HI, I´M STILL HERE!

As you know, this blog hasn´t been updated for a while. I´m trying to find the time and the strengh to keep Plates and Dishes updated, but life keeps pushing me in other directions and the recipes left behind are so many, that i don´t know where to start. Any way, you can always visit Pratos e Travessas and if you want any recipe in english you just have to email me.

Talk to you soon, i hope!

IRVINE WELSH´S RICH CHOCOLATE CAKE

Whenever i go to the hypermarket, i like to take a walk by the area dedicated to books and magazines looking for something that might interest me and a few weeks ago, i´ve founded a book that i already knew and that i like, at an irresistible price. Without thinking twice, i brought it home with me. The booh is" Kafka´s soup", and is a compilation of 14 recipes "to the fashion of" famous names of world literature, with the particularity of each recipe to be described through a story that in turn, represents perfectly the literary style of the author. So we have for example, "eggs with tarragon a la Jane Austen", or "boneless birds a la Marquis de Sade" this recipe with some erotic connotations!..., or "rich chocolate cake a la Irvine Welsh", which is precisely the recipe that I bring you today. This was perhaps the recipe that first called my atencion . "Rich chocolate cake", just reading this, and i started to crave forit, and the story is hillarious. As for the cake, it was worth trying. The cake is very rich and strong, delicious for greedy adults (like me) but not very suitable for children because it´s made with coffee and alcoholic beverages.

To finish, one more observation, I did half the recipe, by finding that perhaps i was going to end up with big cake and i didn´t want to run great risks, after all, i didn´t know if i was going to like it or not but it is worth doing the full recipie, because it´s very good.

Have a good weekend!

Ingredients:

250 gr. of butter

500 gr. caster sugar

40 gr. cocoa

250 ml. coffee

150 gr. of milk chocolate, broken into pieces

2 eggs

275 gr. flour

375 ml. of Port wine

To cover:

200 gr. of dark chocolate broken into pieces

100 gr. powdered sugar (I´ve used regular sugar)

100 ml. of cream

100 ml of Kahlua (optional)

How to make:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 °, gas mark 6.

In a large pan put the butter to melt.

Add the sugar and let dissolve.

Add the cocoa powder, stir and add the chocolate milk, let melt.

Add the coffee, stir and remove the pan from fire.

Let cool slightly and add eggs, stir, add the flour and then the Port, stir well.

Grease 1 large or 2 small cake tins with butter and dust with flour.

If the tins are not springform, you better cover the bottom with parchment paper.

Take to the oven for 45 to 50 m. + Or -.

Do the toothpick test.

Remove from the oven.

To cover, put the chocolate with the cream to melt in bain marie.

Add the sugar and Kahlua and let dissolve, stirring all the time.

Cover the cake or cakes with this chocolate sauce.

BRIGADEIROS

When last Wednesday, i thought about doing something sweet to mark the birthday of my youngest son, brigadeiros seamed the right kind of sweets to make .

As the birthday party will be at the weekend, with the traditional birthday cake and everything else, to Wednesday, the idea was to make a few sweets, small and easy to prepare.

Brigadeiros are really impossible for children to resist them. If my son were here beside me, he would already be saying that he is not a child, but a pre-teen! But it is not necessary to be a child to enjoy brigadeiros. And believe me, i really know what i´m talking about!

Have a good weekend.

Ingredients:

1 can of condensed milk cooked (or 1 can of condensed milk raw, cooked for 30 m. in the pressure cooker)

3 tablespoon of chocolate powder

1 teaspoon of butter

Chocolate granules to cover

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients well, put the mixture in a pan and take to a gentle heat, always stirring, until you can see the bottom of the pan.

Let cool.

Put the chocolate granules in a small bowl.

With wet hands, make small balls of chocolate dough and place them inside the bowl with the chocolate granules.

Cover the balls well in chocolate.

Put the brigadeiros in little paper cases.

Eat when and how many you want !

FALACHAS

At Christmas, when my father came from Lamego, he brought me chestnut flour and told me about these chestnut flour cakes that are traditionally eaten at the feast of St. Brás. The name of these cakes is Falachas.

With the chestnut flour, my father also bought me, chestnut tree leaves, because it is on top of them that Falachas are cooked in the oven, and some information about these traditional cakes. I would like to thank Alda, whom i still do not know personally, for everything she has sent to me through my father, including information on falachas wich i did not know until then, thank you!

The Falachas are made with dried chestnuts (castanhas piladas ) flour, wheat flour, sugar, water and salt, but there isn´t a certain recipe and so the variations are many.

They are a flattened type of cake. As far as I know, is supposed to be of medieval origin and were made in the homes of farmers as a replacement for the bread, in times of shortage of cereals. Without a recipe to follow, what I did was follow my instinct and I must say that my instinct did not let me down!

I never ate the Falachas that are sold on the feast of St. Brás, so i don´t even have a term of comparison, but the ones i´ve made at home, tasted delicious. It's like eating roast chestnuts in the form of a sweet cake. They are a marvel with a glass of geropiga or a good red wine.

Ingredients:

200 gr. dried chestnut flour

100 gr. wheat flour

100 gr. caster sugar

200 ml water

1 teaspoon salt

Cinnamon to dust (optional)

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 200º, gas mark 6.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Cover the bottom of a baking sheet with chestnut tree leaves.

Make medium balls with the dough and flatten them.

Put the Falachas in the baking sheet and take to the oven.

Bake until golden brown.

