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.

Carrot cream

30 min

500g of carrots
2 potatoes
2 onions (medium size or 1 big onion)
salt
2 tbspoon of butter
2 tbspoons of double cream
500mL of chicken stock
salt

Peel the carrots, potatoes and onions, chopping the latter finnely. Cut the potatoes in cubes (about 2 cm each side) and slice the carrots. Fry the onion on the butter until soft (2-3 min) and add the other veggies, letting them fry for 5 min. Be careful not to burn them.
Add the chicken stock and when it boils lower the heat, letting it cook for 30 min. You can top up with water to make the soup go further, but check the salt.

Blend it all to obtain a cream and return it to the hob. When it boils, turn off the heat, add the double cream and mix it. Serve it hot with parsley on top.

Plum/Prune sauce (to be served with tender loin or pork)

1 tbspoon of mustard
1/2 cup of red wine
1 can of plums (400g) or 1/2 bag of dried prunes

Blend the plums along with 1/3 cup of the syrup. If using prunes, use 1/3 cup of water. Put it in a saucepan and add the other ingredients. Let it boil, mixing it thorougly until it comes off the bottom of the pan (2-3 min after boiling). Serve with tender loin or other pork roasts.

Palm heart pie (Torta de palmito)

Time of preparation: 1 hour

doe:

This doe's name translates as "rotten doe" because it melts in the mouth. It is not an elastic doe, you have to press little pieces of doe together, following the pie tray, to mold the base.

4 tbspoons of oil
4 tbspoons of pig fat (ancient way) or 4 tbspoons of butter
10 tbspoons of water
salt
3 cups of flour
1 pinch of salt

Work the doe untill it is not stuck to your hands anymore. Most likely you'll need to add more water as you mix it, since you want one doe, not several little pieces. Remember, it never stays together like bread doe.

Let it rest for 30 and divide in 2 pieces (one is going to be the cover of the pie).



Filling:

2 tbspoons of olive oil
1 onion chopped finelly
2 cans of palm tree heart, chopped (or 1 jar - 500g) you find these items at Tesco/Sainsbury's
5 tbspoons of the palm tree heart water (the water in the can/jarr)
1 cup of chopped olives
2 tomatos, chopped
chives, parsley
salt, pepper
1 egg
flour

Heat up the olive oil and fry the onions, add the palm tree heart, the palm tree water, the olives, tomatoes, chives, parsley and a bit of pepper. Lower the heat and cover. Let it cook for 15/20 min to absorb the flavours.

Add the egg and stirr vigorously to mix it properly. The fillig needs to be thick so it doesn't run once inside the pie. If it is still a bit liquid, add 1 tbspoon of flour and mix. Continue until it thickens.

Let it cool down before you fill up the pie. NEVER put hot filling on the rotten doe for it will cook rather than bake.

Once the filling is cold, fill the pie, cover and decorate. For an extra touch, spread some yolk on the cover (to give it some colour while it bakes) and bake in a preheated over at 180C for 35 min

I'm back - Auntie's candy

Sorry for disappearing for a while....moved house to a tiny little village and it took me a while to get internet connection...

Right, recipes...this was submitted by my sister:

Auntie's candy


300g of sliced milk chocolat
250g of double cream
1 little pack of cooking gellow (no flavour), dissolved as instructed by the manufacteur
3 egg whites

4 vanilla cakes with strawberry filling (40g each)


Melt the chocolat over boiling water and add the double cream. Put it aside.

Whisk the 3 egg whites (preferably in the mixer). Add the dissolved gellow while the mixer is still running. Turn it off and add the egg whites to the chocolat cream.

Put grease paper on a cake tin (7cm height, 10cm, 22 cm lenght) and spread one layer of the chocolat cream, putting it in the fridge for 5 min to thicken. Add the vanilla cakes over the chocolat cream and cover with the rest of the cream. Leave it in the fridge for 3 hours. Take it off the tin and serve.

Corn meal soup

Time of preparation: 35 min

2 tbspoons of oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
left over meat
4 tbspoons of cornmeal
2l of boiling water
salt
pepper
stock cube (depending on the left over meat you are using: if its chicken, use chicken stock)
1 soup plate full of kale or collard green, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs

Dissolve the cornmeal in a bit of cold water. Boil the rest of the water. Put the dissolved corn meal in the boiling water. On another pan, fry the garlic, meat left over and onion. Add to the boiling soup. Add the collard green or kale and let it boil for 10 min. Whisk the eggs slightely and put then in the soup, after turning the off the hob and mix it slowly.

Serve with toasts and cheese.

The collard greens or kale can be replaced by spinach, watercress or endives.

Chicken and chorizo rice

Time of preparation: 1h30min

1 chicken carcass
1 chorizo
bacon
3 tbspoons of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves
pepper
salt
1 carrot
parsley
long grain rice
3 cloves of garlic

Cook the chiken, the chorizo and the bacon in salt water. When it boils, add the onion, cloves, carrot, pepper and parsley. Let it cook slowly (about 45 min).
Remove the chicken and remove all the meat from it. Slice the carrot and the chorizo. Chop the bacon.

Sieve the broth and remove a bit of the fat. On another pan, add the olive oil and fry the garlic. Add the rice. Add the broth from the chicken (must be double the amount of the rice). Let it boil. When the rice has absorbed most of the water, but is not entirely cooked, remove it from the hob and put it in an oven proof dish. Put half the rice, add the chicken and then the rest of the rice. On top, decorate with the chorizo, bacon and the carrot.
Bake it untill cooked. Serve it with salad