Pot Stickers
Chinese dumplings with pork filling

Yesterday I decided to use the wonton-dough that I had in the freezer. I bought it last fall, thinking I was going to throw a bad ass asian dinner party for my friends, but instead I ended up making it for me and my sister last night for dinner. This was the first time I ever made these little dumplings and it did indeed take a lot of time, precision and most of all... patience! I didn't have all the cool asian ingredients that I needed at home, so I ended up making my own recipe for the filling and the dipping sauce. As long as you use your creativity and think asian it's fine!


Ingredients for filling
250 g ground pork
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 carrot
1/3 of an apple (my little touch)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 shallot
1/2 tsp ginger (fresh or powdered)
a package of wonton dough
1 cup of water, pinch of salt


Ingredients for sauce
soy sauce
rice wine vinegar
sesame oil
teriyaki sauce (just 1 tsp)


How to do it:
Start with the pork filling. Finely chop the shallot, carrot and apple. Add to the ground pork. Mix in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and ginger. When I had mixed it all together I did a test by rolling a little ball of pork and cooking it in a pan. It's important to taste it to make sure that all the flavors are right. The pork filling should have plenty of flavor (so if it needs a little more soy sauce or sesame oil, go ahead and add a tad more). When the pork filling is done it's time to fill the little wonton dough squares. Wonton dough is very thin, but still easy to handle. Place a little more than a teaspoon of filling on each wonton square. Brush the sides of the wonton dough with water and simply squeeze it together to form a pocket. Make sure they are sealed tight, so the filling doesn't end up falling out. The pork filling will make about 20-25 dumplings, depending on how much you fill each one. 

Heat up a little bit of canola oil in a cast iron skillet (medium-high heat). Place the dumplings next to each other in the pan and fry for about 2 minutes or until you see that they are nice and golden brown underneath. Add the salted water, reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and let the dumplings simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Remove the lid from the pan and let the water burn away. Pot stickers tend to stick a little bit to the pan (therefor the name) but don't worry, you'll get them out of there. 


For the sauce:
This is the easiest part of preparing this dinner. Just combine soy sauce, sesame oil, a hint of teriyaki and rice wine vinegar in a bowl and stir. Taste if it has the flavor that you like. I always kind of "wing it" when I make any kind of sauce. You can always add a little more of something and adjust until it's right where you want it to be. 


Pot stickers are normally served as an appetizer but it really doesn't matter, considering they're quite filling and satisfying as a main course as well. I also made chinese pickled cucumber to complement this dish. Adding something fresh, tangy and crunchy to this meal just tops it all off!

津津有味
Enjoy!

Almond butter
with a hint of pecan and walnut

























This is my new favorite thing to keep in the fridge. Almond butter. It's packed with good stuff like nutritious fats, vitamins, fiber and proteins. I can do nothing but just LOVE this thick, sticky, slightly crunchy nutty butter. As for me, making home made almond butter from scratch instead of buying it in the store is simply the best! 


Whipping up the almond butter is an easy task, but if you don't have a really good blender it might take you some time to get the alomnds ground up and eventually into a paste. It took me almost a whole day to get the almond butter just the right consistency that I wanted (also because I had the worst stick blender to work with). 


Igredients
2 cups of almonds
1/2 cup of pecans
1/2 cup of walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
a couple pinches of sea salt


How to do it:
Start off by toasting the nuts in the oven. It's a good idea to keep an eye on them while they're in the oven, if they are left in too long and roast too much the toasty flavor gets overpowering. After they've cooled down and gotten dry it's time to start grinding them up. I used a blender. Don't do all the nuts at the same time, it can get tough for the blender to mix it all. What's great about making almond butter is that you don't just have to stick to almonds. Dumping in some pecan, walnuts, macadamia or why not sunflower seeds is a prefect way to give the butter a different but subtle dimension in flavor and consistency. I love how this almond butter turned out, with a hint of the pecans and walnuts in the background. Adding vanilla sugar also gives the almond butter a round and cozy flavor that goes perfectly well in combination with the different nuts.

