Dressing up leftovers

On Christmas Eve my family has a midnight supper every year. Before the meal we all form a circle, hold hands and each one of us tells what that year meant to us, then we say a prayer, hugs are exchanged and it is our thanks giving moment.

And on the next day we have leftovers for lunch... For this meal only the rice was fresh. I dressed up my plate with golden strings (egg noodles) that were previously trimming the turkey. The meat was pork tenderloin that my sister-in-law's mother cooked for us, also for the Christmas Eve supper. Traditionally Brazilians have pork for holiday meals.

The pork loin is so easy to make. Instead of baking in the oven, cook it! With the juices that come out you can make the gravy.

1 pork tenderloin (about 2 pounds)

Salt (use 1/2 tablespoon salt for each pound)

Freshly ground black pepper

1 small onion, cubed

3 cloves garlic

Juice of 1 lime or orange

2 tablespoons oil or extra virgin olive oil + 2 for cooking

2 cups water

For the gravy:

1 tablespoon each: catchup, mustard, soy sauce

1/4 cup prosecco or dry sparkling wine (champagne)
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup mushrooms

1) Season pork loin with salt and pepper, pepper, onion, garlic, lime/orange juice and 2 tablespoons oil or olive oil. Marinate for about 2 hours or overnight.

2) Place 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat. Add meat and brown it well on all sides, for about 6 minutes. Reduce heat, add 2 cups of water and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, adding more if needed.

3) Remove tenderloin to a platter. Stir in gravy ingredients to pan. Cook until sauce is slightly thickened, adjust seasoning. Serve meat with sauce spooned on top and rice as a side.

A passion (fruit) trifle

Portuguese version

Valentine's day in Brazil was June 12th and this reminded me of passion fruit trifle. An elegant dessert and just perfect for any special occasion, like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year's, etc. I usually fix this dessert for big crowds.

Passion fruit is widely used here in juices and desserts. The actual name of this fruit in Portuguese has nothing to do with the translation into English, passion fruit is known here as maracuja.

This dessert is usually served as a passion fruit mousse and only the custard and the topping are arranged in a dish, but this time a friend of mine, Sheila, served it as a trifle and shared her mother's recipe.

For the custard
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can heavy cream (use the condensed milk can to measure)
1/2 cup concentrated passion fruit juice

Whisk the condensed milk, the heavy cream and the passion fruit juice until smooth.

For the whipped cream
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar

Whisk the cream with an electric mixer in a bowl until soft peaks form.

For the trifle

6 thick slices of sponge cake (you can also use graham crackers or cookies)
6 oz (180 g) milk or white chocolate, shaved or squares

For the passion fruit topping
1/2 cup concentrated passion fruit juice
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 passion fruit

1) Scrape the seeded pulp of the fruit into a saucepan, add water, sugar, cornstarch and passion fruit juice. Boil the mixture over medium heat until the sugar granules dissolve completely and the mixture is clear. Remove the pan from the heat.

2) Assemble the trifle. Arrange a layer of cake pieces in the bottom of a serving dish. Pour some of the custard evenly over the cake, sprinkle shaved chocolate and pour whipped cream. Repeat layering, ending with whipped cream.

3) Pour the passion fruit topping, sprinkle more shaved chocolate. Refrigerate.

Holiday Cooking, Blogger Style - calling all blogs!

Overwhelmed with Joy is hosting her annual recipe exchange on November 7th and is inviting everyone to participate! She will give one set of 20 personalized recipe cards to one lucky winner! I can't wait to join!

My post from last year is here.

Our Thanksgiving

Even though it was not a holiday here, our Thanksgiving dinner was quite traditional. My friend Priscila mentioned she wanted to get together in appreciation for all the blessings this year. It was what my friend Camila and I needed to make our dream come true: cook a Thanksgiving dinner! We had ten-layer salad, turkey and cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, grean beans with basil, cheese spread with garlic and sweet potato biscuits, ginger flavored cauli-flower, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie and even a roasted pork that our friend Tim fixed. Drinks served included wine, soft drinks and hot spiced cider. One of the highlights of the evening was after dinner, when we shared our blessings and wrote them down on fall colored paper leaves to hang them on the Thankful tree. The room was beautifully decorated and I want to thank my friend Camila for hosting this dinner!

Recipes will be shown in future posts.

Kabocha (or Pumpkin) Spice Bread

Kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin is very popular in the Japanese cuisine. I use kabocha to cook everything pumpkin, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, soup, muffins etc. And... Tis the season for pumpkin spice bread!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup kabocha puree (or canned unsweetened pumpkin)
1 large egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8 1/2- x 4 1/2-inch (21 x 11 x 6 cm) loafpan. Sift together first 6 ingredients; stir in salt.

2. Combine sugar, oil, and kabocha puree/canned pumpkin in a large bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg, beating until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating at low speed until blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour 5 minutes or until loaf is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From our home to yours:
- The dark green skin is very hard and not easy to carve but the pulp is lightly sweet. So, you need to be careful when handling the knife to cut up a kabocha.

