Saturday, August 25, 2012

Nicaraguan Taste + Arroz A La Valenciana

Derivative from the Paella Valenciana, another great bond between cultures represented in a dish. Often made for parties Arroz A La Valenciana is one very delicious dish, just right for any occasion where you have many guests.

Delicious and it makes you feel satisfied with just a small portion, served with bread this is a piece of cake when it come to difficulty and it's something you can make together with your family, friends etc...  

serves 6


For this you will need

One can of petit puas
500g Rice
A quarter of a onion
A quarter of a green bell pepper
3 Medium carrots
600g Chicken breasts
400g Tomato sauce
5 tbs Worcestershire sauce
4 tbs Mustard 
2 tbs Butter
2 Garlic cloves
4 Hot dogs
Salt to taste

To cook





First cut your chicken breasts in big chunks as usual, and in a medium pot with water place your chicken chunks put them to boil, remove any foam that appears and when you're done removing the foam and in your onion, garlic, bell pepper and salt to taste

Continue to boil for 5 mins in a medium heat the and take out the chicken and place in a bowl to cool.

 Meanwhile is cooling, get chopping your carrots make very small cubes but not too small because if you chop them too small they will puree and you want them visible, slice your hot dogs as shown in the picture below.

Once you're done proceed to mince up the chicken slices, as with the carrots do not mince them too thin you want to taste the chicken


Make your rice here's is the link to how to make rice once you're done come back to continue the recipe











Add the tomato and worcestershire sauce with the mustard add a knob of butter as shown in the picture and mix in. Boil your chopped carrots for 3 mins in a medium high heat, rinse them well (do so with the petit puas)add your petit puas also your sliced hot dogs and mix well everything.




Once you mixed everything it should look like this, it contains a lot of tomato sauce so be quite generous with it and don't be scared by the amount of tomato sauce.

After this step you are very near to finish.

Add oil to a wide and deep pan (a wok should be fine) and add the chicken mix saute the chicken a little to get some color on it, do this for 4 to 6 mins in a medium heat then add your previously cooked rice.

Stir well until  the rice is no longer white, the rice should be a little bit sloppy just like a paella.

Turn off the heat and serve with white bread.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do and if you like it then why not share it and like it.

Thanks!






Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Working !

You'll probably see that I'm changing the blog template a lot, the recipes and so on well I'm working on my own new template so the blog may be a little bit messy this week but I'm just trying to give it a nice background so I'm going crazy about that hehe also I'm working on a Spanish version so if you have any friends that speak Spanish then please share the news!

I'll try to keep on and hopefully this next week I'll be teaching you how to make tortillas! or maybe Arroz a la Valenciana, so whatever I make I hope you like it and if you do then why not share this blog it means a lot and it helps me a lot too.

Also just to share some news, I'm getting viewed and some contacts are popping out I want to thank everyone that has trusted me, and had a very nice experience, this for me is my dream, and I want to represent my country my culture and show the world of my humble and beautiful land.

Oh and I almost forgot you may LOL if you read this, but if somehow you're Gordon Ramsay or Graham Elliot please let me know in twitter, I know I've been spamming like crazy but my mother told me to... I'm innocent!

So as always enjoy your stay in my blog if you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments Take care!




Monday, August 13, 2012

Nicaraguan Taste + Arroz Aguado


Arroz Aguado it's one very simple straight-forward dish, easy to make and delicious!, Like a Nicaraguan risotto, it's perfect for when you want something simple and comfy. It can be make with pork and beef, literally meaning "watery rice" Arroz Aguado is a lovely dish

It's main ingredients are rice and tomato, here I will add one twist, from my grandma's kitchen and I'll show you how to make the prefect Arroz Aguado.

Note: One thing I'd like to say is that I for chicken dishes I use chicken breasts only, although the recipes uses other parts, sadly I can't get hold of a entire chicken here, but if you're using chicken breasts keep in mind that you'll use less than if you're cooking with chicken legs, if you're using legs you'll probably need 2 kg  assuming two legs per portion.

Also my grandmother adds in chicken consume so if you want you can add it, but it's not the traditional way of making it, and if you're using it add it when you add the chicken stock as I'll show you below

serves 4

For this you will need

2 kg Chicken legs with their thighs
500 g Rice
4 Tomatoes
Spearmint
1 Quarter of an onion
1 Quater of a bell pepper
2 Garlic cloves
Salt
Chicken consume (optional)
To cook

                                                                                                                                                                                                           









In a medium pot, put the chicken legs to boil.
If you're using breasts cut the breast in nice thick chunks.



Once the chicken is boiling remove any blood and foam, that appears you need to take it all out because we are going to use the chicken stock so it's important to keep it as clean as possible.




Once you've removed all foam add in your onion, pepper, garlic and salt to taste, boil for a further 5 mins at a medium heat  and then take off the heat and set aside











Grab your tomatoes and grate 3, this is my grandma trick because it gives it a nice color and texture also because it's not so nice to find a tomato shell between the rice and it makes it more elegant. However it's originally made with sliced tomatoes, we'll slice the tomato we have left to give it a classy look. although if you don't want to it's fine too.

In a bigger pot pour in oil and add you rice, in a medium high heat when the rice grains are white add the grated tomatoes, stir well and then add your chicken stock and the chicken.














Let it simmer down, and cook at a medium low heat, if it's starts to get dry add in more water but not too much just the right amount to cover up again the rice.















When the rice has burst, add your sliced tomato and the spearmint, and here come in the game the onion, the bell pepper and the garlic, slice your bell pepper and just tear apart the onion shells and add in the garlic, adding back those ingredients makes the whole thing more flavorful and adds some colors to the Arroz Aguado.

Finally cook for further 5 to 8 mins and serve!


I hope you enjoy this recipe, and don't forget to leave a comment with your suggestions! and if you like it then why not share this recipe it helps me a lot. Thanks






Monday, August 6, 2012

Nicaraguan Taste + Basics + Rice

Nicaraguan cuisine uses many dishes as bases for others, so sometimes you'll see that I ask you to do for example rice the way we do it, and for us rice is as important as it is for Asiatic countries like China or Thailand.

But the thing is that for me is a little bit difficult to upload the same rice recipe every time so I made this basics so your life and my life are easier to handle when it comes to cooking Nicaraguan food.!

So the first basic for almost any Nicaraguan dish is rice, as I mentioned above rice is one of our base ingredients, so here's how we make it

For this you will need

400 g Jasmine rice
A quarter of an onion
A quarter of a green bell pepper
Salt
Water
Oil

To cook 



In a wide pot, pour oil until the surface of the pot is covered by the oil, then put in the rice, the onion and the bell pepper, and water until the rice is covered by the water 5 cm above it, if you add more water it will get doughy when cooked, if add less water then it will not cook properly so you've got to be a little precise there.

Once you added the water and in 2 tbs of salt, stir the rice so the salt and the oil mix well bring to the boil.



When it starts to boil lower the heat to a medium heat and cook until the rice is dry once is dry remove the onion and the bell pepper, turn the rice clockwise so the rice on top gets to the bottom so it cooks evenly put a lid on and cook for further 2 to 3 mins.



Then remove the pan from the heat and serve !