Category: International Recipes

Liège Waffles

9/12/2018

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Alicia back again with another international recipe. This month we're making food from Belgium. And today I'm sharing with you how to make the most tasty waffles. Liège waffles are yeast waffles from Belgium that have sugar pearls in them that melt when you cook them. This makes the waffles have delicious pockets of sweetness in them. You don't need syrup with these. And they're good plain too. But I made some whipped cream to eat with them. They're also good with fruit like strawberries or blueberries.

The problem is that sugar pearls are hard to come by in the states. But I think I came up with a good solution. I decided to take sugar cubes and break them up. Not into dust, but into chunks. If the sugar is too small it will just incorporate into the dough. But the chunks won't, and will leave little pockets of caramelized sugar. It's the most delicious waffle ever.

Another issue is I didn't have ground almonds as some recipes I saw called for. I substituted with ground flax. But I'm sure you can use either one or leave it out completely.

These aren't waffles you can just whip up last minute, you have to let the dough rise 3 times. But you can freeze the dough and pull them out later to make. These are special occasion waffles for sure. But well worth the work!

Liège Waffles

notice the caramelized sugar

I used just my regular Cuisinart waffle maker, not a specific Belgium Waffle maker. I like it because it has temperature controls. That's important in this recipe because you don't want to burn the sugar. Heat the iron all the way up. Put the dough in. And then turn the temperature down to low. The waffles come out perfect! I'll link to my same model below. Growing up my mom had a stovetop waffle maker which was fun and made delicious waffles which I will also link to below.

You've got to make these! You won't regret it. Let us know if you do in the comments and what you think!

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Spanish Tapas

8/29/2018

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**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But, all opinions expressed are my own.

Alicia back again with a couple more Spanish recipes for you. One is actually Catalonian, so I'll say Iberian Peninsula recipes for you.

This time I decided to do tapas. Tapas is a small portion of food that is enough to accompany a drink (according to the official Spanish dictionary). You can think of them like appetizers or bar food in America. They got their start long ago when King Alfonso X forbade taverns from serving wine without food to accompany it (to prevent drunkenness).This is how the name tapas came along. Tapas literally translates into cover or coaster. Before the royal decree, coasters were commonly placed over the drinks in order to keep bugs from drowning in the drinks. The little plates with the required food went on top of the cup instead. So the tapas were free at first and just small things like sausages, olives, and meats. But now it has evolved and is a national meal in Spain. You can find it all over.

Tapas

I decided to stick to some basics and tried to get as much authentic Spanish food as possible, but I had to substitute in some Italian meats, Sorry Spain. I did get Spanish cheese though. I also don't own any small plates and didn't think of this until I was already home, so we just used our regular plates.

For our tapas meal we had:

Manchego Cheese
Iberico Cheese
Murcia Al Vino cheese
Spanish Olives
Kalamata Olives
Mushrooms
Proscuitto
Salame
Coppa
Dill and Sweet Pickles
Toasted French Bread
Pa amb Tomàquet (Catalonian)
Garlic Shrimp

Pa amb Tomàquet- Catalonian Tomato Bread

This bread was so simple to make, yet so delicious. I found out about it because my friend posted on facebook about tomato sandwiches. She has some Spanish friends who commented that this is a popular way to eat tomatoes and bread in Spain.

It is very simple to make.

You take a rustic crusty bread (I used French Bread). Cut it in half and toast it.
Cut a piece of garlic in half and rub it all over the bread.
Take a garden fresh tomato and slice in half. Squeeze the juices and pulp over the surface of the bread until it is saturated. I used one whole tomato on one side of the bread.
Sprinkle with olive oil and salt.

This was so GOOD YOU GUYS! And it took barely any time to make. If you have tomatoes coming in from your garden make this! so fast and easy! It's perfect. I saw pictures where the bread they used was much thinner, but I liked it like this too. I do wonder if I should have used more tomato though.

I only used the top half of the french bread, and just toasted the bottom half for us to eat the cheese and meat with.