Olive bread
An earthy tasting bread with fresh
olive oil and greek kalamata olives


























I admit, I am "the ultimate olive fanatic", and whoever reads my blog is going to have to deal with that fetish of mine. My addiction is pretty serious considering I've already written a cook book about olives and, hold your horses, my middle name is Olivia! Anyway, I love the little suckers in all their different forms and colors. I love olives in salads, I love them in my glas of dry martini and of course, I love them in my bread! See, I can't behave myself. My love for olives is downright invincible.


As for this bread, all I did was I used the recipe for Pan à l'ancienne (posted prior to this) as a guide line. I used it because I just love the texture of that bread when it comes out of the oven. So, Peter Reinharts Pan á l'ancienne is turned into Olive bread á l'Benson!


When making the dough I added about a cup of good extra virgin olive oil (I always prefer spanish oil) and 1,5-2 cups of chopped kalamata olives. I mixed the two extra ingredients into the dough with everything else before placing the dough in the fridge over night. The bread is super easy to make, just make sure that there is enough flour in the dough since adding olive oil and olives (that contain a lot of liquid) can tend to make the dough more loose. Just add a little more flour until you find the consistency of it to be right.

I made four of these leaf-shaped olive breads. On two of the breads I sprinkled thyme and sea salt, just to give it some variety in looks and flavor. Also, shaping the bread as a leaf is so much fun, and very easy to do. It doesn't have to look perfect, that's the finess of it. Just dump the dough on a baking sheet, spread it out (be careful though, you don't want to push out the air) and use a pair of scissors to cut the holes. Your friends will be very impressed if you are having a dinner party with this type of bread!


























A little over a week ago my mother, Monika, turned 50 and she wanted to celebrate this birthday with a humungous party in our home town Lund. There was a lot of preperation going on last week, and luckily my mom wanted be to be a big part of it. So I cooked and I also did a lot of baking, because we were of course refusing to buy store-bought bread. Home made bread beats it all, especially when it's made from real sourdough and fresh ingredients. Me and my sister Emily were responsible for the bread table, so we each made 3 different breads. This olive bread was on of the breads that I made, and here's a picture of our bread table. It's a real treat for the eye, just to look at it.

On the bread table we have Danish ryebread, Pan al ancienne, Ciabbatas, Beer bread, Olive bread, Levain (sourdough bread) and swedish sourdough crispbread.

On the sign by the bread table it says; "St. Benson´s convection oven bakery" instead of "St. Benson´s stone oven bakery". That´s me and my sister Emily, just making a statement that you don´t need a fancy oven to make wonderfully tasting bread! 

Pan à l'ancienne
From Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice"

This bread, lo and behold, is your shortcut to a perfect almost sourdough like french baguette, with a crunchy golden crust and wonderfully chewy inside. It is, in other words, pretty much the easiest complex looking bread you can make. The secret is using a technique called delayed fermentation. You basically put the baking "on hold". I can only tell you this. Pan à l'ancienne is a bread far from labor-intensive, perfect for the lazy bums who still have a desire to enjoy rustic-looking and flavorful bread. 


Now always keep this in mind when making any kind of bread. Storing a dough in the refrigerator over night is always an option, if you have to put the baking on hold. It also benefits the flavor of the bread, giving the result a more profound and intense aroma. Now, for the recipe. It does not contain any sour dough starter at all, but instead instant yeast. I've always found it irritating when baking with yeast, just because the result of the bread always turns out too "store bought"-soft and without any a good crust. But, what I've discovered now is that if you don't have the time or motivation to start from scratch with your own sour dough, just go ahead and use instant yeast but make sure you combine it with the technique of delaying the fermentation. Sure, you will have to start the dough the day before you bake it, but how big of a deal is that? The bread or pizza crust will turn out to be delicious, with almost the same flavor and texture as of a real sour dough baguette/pizza.

