American apple pie

Dough:

2 cups of flour
2 tbspoons of sugar
150g of butter
4-6 tbspoons of water


Mix the flour, sugar and butter with 2 forks or a potato masher. Add the water little by little until you get a soft, homogeneous dough.

Filling

4-5 acid apples, cut in thin slices
cinnamon
1 cup of sugar
butter
1/2 lime

Put the slices on a bowl and squeeze the lime on them (to prevent them getting brown). Add the sugar, cinnamon and butter mix it all very well.

On a pie tray (better if it has removable bottom), spread the dough with your fingers (remember to leave some behind to make the cover). On a clean counter, sprinkle flour and open the left over dough, in the shape of a circle, big enough to cover the pie.

Fill the pie tray with the apple slices, putting them all in the same direction until you fill the bottom. Procede in the same maner until you are out of slices. Spread the juice that is left behind in the bowl on top of the apple slices. Cover with the dough circle and merge the edges of the pie in the tray and the cover. With a knife, cut little incisions in a radial fashion (about 5 to 7 will do) so the vapour can escape. To make it look better, you can spread some egg yolk on the cover, to give it a brown look after it's baked

Bake it in medium heat (170C) for about 45 min or until golden

As an alternative, you can use bananas and walnuts for the filling and serve it with squirty cream.

Pic: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8OjlgwDpYONTe6I_7oWGCmxV2XdqXYTG61jBEc8lGDlgz4o3QHG2X58zy3mKfj2jNB5R-p635cZiH9FYZrCQaJHyFDwaI4G3G1dSmNgGJDUhr_FLiU5HRBACPnUjSF37cE3q2ug3Psim/s400/torta+de+ma%C3%A7%C3%A3.jpg

Hot Chilli Sauce for Gumbo

Goes with the Chicken Gumbo

15 habanero (scotch bonnet) chillies, roughly chopped
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted and mashed
240ml English mustard
50g brown sugar
60ml white wine vinegar
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chilli powder
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together then purée in a blender before funnelling into a bottle. Place in the fridge and allow to stand in the fridge for at least two weeks before using. Store in the fridge (but it will keep for ages).

Creole Seasoning

This is what brings the Gumbo to life!

2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried thyme leaves
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp celery seed
5 tbsp sweet paprika

Add all the ingredients to a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until well-combined. Place in a jar and store in your spice cupboard (this will keep for several months).

Chicken Gumbo Recipe

That's a lot of Gumbo. If you cut the ingredients in half you still get a decent "serves 4" recipe.

2 whole, boned, chicken breasts

6 strips bacon, cut into 2.5cm pieces
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1l chicken stock
6 plum tomatoes chopped
100g sweetcorn (best if from the cob)
300g okra, cut into 1cm pieces
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery sticks, chopped
70g uncooked rice
1.2l water

Hot Chilli Sauce to season
black pepper to season
Creole Seasoning, to season
parsley to garnish

Fry the bacon in a large pan then remove and set aside. Dredge the chicken in the flour and brown on all sides in the pan. Pour the chicken broth over the browned chicken in the pan and bring to a boil. Add all the remaining ingredients (except the seasonings - last 4 itens on the list above) and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and season before serving (add the bacon back at the end of cooking if you wish).

Pic: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB50dpiBNDBg2rCt5qF7U3vdl3zNk3gNCPNGA9smJPa2ASh541H1n3ysXr5qi3P8JMb0is2Q_ItPzqmXSCh_m06U_d1XXHGtcyEvKKwSrKNtahoFfySFhABZdcibYMESjec6L6Q6ZTqbfV/s400/Chicken+Gumbo.jpg

My cheating kind of gumbo soup

I watched Jamie Oliver's road trip to America last week and the Louisiana soup seemed quite nice. I decided to give it a try but I didn't have most of the ingredients (specially not the holly trinity ingredients). So I made this soup, inspired by what I saw. It is nothing like the Louisiana soup, but oh....It was soooo good we couldn't stop eating.


1/2kg of chicken drumsticks and thighs
3 tbspoons of oil
1 onion chopped finnely
coriander (a small handfull)
chives (about 4 tbspoons)
parsley (about 4 tbspoons)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
loddon or chopped bacon (2-3 pieces)
ground chilli
juice of 2 limes
2 cubes of chicken stock
3-4 sliced tomatoes
100g of sweet corn
1L to 1.3L of water (depends on the amount of broth you want)
1 handful of kale

Fry the onion, chives, parsley, coriander, bacon, garlic and chicken until the onion is soft (about 2-3 min). Add the water and the chicken chubes. When it boils, add all the other ingredients apart from the kale. Let it cook for 30 min and add the kale, letting it cook for 5 more minutes.

Serve in a soup plate/bowl with rice on the botton and the stew on top.

Chicken nuggets

How to make it from scratch!!

12 units

1/2 bread (roll)
1/8 cup of water
350 of chicken breast, torn appart
1/2 onion
1/8 cup of double cream
2 tbspoons of parsley
salt

bread crums
oil (enough to fry)

add the water to the bread and mix all the other ingredients (except the bottom 2). Mix it well untill you have a homogeneous mix. Divide it in 12 parts. Mold each nugget (the way you prefer) and put them in the bread crums, frying them in hot oil.

Oatmeal and raisins cookies

American recipe that I found here:

Time of preparation: 40 min
A lot of cookies from this recipe!

3 1/2 cups of rolled oats
1 1/2 cup of raisins
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of butter
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 egg
1 tspoon of baking soda
1 tspoon of vanilla extract
1 tspoon of salt
1 tbspoon of cinnamon

Right, the first difference from the video is that I abolished the use of coconut and I used cinnamos. I tried it first as the chef suggested but I didn't like the result. This way was better (according to my husband!)

So, first, mix the sugar and the butter until you get a cream. Add the egg and the vanilla extract, the baking soda, flour, salt and cinnamon. Mix it thouroughly. Turn off the mixer and add the raisins and the oats and mix it with a spoon.

Make a small ball with the contents of about 2 tbspoons of the mix and bake it on a silicon tray or on a teflon sheet, gas mark 4 or 5 (I had to use 6 for 15 min).

American Pancakes

135g/4¾oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
To serve: maple syrup

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
2. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter (or two if your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). It will seem very thick but this is how it should be. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.
4. Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.
5. Serve with lashings of real maple syrup and extra butter if you like.

For extra-fluffy pancakes substitute self-raising flour for plain flour and still use the baking powder.

2. Add a large handful of fresh blueberries to the batter before cooking.

You can also add one teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the buckwheat batter and serve with caramelised apple slices and thick double cream.