Coming soon

Sunday brunch menu: Eggs Benedict and Brioche French Toast.. delicious!!

Levain Bakery Whole Wheat Walnut Raisin Rolls (or a Taste of NYC)

So here I am, in my worst pijamas ever, craving Levain Bakery's (74th and Amsterdam Ave.) walnut raisin whole wheat rolls that I used to have for breakfast while living in the city.  Crave them so much that a friend of mine actually flew with a whole bunch all the way to Peru (really appreciate it !!!)
The recipe is posted online quite accurately (http://www.levainbakery.com/baking/recipies/whole-wheat-raisin-walnut-rolls.aspx) so thanks to Levain Bakery's generosity I get a taste of my NYC morning here in Peru.
I used whole wheat flour as instructed but added gluten because bread flour or high gluten flour is not available here in Peru.  Also, I used half the amount of raisins as I found that the whole bunch was a little bit to much for my taste (would include extra walnuts though!)
They weren't ready for my Sunday breakfast but after two days they were just . Probably thanks to my so perfect cooking aid who so perfectly took care of oven time:

I love the look of the rolls with its crust of white flour, so much like the originals!

El Mercado

So I love going to the market.  The real Peruvian "mercado", the one where you find fresh fruit, fish, etc. Today I went to the market and bought some delicious mangos, grapes, bananas, etc. Ripe, shiny, colorful, perfect. But I also went twice this week to another "Mercado", Rafael Osterling's new sea food restaurant. Totally worth a stop if you are in Lima. Not to miss his version of conchitas a la parmesana, pejerrey cebiche and thai curry fish.

Sweaty Peruvian Sea Bass

This is my first post and it will be about a Peruvian-style seafood dish I cooked last weekend at the beach. 

Before starting, let me tell you about some things I cooked recently before starting my blog: Pad Thai (would need a Wok to try again), Green Chicken Curry, this Peruvian style "Sweaty" Sea Bass, Jamie Olivier's Christmas meal, whole wheat walnut pancakes.

I must say that I haven't had a lot of time to cook lately with work & life & s, so  this time it was like a reloaded version of me. 

I had prepared this dish before but had use water instead of fish broth (lazy, yeah!). The "full version" was just so much better. 

Also, the fish was so fresh I'll bet it was still breathing when it was brought to my kitchen. 

I forgot saffron this time (dish was so good that I didn't miss it).

Please do get some rice with it. We Peruvians like lots of rice, like Chinese.

Sweaty Peruvian Sea Bass

• 2 lbs. Sea Bass or similar
• 1 large onion
• 4 Italian tomatos, chopped, peeled.
• 1 Italian tomato, chopped and peeled, for decorating
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1 Jalapeño Chili
• Saffron
• Salt & Pepper

• Optional: Scallops and/or Shrimp

The recipe consists in preparing a fish, onion and tomato based broth in which the fish is then prepared.

For the broth: In a large pan, saute onion in Olive Oil until it looks translucent. Add tomatoes. Cook until tender.  Add White Wine and let the ingredients boil for about 5 mins.

Add Saffron and Jalapeño Chili (I use some big pieces just for flavoring and then remove then from the broil).

Add 1 1/2 cups of water or Fish Broth, Sal & Peppert and allow to simmer in Low for about 1 hr. Onion should be thoroughly cooked. If mixture evaporates, add more water or broth. Fish will be cooked in this mixture.

Strain. Return the broth to the pan.

For the fish: Season fillets with salt & pepper and cook in the broth for 3-5 minutes. Avoid overcooking. Keep the fillets under the broth permanently. Just before serving add scallops. If using shrimp, I suggest to pan-fry these lightly in a separate pan first.

To serve: decorate with lima beans (cooked al dente) & chopped tomato.