Makes 6 small baguettes or 4 pizzas

Ingredients:

6 cups high protein flour (King Arthur is what I normally use in the US. In Sweden I'd go with Jan Hedhs Monitoba Cream or just Vetemjöl Special)

2 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 intstant yeast (in Sweden I'd use fresh yeast)

3 cups of ice cold water

How to do it:

Day 1:

Combine the flour, salt, yeast and the water in a bowl. If you have an electric mixer, go ahead and use that to mix the dough. I myself prefer doing it manually, especially when handling a dough that is pretty small like this one. When the dough is mixed it should release from the sides of the bowl but still be sticky on the bottom. Lightly oil a large bowl, and immediately place the dough in it. Dust the top with flour, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

Day 2: 

The next day, the dough should be partially risen (at least a little bubbly). Leave the bowl of dough out in room temperature for about 2 to 3 hours prior to baking. I have a funny routine of placing my doughs on top of the washing machine in the laundry room, just to give it some extra warmth and comfort while rising. This will allow the dough to wake up, lose it's chill and continue fermenting.

Preheat the oven to 500 ̊ F ( 300 ̊ C). Make sure you have a stone or a baking sheet placed in the oven to bake the breads on. When the dough has doubled from its original prerefrigerated size, sprinkle the counter with plenty of bread flour. Gently scrape out the dough on to the counter, making sure not to press out any air from it. These are the bubbles that we want to keep! What you have now is a big wet dough laying like flat pancake on your counter. What I do is I dust the dough with plenty of flour, making sure it's coated all over. Then I cut it lenghtwise into 6 longs pieces of dough. Each piece of dough is then placed on a baking sheet with baking parchment and pulled out lengthwise to create a baguette. The dough might look very flat and wet, but I can assure you that it will rise and puff up in the oven. I place three baguettes on each baking sheet. Let them rest for 5 minutes.

When the oven is heated, open it and slide the parchment paper with the breads on to the stone or the baking sheet that is already in the oven. I usually throw in an ice cube or spray in a good amount of water to give the bread a good crust. After 8-9 minutes they should be golden brown and have puffed up into nice round baguettes. Take them out and place them on a cooling rack.

Baked mussles with garlic butter

Moules gratinées à l'escargot
















I've always admired the way how garlic and butter, two simple ingredients cooking gently on the stove, can spread so much comfort and warmth in a house. It's one of those smells I've grown up learning to love and appreciate in a way that most people don't. It's just remarkable how something so simple can fill the entire house with such a cozy and appetizing smell,  almost as satisfying as eating the food itself.


Enough about my philosophical thoughts about the wonderful marriage of garlic and butter. I will now be sharing a delicious belgian recipe that just captures the essence of what I just wrote up above. I had these garlic mussles at a restaurant in Brussels last autumn and oh are they to die for. I've always been a sucker for, believe it or not, the french dish Escargot, snails in garlic butter. Actually, my secret conclusion is that anything with garlic and butter ends up tasting like a piece of heaven in your mouth. Finito!


Ingredients
2 lbs of blue mussles (preferably already cooked and in halves)
2 sticks of butter
2 small shallots, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/3 of a cup of parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper
breadcrumbs (optional)


Baguette - to compliment the dish (preferably your own homemade sour dough bread ;)


How to do it:
Preheat your oven at 400 ̊ F (205 ̊ C). Start off by rinsing the mussles well. When making the garlic butter, make sure the butter is room temperature. Mix together the chopped shallots, garlic, parsley and gently incorporate it into the soft butter. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Place in fridge to cool before handling putting it on the mussles. Place the mussle halves on an oven tray. Put about 1 teaspoon of garlic butter on each half, making sure every mussle gets a good amount of that wonderful garlicy goodness! This is optional, but I like gicing the mussle a little crust on top. Sprinkling some fine bread crumbs on each mussle gives them a very appetizing look and it'll turn nice and golden brown in the oven.
Bake the mussles for a few minutes, keeping a good eye on them.