Garlic Shrimp

I saw garlic shrimp on a lot of tapas lists. I didn't look up a recipe because I thought the name was the recipe. This is another one that is so simple, but delivers big time on flavor! I'm noticing that theme with Spanish food so far.

To make:

Heat skillet over medium-high heat and add a couple TBS salted butter.
When the butter is melted add in raw, peeled shrimp.
Add 4-5 minced cloves of garlic.
Sprinkle a little salt if desired.
Cook until shrimp is done.

I didn't measure anything in this recipe, just kind of through it together. If you have extra garlic butter it's a great dip for the plain French Bread.

Overall, this meal was very fast to put together, especially if you're not trying to make it look nice for a picture (haha). And it's very filling. Of course it's not supposed to be a huge thing but be little meals to accompany your drink (we had ginger ale). But if you eat a lot of little meals, it makes a pretty big meal. This would be great to feed a crowd with. Try it and let me know what you think!

If you want to learn more about Spanish cooking and cuisine,Panna has a class that is 6 lessons for $59.99! It's called Modern Spanish Cuisine and is taught by Seamus Mullen of Tertulia. That's basically $10 a lesson. What a deal! It'd be a fun gift for your loved one who is a foodie.

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Paella: Delicious and Budget Friendly

8/22/2018

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**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But, all opinions expressed are my own.

Alicia back with another Spanish recipe. My family is taking a country from our heritage each month and making one meal a week from that country. This month is Spain. We've already made Spanish Tortilla and Paella (which I will share with you today). My husband has Spanish blood in him, being from South America, but my Dad also has a bit of the Iberian Peninsula in his DNA as well. Unfortunately it didn't show up in my DNA results. But since he's my dad, I do have an ancestor from there! So we are excited to explore our Spanish heritage.

I was apprehensive at first because I can't say that I'd been exposed to much Spanish food in my life. Once in college a classmate brought Paella to share. It was good, but was a little cold from sitting in a bowl during the whole class. I would say I didn't get the whole effect, because the Paella we made at home last week was AMAZING! So far Spain is 2 for 2! I loved the tortilla, and I loved the Paella. What I'm finding interesting about Spanish food so far is that the ingredients are all familiar to me, but when I combine them in the Spanish way, it's a flavor I never expected! (And a very wonderful flavor to boot!) And the ingredients aren't wildly expensive so I can add the dishes to our regular dinner menu!

Paella

I know what you're thinking, because Paella has saffron in it which is the most expensive spice in the world. (It has to be harvested by hand, which is part of the reason it is so expensive.) How could Paella, then, be affordable?! Well I admit I didn't make a totally traditional paella because we substituted the saffron with Goya Seasoning with Saffron in it. So it has the flavor but isn't as expensive as buying saffron straight up. I picked mine up at the grocery store, but Amazon has good deals on 3 packs of the Goya Seasoning. When you buy it make sure it says 'CON AZAFRAN' because that means 'with saffron'.

Another thing you might think would drive up cost is the seafood. While that's what most people think of when we think of paella, you don't have to use seafood. We used a mix of shrimp, chicken, and sausage (chorizo). Oh and if a recipe calls for chorizo, it's not Mexican chorizo that we know of in the states. Chorizo means sausage so you can choose your favorite kind of sausage. We used Polish kielbasa (Hillshire Farms). It was so yummy.

And my last tip is about choosing the right pan. We actually bought a 14 inch wide pan with low sides. It wasn't called a paella pan, but looked like the paella pans I saw elsewhere. The only problem we ran into was we only have a 2 burner electric glass-top stove. The biggest burner we have is about 8 inches wide. As such, the middle of our pan was hotter than the edges. It was not such a big deal and everything did get cooked. We just made sure to stir it often and covered it with foil to keep the heat in. Another way to remedy this is to use 2 smaller pans instead of making one large dish. Whatever works for you, just please promise me you'll make this dish!

Paella

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Liège Waffles

Spanish Tapas

Tapas

Pa amb Tomàquet- Catalonian Tomato Bread

Garlic Shrimp

Paella: Delicious and Budget Friendly

Paella

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