Torta con dulce de leche

I have discovered the new PC Dulce de Leche at Loblaws, and I decided to use it for something more interesting than just snacking on it directly from the jar, or sweeten our coffees with it. I searched around for some authentic South American recipes and I found this: Alfajor de Dulce de Leche.


Well, you must agree, it does look spectacular. But to me the dough sounded too simple, and I wasn't happy with the burned looking edges. So I decided to try another approach. I used a pancake dough that forms the basis of a traditional Hungarian dish, Csusztatott Palacsinta, or rather a variation of it of my own. For the rest I followed the Spanish recipe, using the dulce de leche and finishing it off with the whipped meringue topping. Since I don't usually have much time to spend on niceties, the topping wasn't piped on, I just smeared it on and poked peaks into it with a fork. But those peaks browned nicely, and the torte as a whole was a great success with the family, only remembering that I missed another photo opportunity after even the last crumb was gone.

But the above photo gives you a general idea, and here are my changes:

4 eggs
2 + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup cake flour
4 tablespoons butter
1 jar dulce de leche
ground nuts (I use walnuts)
2 extra egg whites

First I made sure to put out the butter a while earlier to get it to room temperature.
When ready, I separated the eggs, whites in one bowl, yolks in another. I poured the milk in a blender, added the flour and ran it until it got nice and smooth.
I beat them, and when it started to stiffen I added 2 tablespoons of sugar one by one until the mass turned into a nice shiny meringue.
I just exchanged the bowls for the one with the butter, I whipped it quickly until frothy, incorporated the yolks one by one, together with the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the 1 teaspoon vanilla. I then added the milk-flour blend, mixed it together well, and then I gently folded the whites into it.

I heated a little oil in a crepe pan, spread a 1/2 inch layer of the frothy mass into a round, and fried it at medium heat until the bottom looked golden when I lifted a corner with a fork. Notice: I only cooked one side of the pancake! The top should look a bit suspiciously undercooked. Then I flipped it frothy side down onto a plate.
While the next pancake was cooking, I spread some dulce de leche on the ready one and I sprinkled a generous amount of ground nuts over it. Flip the next pancake onto this one, frothy side down.
I repeated this process until I used up all the dough.
During the last pancake I beat the extra 2 whites with 3-4 spoonfuls of sugar (to taste) and a bit of vanilla, piled it on top of the torte, and slid it in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes to get the meringue browned on the tips.

Mine was eaten still warm :P - but you can wait for it to cool. I imagine it should be good both ways, although I, too, prefer it warm.

During my search I found another interesting recipe, Torta con le Mele e Dolce de Leche. I think I will try that, too, but I will use choux pastry for it.

Pate with white wine

There were so many things going on in the family for the last half a year now that I hardly had time for even such essential activities as cooking, let alone adding to my blogs, for a long long time. But life goes on, things do tend to ease (or is it that I just got used to the new conditions...?) and every once in a while I manage to venture away from the tried and true lightning fast lunches and dinners.

One such venture was a pate I prepared half out of memory, half using ad hoc additions. Are they innovative? Probably not. After all there isn't really anything new "under the sun". But it was a relatively new taste experience for the gang, deemed worthy of keeps even by my finicky male family members. The photo I took of the crackers is - of course - out of focus, because I had exactly two minutes to take it. But I hope the recipe itself will be found inspirational enough for at least some visitors to start them on a creative path. So here it goes:

1 lb beef liver
1/2 lb chicken liver
1 chicken breast
1 onion
chicken broth cube
1/2 ts marjoram
3 hardboiled eggs
3 tbs margarine (or rendered chicken fat)
paprika, salt, pepper
2 tbs flour
2tbs oil
1/2 c white wine

I chopped up the onion into large chunks, added the sliced up beef liver, enough water to cover, and the chicken broth cube. Brought the whole thing to boil and let it simmer for half an hour. Then I added the cubed chicken breast and kept on cooking. I also cooked the eggs, let them cool and then peeled them.

When both the liver and the meat were nice and soft, I added the chicken livers and the marjoram. After this I kept an eye on the pot and cooked it just until the chicken livers were not red any more. I took the pot off the stove and let it cool to lukewarm.

The final ingredient was a roux made of the flour and oil, fried until it became light blond, at which point I took it off the heat, waited a minute, and then I slowly stirred the wine into it. It was still sputtering a bit but it quickly cooked into a not too thick paste.

Now I put everything, meats, eggs roux, into my blender (a nice big VitaMix) and blended the pate to a smooth paste, using just enough of the cooking liquid to give it a thick pancake batter consistency. (It thickens further as it cools) I adjusted the flavouring with some extra salt, pepper, and a bit of paprika. The wine was seemingly overpowering at first, while the mix was still warm, but it became very mild and pleasing as the pate aged - which it did not have too much time to do in our house, I can imagine it getting even nicer after a day or so if given the chance.

Maroccan meatballs

Lately the growing Indiophile trend made some headways in my kitchen, too. Canada, and I suppose all of North America, is slowly turning their attention towards the Indian subcontinent. So I have been cooking lots of curries, pulaus and pakoras. But when it comes to meatballs, I return to Mediterranian tastes.

Here are the lamb koftas we had today for dinner:

- 600 g ground lamb
- 2 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- salt, pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- olive oil
- some grated lemon zest
- 1 cup(or more) water

Chop the onion, press the garlic, and mix them well with the meat. Add the spices and the lightly beaten eggs, then form the meatballs and sprinkle some flour over them.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, lightly fry the meatballs until they turn grey on the outside. Then pour the water in the pan and grate some lemon zest over them Let them cook, covered for about 20 minutes, until the balls are cooked through.

Sprinkle some chopped parsley over them and serve them with rice and toasted pine nuts.