Serve the mussles when fresh out of the oven. I prefer the family style way, you know, placing the tray in the middle of the table and letting people pick them up one by one as they eat. This will without doubt create a very intimate and enjoyable meal for family or friends. I like to keep it simple some times, not too pretentious. Having some bread with this dish is perfect considering the fact that you really NEED to have something to soak up all those garlic butter juices in the bottom of the tray. I personally say bread was invented just for that reason. 


Hope you enjoy this and don't hesitate 
to give me your input or comments on the dish! 
/Oliv

cupcakes take the cake

Mini fudge brownie cupcakes 
with decadent coffee frosting 
















If you are looking for the beyond ultimate chocolate comfort food, this cupcake is the absolute thing for you. A little treat, smaller than a golf boll, that fits perfectly in your mouth just in one bite, that's what I'm talking about. And even better, that with a cup of freshly brewed coffee or, what the heck, a glass of ice cold milk is pretty much unbeatable.  My grandmother Judy was hosting a baby shower a couple of weeks ago, and she gave me full responsibility for the cupcake section of the buffet table. Two little mini cupcakes were to be made, so I decided to go with a carrot cupcake and a brownie cupcake. The carrot cupcakes turned out excellent considering we were using grandma's all time favorite recipe containing the secret ingredient crushed pineapple (now not so secret anymore though). This made them moist and down right delicious, but still I think there was something about the brownie cupcakes that wowed many more people than the carrot cupcakes could ever achieve to do.


Now for these yummy brownies, the trick is not to add too much flour to the batter, in order to get them real fudgy and chewy. At least that's how I and Katherine Hepburn like our brownies. Another thing is to not whip the eggs with the sugar, since that'll add air to the batter creating a fluffier brownie. Instead, sifting all the dry ingredients together, and then at last adding the wet ingredients while carefully stirring to combine is the best way to do it.


Ingredients for fudge brownie cupcakes
100 g butter
3 dl sugar  ( about 1,3 cups)
1,5 dl flour ( 0,6 cups)
5-6 tbsp cocopowder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
2 eggs, room temp.


Turn on the oven (350˚ F / 175˚ C). Start off by melting the butter, then let it cool. Sift together all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the melted butter and eggs to the dry ingredients and stir carefully with a wooden spoon to combine. The batter should be pretty thick (gooey like) and dark. Distribute the batter into mini size cups and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 10 min, although it depends on how fudgy you want them to be. When the cupcakes are done baking they can cool off on a cookie rack. I place them in the fridge to speed up the "cooling down period".


Ingredients for coffee frosting
100 g butter room temp.
confectioners sugar
2-3 tpsp espresso/very strong coffee
1/2 tsp salt
vanilla extract/vanilla powder
whipping cream (for extra creamy frosting!)


Beat the butter with a little bit of the sugar. Add the coffee, salt, vanilla extract and whipping cream. Beat until combined and smooth. Last add the rest of the sugar (in this case, as much as needed to form a smooth think frosting). 


Enjoy! (don't forget to eat this little treat with a cup of coffee, or cold milk. It'll enhance the chocolatey sensation of the brownie. yum.)

On the road

The culinary frosting on 
the cake of my adventures 


Da maste jag borja med att valkomna mig sjalv tillbaka till bloggandet, eftersom det var en himla tid sedan jag senast uppdaterade. Jag har varit pa vift i 4 manader och endast bloggat tva ynka sma ganger, fy vad jag skams. Eller na, ska jag vara helt arlig sa har det varit riktigt skont att bara inte bry sig om en enda sak ett tag. Man maste fa tillata sig sjalv att gora det da och da i livet. Jag tror det gor en gott, bade i sjalen och i kroppen. I borjan av resandet hade jag avsikten att lata min blogg bli som en res(mat)dagbok dar familj och vanner kunde folja med i mina kulinariska upplevelser runtom i Sydamerika. Tyvarr blev det bara inlaggen om Argentina, och inte mycket mer an det. Dar ser man att det blir minsann aldrig som man tankt sig. Hursomhelst sa har det varit one hell of an adventure som jag varit ute pa, och nu vill jag entusiastiskt och mer an garna dela med mig av alla mina oforglomliga kulinariska upplevelser. 

