Russian Salad

This is a very delicious salad and a very good side dish with everything! Mostly it is made to accompany beef and poultry recipes, specially grilled barbeque.

There are so many variations of this classic potato salad, some even without the potatoes, but this one  is the main one we make at home: potatoes, peas, carrots, and mayonnaise. I like to add a little bit of vinegar, sometimes lemon juice.

Some people add to it eggs, pickles, apples, green onion, depends on the taste.  Add any if you love it!

Russian Salad

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, diced

3 carrots, diced

1 cup and half of frozen peas

handful of chopped parsley

1 cup and half of mayonnaise 

Salt

1 teaspoon and half of white vinegar

Olive oil

Method

Cut the vegetables into cubes and cook them in boiled water separately, because each has its own cooking time. The ideal point is al dente.

Place cooked vegetables in a bowl.

 

Season with olive oil, salt, vinegar and then add the mayonnaise and the parsley.  Mix gently to avoid any veggies from breaking out/mashing.

Serve cold.

ENJOY! 

Brigadeirão (Brazilian Chocolate dessert)

Brazil carries a lot of good recipes! First we met the Brigadeiros and now we meet Brigadeirão.  Brigadeirão has a similar taste as Brigadeiros but I have to confess it is less sweet.  This dessert is served cold.. I made it 24 hours prior cutting it, and it is the best because it hardens and its shape gets to be better.  Do not miss this, you have to do it, and all you need to do is blend, and bake!

Ingredients

     6 egg yolks
     2 cans of condensed milk
     2 cans of whole milk (use the condensed milk can to measure)
     6 tablespoons (soup) of cocoa powder or chocolate
     1 tbsp (tablespoons) butter

Method of Preparation

In a bowl, place egg yolks, condensed milk, whole milk, chocolate powder or chocolate and margarine.

Mix well until smooth.

Grease the pan (20 cm in diamete with hole in middle) with margarine.

Pour the mixture and bring to bake in water bath in oven high (250 ° C) for about 50 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Unmold and garnish with chocolate sprinkles.

ENJOY!

Flan

This delicious cold dessert is to die for!! Specially since it is sweetened with condensed milk, and this is the first time I add to it heavy cream..A Brazilian friend told me to add it and yummy, it turned out soo delicious!

Since this required a little more effort to prepare it, I thought of adding pictures to make it easier.

Prior to doing the flan, we have to do the caramel. So for this we need:

2 cups of sugar (regular, granulated)
1/2 cup of hot water

Lets start by putting the 2 cups of sugar in the flan form which is usually the one with the hole in the middle and heat it to let it melt. What worked for me is to increase the heat and decrease it every once in a while, I would increase it and the sugar would start melting and the low heat would allow them to settle and melt the rest. Do what works for you!



After all sugar has melted, step away a little from the pan and pour the hot water. Be careful because it will boil and maybe splash around. Few second and it will calm down. Keep whisking.


Once it reached below picture, spread around the caramel. You can do this by moving the pan in circular motion or maybe using a brush or a spoon.
Now we get to do the Flan.

Ingredients
2 cans of condensed milk
2 cans of milk (measure with the condensed milk can)
200-250ml of heavy cream
3 eggs
1 tbsp of corn flour

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Blend all ingredients. Pour them on the caramelized form. Set banhe-marie method and cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45min. Remove foil and bake another 15min until toothpick comes out clean.


Once cooked, put in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours. I love leaving it overnight, and it is ok to leave it for a day or 2 before serving. Just slowing flip it on a big plate and here is the beauty!


ENJOY!!!

Crème Caramel with Cake

Crème caramel, flan, custard, you can call it as you want it, it is this delicious cold jelly like sweet that is full of sweetness and milk. Delicious! My son loves it, and when he wants one he says 'I want patene' since he doesnt know how to spell it, LOL!

Now take a second and imagine having 2 delicious things in 1! Let's say, crème caramel and chocolate cake.. Wait! what?! yep, you can have them both in 1 plate... I will show you how..

Crème Caramel with Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:
1 Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake Mix (I used the Devil's Food Cake Mix)

For the crème caramel:
1 can of condensed milk
1 can of milk (put 1 measurement of milk using the same can as the condensed milk)
4 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla


Method

Heat oven at 200 celsius.

Prepare two bowls next to each other. In each bowl pour the ingredients needed for each. Beat the cake with the cake mixer, and the crème caramel with a blender - I used for this the Braun hand mixer which easier.

Get a Round cake form with whole in the middle topped with caramer. Pour on it around 1.5 cups of sugar and put it on heat to melt. Once melted pour around 1/4 water and mix - then spread the mix all around the form, even use a spoon to pass the sugar mix in the middle of the pan. After spreading it all around, pour the cake mixture slowly, and then even slower, you can use creme caramel mixture on it. You might think that 'OMG the creme caramel mixture is mixing with the cake mixture' but dont worry, dont think about it, its worthless! coz nothing has happened!

Note: you have to check how much cake mix you need to pour in the cake form - I didnt use all because my form wasnt going to fit in it.

Cover the form firmly with foil paper, and bake it at 200 degrees celsius on bain-marie.

Lemon and Chocolate Tart

This recipe is super easy, fast, and delicious. Its nice to have in this hot weather and lovely to share with family!


Ingredients
For the crust:
200gr of Marie biscuit
4 tbsp of butter

Chocolate filling:
300 gr of bittersweet chocolate (melt in bain-marie)
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp of butter without salt
2 tbsp of nutella
1/2 packet of gelatin without flavor (see instruction and do all the packet since the other 1/2 will be used for the lemon filling)

Lemon filling:
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 the same can lemon juice
1/2 packet of gelatin without flavor (use the remaining 1/2 for this)


Method

Crust
Blend to powder the biscuit and add the butter. Press on a removable form the bottom and side ways. Bake for 10 minutes.

Chocolate filling
Mix the melted chocolate with the heavy cream, butter, and nutella, and at the end add the gelatin. Let it cool and pour over the crust and take to the fridge to cool. Meanwhile do the lemon filling.

Lemon filling
Add ingredients together in a blender and blend.

Add the lemon filling on the chocolate on and take to fridge to cool for minimum 4 hours.

Enjoy!

Tres Leche Cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 5 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• ⅓ cups Milk
• 1 can Evaporated Milk
• 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
• ¼ cups Heavy Cream

FOR THE ICING:

• 2 cups of Heavy Cream, For Whipping
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 177C. Butter a rectangular form and coat it with flour - shake it and drop down the loo

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.

Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is still warm, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.

Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 2 cups of heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable.

Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

ENJOY!