso Fresco or Monterrey Jack
Dough:
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp Crisco
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 ½ tbsp sugar
⅛ cup boiling water.
1 Tbsp confectioner sugar
Sift the flour in a large bowl, heat the crisco to boiling point. Add the hot crisco to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon.

Add the egg salt and sugar and mix. Slowly add the hot water until you had a soft dough easy to roll.Divide the dough in half and each half in half until we have 16 little ball.

Rolled with a pan rooled each of them and once flat add cheese in the middle and folded in half press carfully the edges to close, Do the same with the others.

Do the same with the others. Heat 1 cup of vegetable oil and when is ready cooked each of them until golden.

Cool them in a paper towel and once cooled sprinkled with some confectioner sugar.

Enjoy it with a good cup of coffee or if you can with a good API morado!

Feb 6 2013

Rollo de Queso

Rolllo de Queso

I grew up with a lot of cousins around me. My mom had 8 siblings. Feeding all these kids was hard work, so my mom and aunts used get together during the weekends to bake bread for the week for the big family. Some weekends they would do this magnificent rollo de queso. They used to make them the size of our hands to have them as a snack straight from the oven. They would also make them big enough to feed the adults, cutting the rollo de queso in nice slices. I love this bread for the amount of cheese inside and for the soft and crumbly pastry exterior. As kids we all sat next to each other to enjoy our rollo de queso. We usually ate them for breakfast or tea time. Here in Maine in the winter I eat them all the time!

Rollo de Queso

Serves 2 large rollo de queso

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 Tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp crisco

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

2 cups of grated Monterrey Jack cheese, (in Bolivia we use Menonita, San Javier or Queso Fresco)

2 egg whites

3 egg yolks

Cooking Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F

Mix the flour with the baking powder and set aside

In a large bowl mix together sugar, salt, 2 egg yolks and crisco, until it is well mixed. Add the warm milk slowly, combining with the flour until you have a nice soft dough. Divide the dough in two and let the cool for 20 min.

Meanwhile beat egg whites until hard (punto nieve). Add the cheese, mix, and set aside.

Roll the dough on top of parchment paper, until it’s thin

Add half of the egg whites and cheese in the center of the dough.

Fold one of the ends to the middle and the fold the other end on top.

Repeat the same with the other half of the dough and egg cheese mix.

Brush both of them with the remaining egg yolk and bake it at 350 for 45 min.

I love them when they just come out of the oven! You can freeze them and re-heat them before eating. Enjoy!

Mar 21 2012

Sonzo

This Delicious pastry is made with 3 simple ingredients and is really easy to make. I modified the final presentation a little, it would usually be finished on a grill, but I cooked it an oven. Usually in Bolivia, we enjoy Sonzo in the afternoon with a cup of black coffee. I love having it Sonzo the cold days in Maine as a side dish.

Sonzo

Serves 6

Ingredients:

3 Large Yuca roots ( Yuca is a long root that has hard skin and cooks like a potato)

1 1/2 Cup of grated Monterrey Jack cheese, (in Bolivia we use Menonita, San Javier or Queso Fresco)

2 tbsp of unsalted butter and little bit more to butter the baking dish.

Cooking Instruction

Butter a 9″ round pie dish or a 8×8″ square dish

Peel the yuca roots. Cut the roots in 3 pieces and cut each piece in half. Put them in a pot and boil for about 20 min.

Once the yuca roots are cooked, take the middle parts out of the yuca and mash them as if they were potatos.

Add the butter and keep mixing. Add half of the cheese to form a a nice soft dough. Heat the oven to 350 F

Put half of the dough in the baking dish and sprinkle half of the cheese on. Pour the other half of the cheese on and sprinkle the rest on the dish. Bake for 30 min and broil for 5 min or until the cheese is golden at the top. Serve warm.