Odeliza Jacoba Recipes

Purchasing Foods in Spanish

100 grams of… Cien gramos de…

A kilo… Un kilo de…

A packet of… Un paquete de…

A tin of… Una lata de…

A jar of… Una lata de…

A bottle of… Una botella de…

A carton of… Un carton de…

A little more/less please… Un poco mas/menos por favor

A slice of… Un trozo de…

A dozen: Una docena

Can I try some? Puedo probarlo?

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Some Common Spanish Words

(if you live in Uruguay or Argentina, or planing a holiday in either of these two countries, just a warning: the ‘ll’ and the ‘y’ in Spanish is pronounced differently in only those two Latin countries. For instance, instead of pronouncing the ‘ll’ as if your saying ‘yay’ you would say ’shh’ like ’shh be quiet…’ Get it?)

Breakfast: La Desayuno

Lunch: La Comida

Afternoon Meal: La Merienda

Dinner: Le Cena

Bar: El Bar

Wine Bar: La Bodega

Inn serving food: La Casa de comidas

Ice-cream parlour: La Heladeria

Open air-bar: El Merendero

Pastry Shop: La Pasteleria

Inn with food: La Posada

Tea room: El salon de te

Pub: La taberna

Tapas bar: La Tasca

Local restaurant: Le venta

Bill: La cuenta

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

My roasted three pepper salsa is actually a ’sauce’ that can be used in variety of dishes. My most recent posts, I incorporate this sauce turn salsa into the base for Mexican Lasagna. This evening I am using it for my hearty white bean and vegetable soup. Since the weather was a bit chilly and windy today we needed a meal to warm things up a bit.

You may find that I will reference this recipe often, for this it’s best to create a much large batch and freeze a few cups in zip lock baggies to use for a later time.

See what you can come up with…

Prep Time: Less than 5 minutes

Cook Time: Less than 10 minutes

Serves: Up to 6 cups

What you’ll need:

1. A food processor

2. Several Zip Lock Baggies

3. One of each: red, green, and yellow bell peppers

4. 1 medium size purple onion

5. 1 fresh bay leaf

6. 2 cloves of mashed garlic

7. Freshly ground sea salt and black peppercorns

8. Grape seed oil or any oil with very minimum flavor you have on hand

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven on broil at 200 c. Take a baking sheet or foil wrap and place bell peppers and onion side by side. Dash some salt and pepper and a bit of the oil.

2. Broil in the oven until it starts to turn black. Don’t over do it, depending on the type of oven you have, it should not take any more than ten minutes maximum.

3. Allow to cool off before placing in the food processor.

4. Process along with the garlic cloves.

5. One thoroughly processed it should come out like a chunky sauce. Place all in a small sauce pot or any type of pot you have in hand.

6. Set on low heat and place the bay leaf. Cook for a few minutes no more than five minutes. Add as much salt and pepper you like. Allow to cool before storing, can be eaten cold or warm.

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Mexican Lasagna is a perfect dish for weekday meals. You can prepare this dish over the weekend and store it in the freezer. Then once you want to serve it for brunch, lunch, or even dinner, just pop it in the microwave.

I like to make a hefty amount and freeze individual packets in a zip lock back. Then when my other half is hungry and I am not, then I could serve him this dish. It goes good with my homemade three roasted pepper salsa and Mexican rice.

All these items can easily be frozen and served for a later time.

Prep Time: Less than 10 minutes

Cook Time: About on hour

Serves: About 8 average pieces

What you’ll need:

1. A shallow baking pan, I like to use my handy dandy pyrex and skillet

2. 1 container of ready made flour tortillas

3. 5 c Three Roasted Pepper Salsa

4. 1/2 c whole milk ricotta cheese

5. 1 lb. slices of whole milk mozzarella

6. 1 can already drained-rinsed pinto beans; roughly mashed

7. Butter or lightly flavored oil for coat only

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 250 C

2. Coat the baking pan with selected fat

3. Take the skillet and set on medium-high heat

4. Coat the skillet with selected fat and place one-at-a-time the flour tortilla. Use a small dish towel to cover the already cooked tortillas in order to prevent it from becoming stale. Once you have cooked all the tortillas start you layering process.

