Cada 29…

Este sábado que pasó fue 29  y como es tradición en  muchos hogares del Río de la Plata, en la casa Petraglia-Arenas prepararon  gnocchi de papa.

Papas y harina de trigo, dos ingredientes humildes que suelen quedar en el fondo de la despensa a finales de mes

Lentejas con arroz y aguacate

Tartar de Salmón y Mango

Camaroncitos al curry rojo

Que vivan los novios!

My dearest friend Melina got married and with some friends we made the food. Here some wonderful pictures.

Mi querida amiga Melina se casó y junto a Aydee y Rubén hicimos cosas ricas para el festejo.

Les dejo algunas fotos para que se antojen!

 

Fotos/Pictures de  Melina Carranza y Libran Bevington

Food and creativity outside the kitchen

I love the kind of projects which combine art-creativity and the love for food.

Alcachofagia!

I am obsessed with artichokes … At home they where always steamed. Then, we used to eat them with olive oil and vinegar, ripping with our teeth the meat on the leaves until we’d get to the best part… the heart.

I wanted to try something new : roasted artichokes!

Try to find the smallest artichokes as possible. Cut them in half, spray them  with olive oil, add salt and pepper and put them in the oven at 350f for 45 min. After that, throws away the outer leaves and try the inner ones and the heart.

Enjoy!

Estoy obsesionada con las alcachofas… En mi casa siempre las preparaban al vapor y nos las comíamos con una vinagreta arrancando con los dientes la carne de las hojas hasta llegar al corazón, placer absoluto.

Pero ultimamente he estado “investigando” nuevas formas y he aquí:

Alcachofas asadas!!

Procurar que las alcachofas sean chiquitas para que las hojas estén lo más tiernas posible, se cortan las puntas  y se parten por la mitad. Un chorro de aceite, sal y pimienta y listo! 180º c durante 45 minutos. las hojas de afuera quedarán incomibles pero las de adentro y el corazón…. ñamiñamiñamiñami

Las hice para acompañar un plato de pasta con tomate fresco pero bueno a criterio del consumidor!

All pictures taken by Maria Pia Mazzanti

Tiger Milk: Peruvian Wisdom- Leche de Tigre: Sabiduría Peruana

The “Leche de Tigre” (Tiger Milk) is the mix needed to make a good Peruvian Ceviche… Here, some Peruvian´s cooks reveal their secrets to make a good Leche de Tigre.

Enjoy!

(Just wondering where are the girls!)

Family Recipes Are Stories #TFNP

Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Nowadays, their descendants are a fundamental part of this South American country, contributing their traditions and heritage to its very rich and varied culture.

Yuji Kawasima, a grandson of Japanese immigrants, is very attached to the Brazilian culture, but also preserves part of the legacy of the Japanese culture from his parents.

When he was a kid, his parents spent hours almost every week making a delicacy that not everyone had the luck to taste in the artisanal way: Tofu.

Both of them had well defined tasks. His father was in charge of the initial part of the process. After soaking the soy, he peeled and washed the beans. Then, he mixed the grains with mineral water little by little in the mixer to elaborate the white paste. Later, he strained this mix to obtain the milk needed to make the so called “soy cheese”. His mother was in charge of the fire. For hours, she stirred the milk in a gigantic pot, and after adding some white vinegar she picked up the pieces and put them in a wood recipient made by Yuji’s father.

As a kid, Yuji watched amazed that big white block on the center of the table. Without completely understanding how it was made, or without enough patience to share the process with his parents who had established it almost as a couple ritual, Yuji would eat this white dough that melted in his mouth, soaking it in soy sauce… black sesame… wasabi….

He grew up with Tofu, and nowadays, thousands of kilometers away from his parents’ home, he buys it and eats it almost every day.  “This is my legacy”, “My heritage”, Yuji thought as an adult. And so, he felt the need to learn how to cook it. He asked his parents to teach him, and that´s how, for the first time, Yuji participated in the full process. He bought the grain with his parents and chose the fabrics to filter the milk; he drained, peeled, mixed and cooked. Then, after several hours of hard work, he was able to experience once again that flavor that for him is more a feeling than a taste. Family recipes are not rigid; we usually don’t have a manual: “Family recipes are stories”.

He loves the texture of the soy… of the freshly made tofu. Something that for many is almost insipid, for him, is the definitive mark of his memory, his childhood, his cultural identity.

“I hope I’m able to make it the day my parent’s hands won’t be able to make it for me.”

Based on an interview with Yuji Kawasima. Picture from his family’s archive.

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Brasil tiene la población japonesa más grande fuera del Japón. Hoy en día los descendientes de esta gran cantidad de inmigrantes hacen parte de la sociedad Brasilera aportando también, sus tradiciones y su herencia a una cultura rica y variada.

Yuji Kawasima, nieto de inmigrantes japoneses, muy arraigado a la cultura brasilera aun conserva el legado de su herencia japonesa.

Cuando era pequeño, sus padres, invertían horas, para poder tener en casa un manjar que pocos tenemos la suerte de probar de manera artesanal: el tofu.