Avocado-Dressed Shrimp a la Mexicana Tostada

Finally it's that time of the month again Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs. Because i wanted to make this recipe ever since i saw it a few weeks ago but the time wasn't right untill now ofcourse! I made this as an appetizer but i made really small bitsize tostadas and if there wouldn't have been anybody else around i could have eaten them all by myself;-).

To make small tostadas i used a cookie cutter to cut out small rounds from big tortilla's(The leftovers i didn't use this time but there are options enough to do that). Baking small tortillas is another option ofcourse but i was lazy and used storebought tortillas this time around. If you want to make youre own here is the recipe.

The taste of this small tostada is fenominal! The combination of shrimp, avocado and lime do the trick for me. Although my avocado wasn't totally ripe yet, but this recipe is a winner for me and will be my go to summer appetizer this year.


Avocado-Dressed Shrimp a la Mexicana Tostada

Camarones a la Mexicana con Aguacate

Makes about 4 cups, enough for 15 tostadas, serving 15 as a nibble or light appetizer

Rick Bayless Recipe from Season 6 of Mexico - One Plate at a Time

Ingredients

12 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) medium-small, peeled-and-deveined cooked shrimp
1 medium white onion, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large tomato, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (you should have a generous cup)
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
Hot green chiles to taste (usually 3 serranos or 1 to 2 jalapenos), stemmed and roughly chopped
1 medium avocado, pitted, flesh scooped from the skin and chopped
1/3 cup (loosely packed) chopped cilantro, plus sprigs for garnish
Salt

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the shrimp, onion and tomato. Measure the lime juice into a food processor or blender. Cover and turn on. Drop in the chile(s) and, when chopped, turn off and scoop in the avocado and cilantro. Blend until smooth. Thin to a "creamy dressing" consistence with water (usually 2 to 3 tablespoons). Taste and season with salt, usually about 1 teaspoon. (You will have about 1 1/2 cups.)
Mix the dressing into the shrimp mixture. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the shrimp a la mexicana and refrigerate. When you're ready to serve, scoop into a serving bowl, decorate with a cilantro sprigs and it's ready.

Blueberry streusel coffee cake - THB

I started a new baking challenge with The Home Bakers six weeks ago hosted by Joyce of kitchen flavours. Read all about the home bakers and feel free to join!

Our third bake together is the Blueberry streusel coffee cake as seen on the cover of the book, it is chosen by Chaya of Bizzy bakes. You can see the original recipe here.

This cake was easy to make. I really liked it but most of the people that got to taste it liked the streusel topping most of it. Lucky for me that blueberrys aren't hard to get overhere, but some other participants could not get them easily. The dough was made with all purpose and whole-wheat flour so it would be great in the morning as a breakfast to.

Instead of using half a cup of granulated sugar i only added a quart cup of sugar, because the topping would be very sweet also. Eating the topping together with the cake was just the right amound of sweetness for me.
Used yogurt and not buttermilk just because i had it in my fridge.
Blueberry are easy to get fresh or frozen, i used frozen blueberries. Instead of 2 whole cups i only added 1 and a half cup because my boyfriend doen't like blueberries.

Baking this cake i bought myself a 8 inch springform baking pan. Where if the cake was ready i could easily slight the cake from the bottom and that worked verry well.





About The Home Bakers

We are a group of home bakers who share the same passion in baking and we love collecting cookbooks! Most of us would probably have tried out about 2 or 3 recipes from some of the books that we own and these books somehow got pushed back till later or kinda forgotten, as we collect more cookbooks along the way! So at THB, we will bake from one cookbook only, until every recipe has been baked. This will not only fully utilized your cookbook to the maximum, but it will widen your baking skills, and learn more about baking as we share our experiences together. Come join us as we venture into the exciting world of baking right in our own kitchen haven. The challenge of The Home Bakers is to complete every recipe from one chosen cookbook. This will be an easier challenge if we are baking and sharing our experiences together. There's always something new to learn about baking.