- I cooked the kabocha without strings and seeds in the microwave for 20 minutes, an easy and fast way to make a pumpkin puree from scratch.

- This recipe works both with canned pumpkin and kabocha squash puree.

- A different twist to this cake is the cocoa powder added to the batter.

Thank you Kelli for this wonderful Giving thanks week!

If you want to share and visit other blogs with recipes, menus, pictures, poems, and stories, please go to Kelli's blog for more details.

This recipe was adapted from Cottage Living magazine - November 2006

Corn Bread Stuffing

This dish makes its appearance every year during the holidays and it has been a huge success over the last decade with our family. I use this corn bread stuffing (or dressing) as a side dish, but it is also wonderful as turkey stuffing.

Kelli is hosting a Giving Thanks week in preparation for Thanksgiving. If you want to share recipes, menus, pictures, poems, and stories, please visit her blog for more details.

Corn bread
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons melted butter or canola oil
2 eggs

Vegetable mixture:
5 tablespoons butter
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced (I use red bell pepper)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup black or green olives, sliced (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup chicken broth

1) Prepare Corn bread: Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Grease a 9 x 13 inch (20 x 30 cm) metal baking pan.

2) In medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With fork beat milk, melted butter and egg into cornmeal mixture just until blended. Spoon batter into baking pan, spreading evenly.

3) Bake corn bread 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in wire rack 10 minutes. Invert, break into large pieces or cube it with a pizza cutter or knife and cool completely.

4) Prepare vegetable mixture: In a small saucepan cook celery, bell pepper and onion in butter until tender. Stir in raisins, olives, salt, black pepper and chicken broth. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat.

5) Prepare stuffing: Into a large mixing bowl, place dry corn bread cubes; add the vegetable mixture. Toss gently to mix well. Transfer to a 2-quart casserole. Bake uncovered in a 325°F (165°C) oven for 30 minutes or until heated through. (Or, if using this stuffing outside of the turkey, place this in the oven during the last 30 minutes of roasting, alongside the turkey).

From our home to yours:
- Start with the corn bread.
- If not making the stuffing right away, you can keep the pieces covered and refrigerated for up to two days.
- I use a pizza cutter to cube the corn bread.
- If you don't like cornbread, use any bread cubes.
- I usually add 5 oz (150g) grated italian smoked sausage to the vegetable mixture and make a sausage corn bread stuffing.

This recipe was adapted from an old Good Housekeeping magazine dated November 1997.

My first Thanksgiving

This time of year brings back fond memories of my first Thanksgiving, exactly 20 years ago. I was an exchange student to the US and I had no idea it was such a big holiday there. I remember my house was filled with guests. Relatives arrived bringing great traditional food I had never dreamed of. I always enjoyed trying new food, and this time around it wasn't any different. I saw a pumpkin pie on the table and that really intrigued me, I had no idea whether it was a pie to eat during, before or after dinner and that kept me busy watching what people were doing to then realize it was a dessert! And that's how I tasted my first pumpkin pie! Of course, I loved it!

Kelli is hosting a Thanksgiving event called "Giving thanks" with prizes! She'll be sharing decorating ideas, crafts, poems, prayers, games, table settings, activities for children and a daily cleaning schedule (with before and after pictures). If you would like to join, please go here for all the details, including pictures of the giveaway prizes!

Here's a pumpkin pie recipe... I am using the pictures of last year's pie for a recipe I've had for years that uses fresh pumpkin and sweetened condensed milk.

Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
1 recipe pâte brisée (recipe below - or 1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust)
2 cups pumpkin puree (recipe below - or 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon Cloves

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). In a large bowl, whisk pumpkin puree, condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust.

2) Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.


How to cook a pumpkin and make a puree - microwave method:
1) Cut off top of a 2 pound pumpkin (around the stem area) and scoop out stringy contents and seeds. Discard seeds or save to dry and roast and make a delicious snack.

2) Rub skin with oil or butter, wrap with parchment paper.

3) Place wrapped pumpkin on microwave-safe tray and cook on high for 20 minutes or until fork tender.

4) Once pumpkin has cooled, remove flesh using a spoon, discard the skin. Puree pumpkin in food processor or use a potato masher.

Pâte Brisée (Pie dough):
The classic proportion for this recipe is 3:1 (flour:fat)
Makes one 9 inch pie

1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter or shortening cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 teaspoons cold water (add ice to the water)

1) In a food processor, place the flour, salt and sugar and process briefly to combine.

2) Add the butter and process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Pour ice water with machine running, in a slow, steady stream just until dough holds together no longer than 30 seconds. Do not over process.

3) Form dough into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until ready to use.

4) Roll pate brisee between 2 pieces of plastic wrap, into a 12-inch circle and fit pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim dough evenly along edge, leaving about a 1/2-inch overhang. Pinch to form a decorative edge. Fill pie shell with pumpkin puree. Makes one 9-inch pie.

Topping suggestions:

You can serve your pie with the following toppings:
1) Grated coconut
2) Chocolate fudge
3) Whipped cream
4) Or just plain!

Recipe adapted from Eagle Brand.