Fiesta Colombiana!

I've had an absolutely great time being back in the UK. I've been catching up with friends and family, soaking up all things British and enjoying what feels like a million cups of tea (and many a mince pie too!). As happy as I am to be reunited with these British delights, I also wanted to share a bit of Colombian cuisine with my friends here in London too.

Before leaving Barranquilla I hit up the supermarket to stock up on certain Colombian goodies. With a night out in London on the cards, I thought it was the perfect excuse to host a Colombian themed pre-party at mine.

I assessed what ingredients I had to hand (along with what would be available in the UK), and set out making my menu. To drink I chose typical aguardiente (think sambucca but smoother), agua panela cocktails (brown sugar water...in my opinion made to be mixed with rum), and juice from a fruit called borojo, as I had brought over the pulp.

To eat, chicken wings and traditional arepas were on the menu, made with corn flour which I bought from Colombia. These were topped with guacamole and tomato salsa, which also went nicely with the patacones al horno I served (recipe found here). On my local high street I even managed to find yucca, a root vegetable popular in Colombia. The yucca was boiled and served with fromage frais, which I hoped would be some kind of equivalent to the delicious costeño dip suero, which is a bit like sour cream.

When one of your desserts comes from a package, you know you're in for a classy dinner.

And of course - dessert was compulsory. The cake from my previous post featured, as did natilla - a traditional Colombian flan, made from panela, served with cream and strawberries. This came freshly from the packet, and I felt very retro chic serving flan with whipped cream.

To list all the recipes here would be far too lengthy, but really a lot of them were quite basic. The tomato salsa was simple but classic, from none other than the goddess that is Delia Smith (check out her recipe here). 

The chicken wings (seen above in the glass bowl) were marinated in a last minute concoction of what I deemed to be a 'Colombian-inspired' sauce, and they turned out to be really tasty.

To give them a go, you need:

'Colombian style' marinated chicken wings

-2 tbsp cumin seeds, ground
-2 garlic cloves
-Generous drizzling of olive oil
-A spoonful of chilli sauce (depending on how hot you like it)
-A tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter
-A large handful of coriander leaves
-Plenty of salt and pepper
-3 tbsp of thick greek yogurt.

All whizzed in a blender, this made a lovely thick marinade for the wings. Coat wings in marinade from anything up to 24 hours before serving (the longer the better really), and then cook at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Soon enough, the food was ready and the feast was served!

My retro flan and passion fruit sponge were accompanied by the very welcome addition of Celebrations - and now I really feel like it's Christmas. Overall it was a lovely evening spent with wonderful people, catching up and sharing a great variety of food (and drink...). 

Here's to Colombian food reaching London, and catching up with old friends. I intend on bringing back a few British treats to Barranquilla too, but fear the delights of Heinz baked beans may be lost on the Barranquilleros. Still, a girl can always try!

British Baking (with a Barranquillero twist)

Guess who's back in London for Christmas? After bidding a brief farewell to my beloved Barranquilla, I touched back down in London to spend Christmas with my friends and family back here in the UK. One of the many exciting things about being back home is being close to all the little things I love - especially my collection of cookbooks!

I do really love a good cookbook.

I spent an evening curled up in bed back with my old friends Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson and Mary Berry. Having brought back various Colombian goodies with me, I could just envision one of Mary Berry's traditional English cakes with a new Colombian twist to it. And what cake is more traditional than the classic Victoria Sponge? Proving that often less is more, this simple sponge cake with just a touch of jam, cream and fresh berries is a much-loved classic and an iconic British bake. Dare I fiddle with this?

Fiddle I did, and to much success! Replacing the British strawberries with Colombian arequipe (dulce de leche to Argentinians,caramel to you and me), a touch of coconut and a passion fruit cream, here is my twist on the traditional English sponge.

Ingredients

For the Cake:
225g of butter (at room temperature, plus a bit extra for greasing the tins)
225g of caster sugar
225g of self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
4 large eggs

For Filling:
200g Arequipe/Caramel
150g cream cheese
100g double cream, whipped
100g icing sugar
2 generous tbsp of desiccated coconut
Passionfruit pulp from 5 passion fruits

Equipment:
Two victoria Sponge tins
A good whisk!

(Have you noticed anything about the measurements for this cake? Equal amounts of butter, sugar, and flour. Add in 4 eggs and 2 tsp of baking powder and you have the backbone of about 100 delicious sponge-cake recipes. Learn these ingredients, practice this cake, and you have mastered a classic. How easy is that?!).

Method:

Line cake tins with cake tin liners or grease with some butter. Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees/350 Fahrenheit.

1) Cube butter and place in a large bowl. Add in the caster sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs (crack in one at a time).
2) Here you can use a hand or electric whisk to combine ingredients. You want to do this at a slow speed to gain a nice soft mixture which should drop off your whisk when lifted up.
3) Spread mix evenly between two tins and pop in your preheated oven for between 20-30 minutes, until cakes are starting to shrink away the sides and are springy when pressed. Take out and leave to cool - and when cooled the cakes can be removed from tins.
4) Now time for our filling! Get out your arequipe (or caramel, should the case be - carnation sell a
good ready made one), and spread with a smile on top of the base layer. If it's a little tough, a quick blast in the microwave helps its spreadability.
5) To make the icing, firstly whip your double cream until it is thick. Then add in cream cheese, your desiccated coconut, icing sugar and passionfruit pulp.

(To get your passionfruit pulp, simply put seeds in a strainer, and mush into the mesh with a spoon.)

6) Sandwich second sponge on top, and smooth over a bit more cream. Here your artistic license is at play - warm up and drizzle over some more caramel, dot on a few passion fruit seeds - whatever your heart desires!

A simple sponge cake tropically transformed into a coconut, caramel and passion fruit delight. Serve with a nice cup of English tea, or a shot of aguardiente (a Colombian alcoholic spirit) - that choice I will leave up to you!