The Chosen Book
We are currently baking from "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas, who has written more than 50 cookbooks. "Coffee Cakes" is a beautiful cookbook with various bakes covering Sunday Brunch Cakes, Everyday Morning Cakes, Savory Picnic Cakes, Bundt Party Cakes and Delectable Dessert Cakes, a total of 60 wonderful recipes. Just by taking a peek at this book, would make you want to bake each and every recipes!

Fresh Corn Chowder with roasted peppers - Crema de Elote

Yellow i need some more of that lovely color in my live at this moment, it makes me happy!
When i saw this weeks cooking them at I Heart Cooking Clubs and that we would be celebrating yellow foods this week. "Yellow ingredients and/or yellow dishes! Eat the rainbow, right? Don't forget yellow! Red gets all the attention these days, give yellow some love! "
Yesterday when i was running true authentic mexican the sun started shining after a rainy spring "so far", and sudddenly there was a lot of yellow. When i found this recipe for corn chowder.

The chowder was very lovely and i am going to make this one again, because even my boyfriend really liked this soup and he usually doesn't like soup that much. The sweetness of the corn together with the spicy serrano pepper is a great combo.

 
Fresh corn chowder with roasted peppers
Crema de Elote

Rick Bayless, Authentic mexican
Yield: about 1 quart, 4 servings

Ingredients

2½ to 3 cups frozen corn, defrosted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled an minced
1½ tablepoons cornstarch
2 cups milk, plus a little more if necessary
2 fresh chiles poblanos Serranos, roasted and peeled, seeded and finely diced
1 cup thick cream or whipping cream
salt, about 1 teaspoon
½ cup crumbled mexican queso fresco or other fresh cheese like feta
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Preparing the corn. Simply place the defrosted corn in the blender or foodprocessor and puree it.

The corn puree. Heat half of the butter in a small skillet over medium. Add the onion and fry untill soft, 6 or 7 minutes, then stir in the garlic and cook a minute longer. Scrape the mixture into the corn in the blender or processor, along with the cornstarch and ¼ cup water. Process until smooth.
Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium-large saucepan set over medium heat. Add the corn puree and stir constantly for several minutes, untill quite thick.

Finishing the soup. Whisk in the milk, partially cover and simmer 15 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring often.
When the soup is ready, strain it trough a medium-mesh sieve. Rinse out the pan, return the strained soup to it and stirin the diced pepper and cream. Season with salt and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes longer, stirring frequently.
When you are ready to serve, thin the soup with additional milk if it is thicker than heavy cream, then ladle into small, warm soup bowls. Garnish with the cheese and chopped parsley, and serve at once.

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Guacamole Sencillo - Simple Guacamole

After one month cooking with Rick Bayless, i still am a newbie to mexican cooking so nothing hass changed yet. But i have been choosing recipe of wich i could get the ingredients easily because i still haven't found a good source of jalapenos, pobalonos, tomatillos or mexican cheese. So the only green pepper i can buy is the green serrano pepper . So i made up my mind and now the substituting is" on" because otherwise i would not have a real impression of the mexican kitchen after six months. I know serranos aren't the same as Jalapeno, padron or poblano pepers but wat else am i supossed to do. I really enjoyed mexican cooking so far and it can only become better.

This weeks theme for cooking along with the I Heart Cooking Clubs is For mom! And ofcourse its all about pampering the mom in your live! I decided to treat my mom on some homemade guacamole another mexican basic i wanted to learn. I had guacamole before but never made my own and it tasted so much better then store bought(never going to do that again after this). Real easy to make to. My mum really liked it too, although mothersday still has to come;-)

Simple Guacamole

Guacamole sencillo

Rick bayless, as seen here

Serves 8 to 12 as a snack

Ingredients

2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled
Hot fresh green chiles to taste (I’d choose 2 serranos), stems removed
3 ripe avocados, preferably the black-skinned Hass
A couple of tablespoons chopped fresh Mexican herbs (such as cilantro, pipisa or papalo)
1 small white onion (fresh knob onion—green tops still on—is best), finely chopped
Salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
A little crumbled Mexican fresh cheese (queso fresco) for garnish Had to use greek feta
A sliced radish or two for garnish

Directions

Finely chop the garlic and green chiles, and scoop them into a bowl.

One at a time, run a knife down through each avocado, starting at the top, until you reach the pit; continue cutting around the pit until you reach the point you started.

Twist the two halves of the avocado apart. Remove the pit and discard. Scoop the flesh into the bowl with the chiles. Mash coarsely with the back of a spoon or an old-fashioned potato masher.

Add the herbs and onion, stir to combine, then taste. Season with salt (usually about a teaspoon) and lime juice. Scoop into a serving dish and garnish with cheese and radishes.

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Mexican Horchata: Almond-rice cooler

This week at I Heart cooking clubs we are cooking with the theme earth day. Any recipe with use of products grown from the earth is allowed. Should i make something with fruit or root vegetables, No rice is grown from the earth too.We eat a lot of rice but i never had it as a drink. So i decided on this Recipe for Horchata; Almond-Rice cooler. It made me curious, how would it taste?

Rick Bayless says" This has the simplest and most familair flavors of the three most common aguas frescas: a slightly chalky, thirst-quenching refreshment with a flavor reminiscent of rice pudding. This drink is light and rich - exceptionally good hot-weather party fare, poured over ice."

Almond rice cooler
Rick Bayless, authentic mexican

Yield: about 1½ quarts, 6 to 7 servings

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons rice
6 ounces blanched almonds
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 2-inch strips of lime zest(colored rind only)
about 1 cup of sugar - sugar syrup

1. Soaking the rice and the almonds.
Thorougly pulverize the rice in a blender or spice grinder. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the almonds, cinnamon stick and lime zest. Stir in 2¼ cups of hot tap water, cover and let stand at least 6 hours or preferably, overnight.
2. Blending and straining.
Scoop the mixture into the blender jar and blend for 3 or 4 minutes, until it no longer feels very gritty. Add 2 cups of water, then blend for a few second more. Set a large sieve over a mixing bowl and line 3 layers of damp cheesecloth. Pour in the almond-rice mixture a little at a time, gently stirring to help the liquid pass trough. When all has been strained, gather up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist them together to trap the dregs inside. Squeeze the package firmly to expell all remaining liquid.
3. Finishing the Horchata.
Add 2 cups of water and stir in enough sugar to sweeten the drink to your taste. If the consistency is too thick, add additional water. Cover and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Stir before pouring.

Notes/ findings:
- The drink keeps for 5 days or more, covered and refrigerated.
- At the last moment i put in some more cinnamon, because i really like cinnamon.
- I used sugar syrup instead of sugar.
- And ofcourse i really liked this drink and Rick was wright it does taste like rice pudding!


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Apricot-Pistachio-Lemon coffee cake - THB

The past three weeks went very fast, so its time for our second baking job with The Home Bakers. The Home bakers are a new baking group that will bake from just one book only untill it's finished. Whe started out three weeks ago with the first recipe from Coffee cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas. Feel free to join in....

So this time Chris fom Yummy bakes got to pick a recipe; Apricot-pistachio-Lemon coffee cake.

I didn't feel like baking a hole cake for just the two of us so i made only a quart of the original recipe, that you can find here. I didn't have a small bund pan so i chose to pour the batter in to six smal souflle dishes/ ramekins that are about 2 inch wide and baked them for 20 minutes at 175C. 

My small individual cakes came out perfectly and tasted very nice. I think i really like apricot and pistachio together! Because it already are small round cakes i didn't need to cut the cake and that is where i got lucky with my choice of small cake pans.  The others baking this cake along with me had some difficulty with cutting the cake, because it gets crumbly because of all the apricot and pistachios in it.

