Daring Cooks: Gumbo - Let the good times roll!

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

 All in all we did get the option of choosing from different recipes or perhaps changing some ingredients. I found a good amount of quality meat in the fridge and decided to do a Steak Gumbo, thanks to thepioneerwoman.com for the recipe =)

I excluded some of the spices since my mom doesn't eat spicy food and decided to make some clasic smashed potatoes, the bread in the picture was particuarly nice because it had all type of peruvian grains which made it extra crunchy. yum!

Since everyone in the family loved the soft feel of the meat and the slight spiciness of the stew it is definitely a recipe that I will make again, perhaps changing the oil roux for a butter roux since this one got a bit burnt (it didn't affect the taste greatly but it did give of a particular smell =/), tasted very good though! A real most do! (again xD)

~Karina

Daring Bakers: Maple Mousse served in an edible container

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

As always my love for bite sized food...

Arroz Zambito for Semana Santa

I do not know much of where this tradition starts, I'm told that in England it was mandatory for royalty to help the poor by giving them a small bag of alms before the Mass that day; I'd like to think this was the origin of the Holy Thursday dessert festival that occurs on my house -without delay- right before going out to Visit the Churchs. (I swear in my head this makes sense!)

It all starts with a nice Friday's soup for lunch, this is as it's name says a soup made for the Holy Friday but we like it so much we see it fitting, anyway, afterwards we prepare an arrangement of different local desserts that normally include arroz con leche, mazamorra morada and mazamorra de leche, all of which is eaten with a big yummy cinammon bun.

This year my father asked for an specific dessert and of course I felt it was my time to help out and came out with a nice dose of Arroz zambito, another type of pudding and delicious to the last bit!

This is my own take on the recipe.