5. In an assembly line fashion; line all the tortillas-covered in dish towel- first, second the roasted pepper salsa, third the mashed pinto beans, fourth the slices of mozzarella cheese and mashed ricotta cheese.

6. Create layers, of the four items one at a time until you have run out of it.

7. The final layer which is the top, use the rest of the sliced mozzarella cheese.

8. Cover the top layer with foil wrap, then place the dish into the already preheated oven. Bake for about 30 minutes with the top layer covered in foil. Then after all the inners are thoroughly baked, remove the foil wrap and bake for about 10 minutes or until the top layer has melted.

9. If you are serving that day serve warm, if you want to preserve a batch, cut individual portions and place each in a zip lock bag.

Buen provecho!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Mexican rice is a wonderful accompaniment not just for Latin inspired dishes, but almost any kind of dish; South Asian, Asian, and even North American, there are a lot of possibilities.

What I find helpful is do make the simple rice a day or so ahead, then create a larger batch, finally freeze some of the rice in smaller size zip lock baggies for a later time.

So that if you want to have some rice for lunch or a much rather lighter meal, simply take the individual zip lock packets out and re-heat.

I found this very helpful if my other half decides to invite someone over for a meal, I could easily take out three individual containers and create a stir fry dish or even roasted vegetables as a main with the rice as a side.

See what you can come up with…

Prep time: A day ahead for the basic rice and less than ten minutes the day off cooking

Cook time: Less than ten minutes the day off cooking

Serves: If larger batches up to 6 people

What you’ll need:

1. A rice cooker

2. 6 c of long grain white or brown parboiled rice

3. 8 c of home made vegetable broth-click here for my recipe- or salted water

4. 2 mashed garlic cloves

5. 1/2 yellow onion-diced

6. 1 fresh or dried bay leaf

7. 1 T cumin powder

8. 1 c tomato paste

9. A couple dashes of dried red hot chili pepper-depending on your tastes-

10. Freshly ground sea salt and black and white peppercorns

What to do:

For the day ahead:

1. Thoroughly clean the rice

2. Place in the rice cooker with the 8 c of broth or water

3. Add the bay leaf

4. Once done, store in one container in the fridge

For the day off cooking:

1. Heat- in medium- a large deep pan with safflower, grape seed, or any mild flavored oil you have in hand.

2. Saute the onions until it becomes clear. Add the tomato paste and some of the salt and pepper.

3. Add the already cooked basic rice without the bay leaf and ensure that the rice is coated with the onion-tomato base-.

4. Add the garlic, cumin, and dried chili flakes and incorporate into the rice.

5. Turn off heat and let cool before storing in the freezer. If serving that day, serve warm or room temp.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Dulce de leche is a common dessert for the locals of Uruguay. The candy bars above is something I picked up at a local ’supermercado’. There are four tablets in all, they use whole milk and brown sugar to create this creamy rich candy.

The name on the wrapper is called Vaquita Lapatia its cost about 38 pesos which right now the North American dollar equals to about 20 pesos. So as of now its rather inexpensive.

This is something that my other half and I many include in care packages to our friends and families abroad. Its best if they had something that is traditionally made in Uruguay, so this would be a nice small gift.

If you are thinking of a gift for your families or friends, maybe you can take a look at this candy bar and see what you think.

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

While pumping away during an hour long spinning class, I distracted myself from the numbing pain coming from my gams by creating this new recipe. Its a vegetarian alternative to meatballs and breaded deep fried meat.

Pinto Beans Patties, with a delicious subtle flavor that can be molded with other dishes. I used creamy sweet potato, chive and dill puree, homemade checca sauce and a warm bread roll for last night dinner. It was a hit with my other half, he wanted to make sure I had the recipe for it. I told him I came up with it during spinning class, so its still rather fresh in my mind.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: Less than 3 minutes

Serves: Up to 12 oval patties

What you’ll need:

1. Food Processor and large deep frying pan or any shallow pan

2. 1 can of pinto beans: rinsed well and allowed to dry

3. 1 c roughly chopped fresh cilantro

4. 1/4 c roughly chopped chives

5. 1/4 c white rice flour

6. 3 eggs two for the pinto bean mixture and one for dipping

7. About 2 cups or so of safflower oil, rice oil or any flavorless or minimal flavored oil

8. Freshly ground sea salt and black and white peppercorns

9.1 t cumin

10.1 t paprika

11. A pinch of each: onion power and garlic powder

12. 1/2 c white flour

13. Wheat or white bread crumbs without added flavor

14. 1 c wheat flour

What to do:

1. Take the pinto beans and puree in the food processor until smooth. Add the cilantro and puree some more, then add the chives.