There is a variation on this cake in the book: Cherry - hazelnut cake;

Follow the original recipe, substituting 1¼ cups dried cherries for the dried apricots and ¾ cup toasted and skinned hazelnuts, whole or chopped, for the pistachios.

I really liked to made the variation to but i could't find any dried cherries:-(

Come back here on the 18th of may then where baking a Blueberry streusel coffee cake.

Grilled bananas with cajeta and cream

This weeks cooking theme at the I Heart Cooking Club is sweet tooth!

Searching true the recipes of Rick Bayless i got curious about cajeta at first because i didn't know what it was but now after tasting it, i do! A very nice cinnamon flavoured caramel sauce that is verry popular in mexico i understand.

But Cajeta is better known as dulce de leche in other parts of the world.

Making the cajeta was another daring experiment for me. Again because i tried to make caramel before and i always failed in attempt. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to finish the cajeta because i was afraid it would burn or boil over(don't like all the sticky stuff on my stove top). Like Rick said it would, it turned golden but only after 1 hour and 30 minutes. And i was stirring a lot tho prevent it to stick to the bottom of he pot.

I served the cajeta with this grilled banana recipe from rick and it was lovely. substituded the dulce the leche flavoured ice for cinnamon flavoured ice cream. and sprinkled some halved pecans on top.



Grilled bananas with cajeta and cream
Serves 4
Recipe by Rick Bayless

Ingredients
4 firm, but ripe, bananas with attractive stems
Vegetable oil for brushing or spritzing
8 small scoops best-quality ice cream, preferably dulce de leche flavor
1/2 cup Mexican cajeta (goat’s milk caramel sauce)

Directions
1. Heat a gas grill to medium or prepare a charcoal fire, letting the coals burn until they are covered with a gray ash and are medium hot. Cut the bananas through the stems lengthwise in half. Brush or spritz the cut sides with oil.
2. Place the bananas on the grill cut side down directly over the heat. Cover and grill until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Turn skin side down and continue grilling until tender and bananas have pulled away from their skins, 2 to 4 minutes more.
3. Arrange 2 banana halves on each serving plate. Top each serving with 2 scoops of ice cream. Drizzle each with about 2 tablespoons of the cajeta. Serve immediately.


Cajeta
Goat's Milk Caramel Sauce
Recipe by Rick Bayless

Makes about 3 cups

INGREDIENTS
2 quarts goat's milk or a combination of goat’s milk and cow’s milk—or even with all cow’s milk (use whole milk in all cases)
2 cups sugar
A  2-inch piece of cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican canela
1/2 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

DIRECTIONS
1.  Simmer the cajeta.   In a medium-large (6-quart) pot (preferably a Dutch oven or Mexican copper cazo), combine the milk, sugar and cinnamon stick and set over medium heat.  Stir regularly until the milk comes to a simmer (all the sugar should have dissolved by this point). Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the dissolved baking soda—it’ll foam up if the goat’s milk is acidic. When the bubbles subside, return the pot to the heat.   Adjust the heat to maintain the mixture at a brisk simmer (too high and the mixture will boil over; too low and the cooking time will seem interminable). Cook, stirring regularly, until the mixture turns pale golden, more or less one hour.   Now, begin stirring frequently as the mixture colors to caramel-brown and thickens to the consistency of maple syrup (you’ll notice the bubbles becoming larger and glassier).  Stir regularly so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Test a couple of drops on a cold plate: When cool, the cajeta should be the consistency of a medium-thick caramel sauce.  If the cooled cajeta is thicker (almost like caramel candy), stir in a tablespoon or so of water and remove from the heat; if too runny, keep cooking.

2.  Finish the cajeta.   Pour the cajeta through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl or a wide-mouth storage jar.  When cool, cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.  Warming the cajeta before serving (a microwave oven is efficient here) makes it extra delicious. Working Ahead:  Cajeta keeps for a month or more in the refrigerator.  Keep it tightly covered to keep it from absorbing other flavors.



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