Argentina
Det hela borjade med en stek fran Pampas. En stek som med stora ord kom att revolutionera min syn pa kott, for all framtid. Det gar inte riktigt att beskriva det fantastiska med en akta argentinsk stek. Om det har med sjalva kottet att gora aller sattet de argentinska kockarna tillagar det pa, det vet jag inte. Allt jag vet ar att om man kommer som vegetarian till Argentina sa kan man sent glomma att lamna landet som sadan. Det gar liksom inte att hejda sig. Man maste bara ha kott!

Inte nog med att Argentina erbjuder gudomligt kott, de har aven en rad andra fantastiska sma ratter som vacker ens smaklokar till liv och vander upp och ner pa ens kulinariska tillvaro. Ta bara en titt pa den har fantastiska kottempanadan, som ar en typisk "to go-ratt" i Argentina. Arvet fran Spanien framtader tydligt nar det kommer till Argentinas enorma utbud av dessa smakfyllda sma paket. Antingen kan en empanada var det vidrigaste som finns, eller sa kan det ocksa vara det mest fantastiska du nagonsin satt tanderna i. Den har frasiga kottempanadan med saftigt marinerat biffkott inuti var den basta jag at i hela Argentina. Jag skojar inte, titta bara pa den. Det har ar utomordentlig perfektion i mina ogon.

Harnast har vi efterratten Flan, som jag fortfarande har lite svart for. Det ar liksom inte riktigt min grej att ata sotsliskig "bread pudding"-aktig kaka med ca en deciliter dulce de leche till, men ar det Argentinskt sa ar det, och da ska det provas! Aven denna ratt ar ett arv fran vara spanska conquistadorer. Den har flan(en) pa bilden nedan var nog den basta utav de tva jag hade i hela Argentina, om jag nu ska valja. Den hade bra konsistens (var inte for brodig och for vattnig) och bidrog med precis lagom sotma i kombination med dulce de lechen. Och ja, om ni undrar sa dallrar den ganska mycket nar man ror den, men manga gillar det antar jag. Flan ar inte bara en popular efterratt i Argentina, utan aven typisk i storre delen av Sydamerika.

Sist men inte minst har vi den dar "mest populara drickan", som mer eller mindre existerar i varje lands kultur och urtida tradition. I Sverige dricker vi arligen liter av mjolk, men i Argentina har vi Yerba mate, en ortdryck som dricks varm och pa ett mycket speciellt satt. Jag sjalv tyckte valdigt mycket om hela konceptet kring yerba mate-drickandet. Samla ett gang i parken eller hemma i vardagsrummet, sla er ned bekvamt med en kopp yerba mate, och dar har ni det. Matedrickandet i sin allra basta, renaste form. Meningen ar alltsa att man fyller koppen halvvags  med Yerbaorten, och haller sedan varmt vatten over det tills koppen ar helt fylld. Ett sugror av metall anvands for att dricka maten, som jag demonsterar sa attraktivt har pa bilden nedan.

Brasilien
Om maten i Brasilien finns det inte sa mycket att saga om. Kanske kanner jag en viss avsmak gentemot den Brasilianska gastronomin eftersom jag fick en matforgiftning till foljd utav att jag tryckt i mig en jakla Calabresakorv pa ett hostel i Paraty. Fy sager jag bara. Men ja, i det stora hela var det inte mycket som imponerade pa mig i matvag i detta land. Brasilien ar liksom Argentina aven en stor kottkultur. Dock kan ju inget, enligt mig, mata sig med det fantastiska kott jag fick smaka i Argentina. Inte ens den japanska Kobebiffen kan sla det gudomliga pampaskottet. 