2. Add the onion powder and garlic powder, then a bit at a time, add the wheat flour. Then add the rice flour, mix well until the mixture starts to come together.

3. One at a time add the two eggs and mix until it starts to become more of a dough like texture.

4. Take out of food processor and place in a bowl with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, take your frying pan and all of the oil, bring to a medium heat.

5. Place the white flour in a small bowl, then remaining egg in another bowl, the bread crumbs in another bowl in an assembly line fashion.

6. With super clean hands, take about 1/4 c of the bean mixture and shape it into little round balls, dip lightly into the white flour, then lightly to the egg, back to the flour mixture finally to the bread crumbs. Do this until the bean mixture is gone.

7. Then turn the heat on low. One at a time, place each patty a few inches apart, closely monitor the patties as it only take a few seconds for one side to turn golden brown. Flip and fry the other side. Remove and place on top of a plate covered with paper towels -to soak in the moisture-. Proceed with this same pattern until all patties have been deep fried.

8. Allow to cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. Will keep for about 5 days. This dish can be served warm or at room temp.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Perfect Vegetarian Broth can be used for just about anything. It’s always useful to have on hand some homemade broth because it adds that ’slow cooked’ flavor to any dish. You can use it for a base for soups, sauces, curries, rice the possibilities are endless. Just use your creative input and see what you can come up with.

This Vegetarian Broth was originally created during my personal chef business days. Cooking for about 50 clients not counting individual family members can be really tough. Especially if you are a one man show in a kitchen that was smaller than a broom closet. Anyways, I’ve found ways to stream line.

One of which is this Vegetarian Broth that was one of my key ingredients for Rice Dishes, Curries and Sauces. I prepared this in advance and keep it stored in my fridge and some in the freezer-before the weekly mad rush-. In order to get the ’slow cook’ effect you actually have to cook it slow. Duh. Or if you have a slow cooker device by all means, use it!

Prep Time: about ten minutes

Cook Time: about one hour

Serves: 2.5 Liters

What you’ll need:

1. Large stock pot that will hold 3 liters of liquid or use two pots
2. 3 liters of plain water
3. A 2 liter container to store the already prepared broth
4. 1 bushel of celery including the leaves, thoroughly cleaned and roughly chopped
5. 2 carrots cleaned and cut in half
6. 3 large onions, cut in half
7. 4 garlic cloves pounded
8. 1 inch or so of pealed and cut in half fresh ginger
9. 1 inch of tamarind outer shell removed if you don’t have the actual tamarind use about 1/4 c of the paste
10. A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
11. A few sprigs of fresh thyme
12. A few sprigs of fresh sage
13. Some fresh oregano
14. Freshly crushed black pepper and sea salt

What to do:

1. Take the stock pot with the 3 liters of water, turn to medium heat. Add allot of freshly ground sea salt.

2. Place all the celery first, cover and allow to soften for about 5 minutes.

3. Place the carrots, onions, garlic cloves, ginger and tamarind, add a bit more freshly ground sea salt and cover, allow to sit for another 5 minutes.

4. Ensure the fresh vegetables are covered in water and add a bit more freshly ground sea salt.

5. Then add all the fresh herbs and cover. Turn the heat to the lowest setting possible and leave it alone for 50 minutes. Checking once in awhile to ensure the water does not bubble over and stirring gently ever so often to incorporate all the flavors together.

6. After one hour of cooking turn off and set aside to cool off. Once cooled take the container of your choice – I bought a cheap plastic pitcher with a cover just for this broth- and carefully ladle the broth a bit at a time. You may have some extra that can not fit into your container, I find that its useful just to place it any container handy such as; a large glass or bowl, and use it for that day’s cooking.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza