Category: South America

Columbian Eggs Recipe

columbian eggs

Columbian Eggs from www.duckandwaffle.com

Columbian Eggs Recipe

This is another twist to the egg omelet, egg torta, fried egg or scrambled egg for breakfast.  This Columbian egg would probably more of a brunch or  a light lunch meal.  It is very healthy and sustaining. It has that delicious creamy avocado as a layer to the eggs.

Ingredients:

20g unsalted butter

2 stalks spring onions sliced diagonally

4 large eggs, beaten

1 large tomato, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 slices sourdough bread or lightly grilled baguette

1 ripe avocado, peeled, stoned, cut and sliced lengthwise.

Sprig of basil or rocket to garnish

Method of Preparation:

Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the spring onions and cook until softened but take care not to let them burn.

Stir in the eggs and scramble lightly.

Add and mix in the tomatoes.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Grill the slices of sourdough or sliced baguette.

Lay the sliced avocado over the bread and then spoon in the eggs.

Add little more seasoning of salt and pepper.

Top with basil or rocket leaves to decorate (optional)

Serve and enjoy!

Donuts of Rain (bolinho De Chuva)

Mini vanilla doughnut balls

‘Donuts of rain’ is of Brazilian in origin.  It is called bolinho de chuva.

It is fairly easy to make; just be very careful with the hot oil.

Donuts of Rain (bolinho De Chuva)

Ingredients:

1 cup of milk

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

3 cups of flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix in the eggs and sugar with the milk.
2. Add the flour and mix with a wooden spoon, till you get a homogeneous batter. Finally, add the baking powder and mix a little bit more.
 
3. Fry the doughnuts in a fryer with preheated oil. Take the batter with a spoon, and scrape off the batter into the fryer.
 
4. The oil must be enough to cover the donuts completely. As soon as their bottom is OK, they are supposed to turn over by themselves – it’s funny. If they don’t do it, give them a hand.
 
5. Every time you put a new donut into the fry, touch the oil with the spoon. It will make easier for the next one to scrape off the spoon.
 
5. When they are golden brown, take them out of the oil and drain them on a plate with a towel paper. (You can add more sugar on your own, if they are too clear, or flour, if they are too dark).
 
6. Depending on their size, you will have between 20 and 30 delicious donuts. Serve them with coffee-fee, milk or juice.
 
Tips:
 
ü After frying, sprinkle over them some sugar with cinnamon.
 
ü Add a pinch of salt to the recipe, if you want to reinforce the flavour.
 

Brazilian Style Crème Caramel

Brazilian Style Crème Caramel

 

Crema caramel

With the festive season approaching & Christmas around the corner, here is a yummy delicious dessert.   It has a wonderful, creamy texture without being too heavy. Melted syrup will run down sides, forming a caramel sauce. Serve cool with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

Ingredients:

1 cup of white sugar
4 eggs
1 can (14 ounce) condensed milk
1 cup of fresh whole milk
Method:
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt the sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan over  low heat, stirring
constantly.
3. Once the sugar becomes  golden brown syrup after
about 10 minutes, pour it immediately into a round baking dish,
swirling it around the sides of the dish  so that the syrup coats all sides of the dish.
4. Set aside to cool.
5.  Crack open the eggs directly into the food blender/processor, together with the  condensed milk and fresh milk .
6. Blend until all ingredients are combined.
7. Pour the egg mixture into a baking dish and cover with foil.
8. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel.
9. Place the baking dish inside the roasting pan.
10. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the baking dish.
11. Place the roasting pan in the oven.
12. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes.
13. Withdraw the pan to  insert a knife 1 inch from the edge.
14 When the knife comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. The centre of the flan will still be soft.
15. Allow the crème caramel to cool before removing from the mould onto a plate.
16. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

Voila 🙂

Global Beautiful Game in Brazil for the World Cup 2014

Global Beautiful Game in Brazil

Yes the global beautiful game has begun. Teams from 32 countries now contest the greatest of games trophy in Brazil. Whilst England is the home and originator of the modern game of football, Brazil is regarded as the game’s spiritual home. This once poor country which is now among the richest, adopted football with a passion and fervour unrivalled in any other soccer playing nation.  Brazil have won the WC five times and national pride demands they win a sixth on home soil. It would be a national disaster if they don’t!
England have won the WC once, way back in 1966 at Wembley Stadium.  I was 11 years old and have memories watching the games on the family’s TV in black & white view, as widely available colour TV was a few years away. 
The 1966 England  team were most talented as they proved.  My favourite player was the legendary goal keeper Gordon Banks, I am lucky to  have his autograph.  Gordon was acknowledged as the world’s greatest Goalkeeper of his era. When England played Brazil at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Gordon’s stunning save against Pele the then world’s greatest football player, has become the stuff of legend in football folklore.
Since 1970, England have never shone at subsequent World Cup Finals. Only under the late great England manager Bobby Robson did they show some promise in the 1980s.
Many think that England cannot produce the team spirit and understanding of the 1966-70 team, where most of the players came form one or two clubs and knew each others style.
Since the 1990s, the English Premier League (PL) clubs and the many millions of pounds generated have dominated the English club game to the detriment of the national game.
Rich PL clubs buy top talented expensive foreign players on fabulous wages.  This has weakened  home-grown talent coming though and those talented  English players can be pressured by certain clubs they play for not to get injured  in international tournaments as the investment and money-making potential is the priority for Premier League clubs, who want to win the top club competitions such as the European Champions League (domestic cups such as the FA Cup are now a poor second in the goals of rich PL club owners ).
 
The England team and squad now have a crop of talented youngsters coming through, if only they can make a  team spirit and national pride above club when required,  that teams like Germany and Brazil have created to meld together a winning team.
 
England fans are passionate about their game and team. 
England Flag
Our flag out and proud!
As Jean and I take our lively Terrier for a walk around our neighbourhood in the evenings, we have seen the gradual appearance of a number of England flags with the distinctive Red Cross of St. George being draped from bedroom windows in houses and flats/apartments; many cars and vans now sport a small England flag too!   We must look for our flag too and we look forward to the England games and hope that our team will progress in the tournament of this Beautiful Game.

Coffee R Us

They have in Turkey a drink called coffee… as Black as Soot, and of a Strong Scent… which they take, beaten into Powder, in Water, as Hot as they can Drink it; and they take it, and sit at it is their Coffee Houses, which are like our Taverns.
– Francis Bacon

Cuppa coffee Photo by PH Morton

Cuppa coffee
Photo by PH Morton

Scientist in the Netherlands found that a cup of coffee contains enough caffeine needed to combat the risk of nodding off on long haul journeys.

This means that drivers do not have to guzzle gallons of coffee on the motorway to keep awake and the even better news that the risk of toilet time-outs is minimised!!!

Brilliant news.

Did you know?

The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant.  Contrary to past eras’ belief that caffeine in coffee renders a man impotent by depriving the body of semen, it has now been found out that sperms exposed to caffeine makes them friskier and thus swim faster.  (Does this mean that a potential daddy who is biologically on the boil needs to consume copious cups of coffees before performing to get those sperms to go crazy?!!!) 😉


Did you know? 40 per cent of coffee is produced in Columbia and Brazil.
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Did you know that the first coffee was made from boiling leaves (not sure whether it was the leaves from coffee bean tree, though)?  It was an Islamic hermit named ad-Shadhili, who lived in 1200AD in North Africa that first had coffee made from the beans.

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Did you know, the name cappuccino comes from its resemblance to the clothing worn by the Capuchin monks.

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Did you know, coffee is the first food to be freeze dried.

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Did you know?
In Italian, the word espresso literally means “when something is forced out.”

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Did you know, there is a superstition in Brazil that putting the sugar first into your cup before the coffee will make you rich!

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Did you know?  A cup of strong black, unsweetened coffee has the added benefit of cleaning your teeth.  A study has found that coffee breaks down the bacteria that can cause tooth decay.  Ensure not to cancel out the benefit of a strong black coffee to your molars by adding milk and sugar to your cuppa.

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Did you know that coffee contains more caffeine than any other drink.

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Did you know, that in Constantinople in Turkey, denying a wife her coffee gives her grounds for divorce.
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Did you know?

The most expensive coffee in the world which retail at $600 per pound is called Kopi Luwak, which are coffee beans that are swallowed and goes through the intestine and then excreted by the Sumatran wild cat.

Nice!
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Read more: http://www.rd.com/slideshows/10-weird-facts-about-coffee/#ixzz3KUFIUJ2X