Nagot jag dock tyckte var ganska exotiskt (men kanske lite overkskattat) var drickan Coco Verde, som mer eller mindre serverades vid varje gatuhorn, varenda strand och ja, "en cualquier lugar" (vilket stalle somhelst) i Brasilien. Coco Verde ar alltsa en farsk kokosnot som oppnats upp med ett litet hal pa toppen, dar ett sugror sticks ned. Man dricker den vattniga drycken och ska tydligen njuta av det har. Jag tyckte det smakade ackligt, Lovisa likasa (tror jag). Kokoskottet inuti kan man ata efter man har druckit upp kokosmjolken, dock kanns det lite smatt slajmigt och framfor allt smaklost. Na, Coco Verde var ingen stor hit for mig, men tydligen en stor framgang bland Brasiliens turister som tycker det ser lite exotiskt ut att sitta och sippa kokosmjolk ur en gron not pa stranden.

En annan stor del i Brasiliens matkultur ar Acaí, en slags smoothie gjord pa det blabarsliknande acaibaret, packad med antioxidanter och vitaminer. Baret vaxer pa acaipalmtradet Euterpe oleracea. Frukten sags ha manga halsosamma fordelar, sasom att forhindra hjartsjukdomar och olika former av cancer. Nar jag och Lovisa var i Rio testade vi detta endast en enda gang. Det var valdigt gott men ganska sott och extremt mattande. For ca 2-3 reais far man en stor kopp med acai. Det far bli dagens "stora maltid" om man valjer att trycka i sig en sadan har.


Att ata ur ett bananlov ute i djungeln ar nagot unikt. Man kanner sig lite nostalgiskt som Mowgli i Djungelboken, eller mera moget forklarat, som Tom Hanks i Castaway. Det gar inte riktigt att beskriva kanslan av att sitta och ata Brasiliansk tonfisk pa burk med lite black eyed peas ur ett bananlov, med havet framfor sig och djungeln bakom sig. En upplevelse jag sent kommer glomma, som jag med stor gladje vill dela med mig av har. Man "tager vad man haver", det var det jag, Lovisa och Annika gjorde nar vi campade pa stranden i Ubatuba. Vi fick helt enkelt anvanda det som fanns tillhanda runtomkring oss. Klimatsmart ocksa!

Innan jag avslutar mitt matprat om Brasilien maste jag bara visa en bild pa en ananas som vaxer vilt i djungeln. Det var en ganska sa haftig upplevelse att passera banantrad lite har och dar och ratt som det ar stota pa en hel dros med ananasfrukter som vaxte sa har;

Peru
Peru var ett land med varierad natur och fantastiskt landskap. Maten ar ganska traditionsenlig, d.v.s. mycket av det som ats idag ats aven av inkafolket flera hundra ar sedan. I Peru stod kycklingen i centrum. Den ats garna friterat, men aven grillad och i grytor och soppor. Nagon specifik kycklingratt som jag tyckte var extra god har jag inte, daremot at jag en vanlig trakig kycklingsoppa i Cuzco som smakade sa frascht och ljuvligt, att jag nastan maste saga att den slar mammas hemmalagade version.

Befinner man sig langs kusten i Peru, t.ex. i Lima, sa ar det mycket fisk och skaldjur som galler. Olika slags kompotter med alltifran krabba, rakor, blackfisk och pilgrimsmusslor gar att hitta pa manga restaurangers menyer. Den mest kanda ratten ar ceviche som ursprungligen kommer fran Peru. Caviche ar alltsa en enkel blandning av olika skaldjur, som latits marinera i lime, salt och peppar och lite koriander. Jag at en helt fantastisk ceviche pa en restaurang nere vid piren i Lima. Jag fick betala big bucks for den, men sa vart det var!


En delikatess i Peru, som jag och Lovisa at pa julafton, var marsvin. Kottet imponerade kanske inte sa mycket pa mig. Daremot gillar jag hur de serverade denna (husdjurs)ratt. Lite retroaktigt, som vi brukade ha en stor grillad gris pa julbordet en gang i tiden. Marsvin smakar lite som en blandning mellan kofta, lader och overkokt griskott. Skinnet ska vara en delikatess, speciellt det nere vid fotterna. 

Guatemala
Ah, Guatemala. Jag har nastan bara goda saker att saga om Guatemala. Antligen ett land som lever i overflod av riktigt fin avokado! Nar jag anlande i Guatemala City den 6:e januari 2011 visste jag direkt att jag skulle falla pladask for maten har. Majs, bonor, avokado, kyckling, kott och lite kryddor ovanpa det. Det ar Guatemalas mat, som i kombinationer med varandra blir till himmelska sma ratter. Enkla, precis som jag vill ha det.

Forst och framst har vi majstortilla (tortilla de maiz) som utgor basfodan i Guatemala, tillsammans med bonor (frijoles). Det har enkla tunnbrodet ats inte bara i Guatemala utan aven i hela Centralamerika och delar av Sydamerika. Tortillan ar gjord pa torkade majskorn som enkelt forklarat kokat i en blandning av vatten och lime. Slutligen mals den kokta majsen ned till en sa kallad maza (massa) som man gor tortillasen av.


Tortillas de maiz kan atas pa manga olika satt, for sig sjalv eller saklart tillsammans med nagot, som en taco. Nagot jag upptackte pa matmarknaden i Antigua en av de forsta dagarna som jag var dar var en quesadillaliknande ratt gjord med majstortillas och ost. man tar en bit maza, gor det till en boll, trycker ner en rejal bit queso fresco och formar sedan tortillan till en platt quesadilla. Om jag inte misstar mig ar det har en ratt som kommer fran grannlandet El Salvador, dar den kallas pupusa. Sa har sag den ut nar den var klar, och gud sa god den var! Den serverades med farsk guacamole och tomatig salsasas.

Nagot annat jag fastnade for var fyllda chilis, Chiles Rellenos, som man oftast at tillsammans med en majstortilla och guacamole. Har ar en bild fran matmarknaden i Antigua.

Mmm, friterat! Det fanns overallt. Inte for att jag ar en stor fan av detta, men jag maste anda saga att friterad banan sa har som pa bilden var ganska gott anda. I lagom mangder.

Den basta juicen jag nagonsin druckit kommer fran Gutemala. Ah, den bara slank ner latt som en platt. Nectar de Durazno ar alltsa en juice gjord pa persikor. Med en lite tjockare konsistens och precis lagom sotma far den en att kanna sig helt mysig inombords. Den vacker till liv kanslorna av hur det var att dricka valling som liten, och inte vet jag egentligen varfor. Sa kan jag helt enkelt som bast beskriva det! Har sitter vi pa en takvaning i Antigua, med utsikt over staden och vulkanerna Agua och El Fuego i bakgrunden.


Mexiko
Tacos, tacos, tacos. Det ar val det som Mexiko stoltserar med om man ska namna nagot unikt med landets matkultur. Visst har de aven andra storfavoriter som tostadan, quesadillan, flautan, chilaquilen och enchiladan, men tacon ligger mig varmast om hjartat om jag ska vara helt arlig. Oftast blev det middag i ett litet "hole in the wall"-stalle. Billigast och godast! Pa bilden nedan har vi tacos con res, alltsa tacos med biffkott.

Mexiko ar ocksa som alla kanske redan fattar "guacamole heaven". Har fick man den basta, mest sensationella, smakrika, utomordentliga, avokadoexploderande guacamolen man kan tanka sig. Jag tror jag at guacamole varje dag, med lite krispiga tortillas de maiz och en corona ol. Inget slar den har klassiska ljuvliga kombinationen.