To see if the cakes are baked, knock on their base. If the sound is hollow, they are ready, if not put them in the oven for a bit more.

Let the Falachas cool a little and dust them with cinnamon.

ROASTED BUTTERNUTSQUASH WITH PRESUNTO AND OREGANO

Although in this past week, i didn´t had much free time, on Saturday and on Sunday i finnaly found the time to cook a little.

My mother always had the habit of making Sunday roasts, as so many other woman of her generation.

I obviously, am not from my mother´s generation, but in spite of that, i also love that tradition, although i´m not always in the mood to make a full traditional Sunday roast. It all depends on the mood of the moment and the will (or the lack of it) to cook.

Yesterday by chance, the mood and the will to cook, joined together and the result was a lovely Sunday roast to continue the tradition!

To serve with the roasted loin of pork i roasted some butternut squash with presunto and oregano.

I love this roasted squash.

I love the sweetness and softness of the pulp of the squash in contrast with the saltiness of the presunto and the crisp of the squash peel and the roasted presunto.

The oregano adds that special toutch!

It´s delicious!

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash, without the seeds and cut into slices ( don´t remove the peel)

Slices of presunto

Dried oregano

Olive oil

Black pepper, freshly grounded

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 200º, gas mark 6.

Roll each slice of squash in a slice of presunto.

Put the squash in an oven dish and season with black pepper to taste.

I don´t use salt in this recipe, because the presunto is already very salty.

Drizzle with olive oil to taste.

Put in the oven.

After 30 minutes, take from the oven and sprinkle with the oregano.

Put back in the oven and roast for more 15 minutes + or - , or until tender.

Serve with a lovely roast.

PIG CHEEKS IN BALSAMIC VINEGAR AND CLOVES

This is a very simple recipe, but it´s also delicious.The balsamic vinegar and cloves give a unique taste to the pig cheeks.

In our household we all love this dish!

Ingredients:

6 pig cheeks

4 tbs balsamic vinegar

3 cloves

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion cut in rounds

2 garlis cloves

Salt and black pepper to taste

How to make:

Season the meat with the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Leave it for an hour or so.

Put the olive oil in a pan and take it to the heat.

When hot, add the onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes, until soft but not brown.

Add the meat and cook evenly until it turns slightly browned.

Add the vinegar from the marinade to the pan and also a little bit of water, season with a little bit more of salt, if you think it needs it, add the cloves, let it come to a boil and cover with a lid.

Cook for 30 minutes or until the meat is tender, mixing now and then.

Add a little bit more of water, if it needs it, but not much.

When the meat is tender, remove it from the pan and smash the onion and garlic, remove also the cloves.

Sift the gravy.

If you want the gravy more thick, you can take it to the heat to reduce a little.

Serve the pig cheeks with mash potatoes and gravy.

HOT CHOCOLATE AND CHURROS

The cold makes itself felt everywhere.

They were 7 in the morning when I woke up and as always, the first thing I did was to look out for the garden and the kitchen garden. I like to see the birds looking for food on the ground. But today there were no birds, because the land was covered by a thin mantle of frost. The live green of chard and broccoli gave place to a pale green and only to look out there, cold for me has become even colder.

Well these days, ask for a good hot chocolate and hot chocolate, asks for hot churros .

As it was still early, i closed the kitchen door so the rest of the family could continue to sleep. And while the chocolate melted in the stove, i quickly made the dough for the churros and then fried them.
At 7:30, i woke up my husband and youngest son, and sat down to drink my chocolate and eat my churros. I can only say that my peace and quiet lasted very little. At 8.o0 a. m. i was still walking with a cup of hot chocolate ( not so hot anymore) on my hand . Only when i was home alone is that I finally, finished my extravagant breakfast. But why do i do this things, at 7:00 on a morning?

Have a nice weekend!

Ingredients for the hot chocolate:

1 cup of milk

100 gr. of dark chocolate cut into pieces

1 stick of cinnamon

2 tablespoon of sugar or to taste

1 pinch of chilli powder (optional)

1 tablespoon of corn starch (optional)

Preparation:

In a saucepan, put the milk, chocolate, sugar (I used 2 tablespoons but you may use the amont you want) and the stick of cinnamon.

Take to the heat and let the chocolate melt, stirring occasionally.

If you want to thicken the chocolate to dip the churros, dissolve the corn starch in a little bit of milk and add to the chocolate, stirring until thicken.

Serve immediately.

I did not thicken the chocolate, instead i sprinkled it with a little bit of chilli powder to make it more intense and slightly spicy.

Ingredients for the churros:

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

2 tablespoon of butter

1 pinch of salt

2 cups flour

3 beaten eggs

1 lemon peel

Oil for frying

Icing sugar

Ground Cinnamon

Preparation:

Bring water, milk, lemon peel, butter and pinch of salt to the boil.

When boiling, remove the pan from fire and add the flour, stirring quickly.

Put back on the fire and stir until you have a ball of dough , loosening up from the walls of the pan.

Take the dough out of the pan and let it cool a bit.

Add eggs and beat with electric beater, until soft .

Put the dough in a pastry bag with a big nozzle .

Take a fryingpan with enough oil to the heat .

When the oil is hot, squeeze the pastry bag into the frying pan, so you end up with little churros .

Turn several times to fry well.

The truth is that to make churros just perfect even with a churreira but to eat at home, on a cold, until they knew very well!

After fried, put the churros in kitchen paper.

Put them into a plate and sprinkle with icing sugar and ground cinnamon .

Eat preferably hot.