Poem to Mother

In the deepest of you,
I know I have betrayed, mother!

All because I no longer am
The sleeping portrait
In the depth of your eyes!

All because you ignore
That there are beds where coldness doesn’t linger
And rustling nights of morning waters!

For that, sometimes, the words I tell you
Are hard, mother,
And our love is unhappy.

All because I’ve lost the white roses
You clenched to your heart
In the portrait with the frame!

If you knew how I still love the roses,
Maybe you wouldn’t fill your hours with nightmares…

But you have forgotten many things!
You have forgotten that my legs grew,
And that all of my body has grown,
And even my heart
Is now huge, mother!

Look – do you want to listen? -,
Sometimes I am still the little boy
That fell asleep in your eyes;

I still clench against my heart
Roses so white
As the ones you have in the frame;

I still hear your voice:
Once upon a time there was a princess
amidst the orange trees…

But – you know! – the night is enormous
And all my body has grown…
I left the frame,
I gave my eyes as water to the birds,

I shan’t forget, mother.
I keep your voice inside me.
And I leave you the roses…

Goodnight. I go with the birds!

Eugénio de Andrade

I’ve made this post for mother’s day but I couldn’t find any time to translate the recipe… Anyway I think it’s the least important thing today…

Serves 4:

Meringues:
2 egg whites
Same weight in icing sugar and granulated sugar
(approximately 70 g for Class M eggs’)

Pre-heat the oven to 80ºC.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine the sugars.
Whisk the egg yolks and gently add the sugar until firm peaks form.
Usin a pastry bag pipe the batter onto the parchment paper in small circles.
Bake for 2 hours.

Strawberry sorbet

160 ml water
135 g sugar
1 kg strawberries
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp Grand Marnier

Purée the strawberries.
Seive.
Combine the pulp with Grand Marnier and lemon juice and refrigerate until completely cold.
Prepare a syrup with the water and sugar, boiling until the sugar completely dissolves.
Remove from heat and let it cool down completely.
Combine the cold syrup with the pulp.

Pass the sirbet trough the ice cream machine and place it in the freezer.
Put it the refrigerator for 20 minutes before serving.

Traditional method (without ice cream machine):
Pour the mixture into a stainless steel bowl and cover with wrap film.
Freeze until the sides are frozen but the center is still slightly tender.
Use a food processor to blend the mixture.
Freeze and repeat the process at least two more times (at 1h-1h30 intervals).
Freeze for one hour before serving.

Fill the meringues with the starwberry sorbet.

“[Die slowly] He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day (…)”

Pablo Neruda

…today I’m heading to South America…

This is a typical dessert from Chile.
In Argentine it’s called Rogel and is usually topped with meringue.

Hojarasca con Manjar

Pastry:

225 g wheat flour
60 g butter, melted and cold
60 g white wine
4 egg yolk

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine all the ingredients until smooth.
Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Roll out the dough over a lightly floured worksurface to 1mm thick.
Cut the dough with the desired shape and size.
Pinch the pastry with a fork and bake for 5 minutes or until light brown.

Dulce de leche (traditional way)

3l milk
1 vanilla bean (seeds)
800g sugar
½ tsp baking soda

On a heavy-bottomed pan bring the milk, vanilla bean and sugar to boil until sugar dissolves itself.
Add the baking soda and keep boiling.
When the mixture starts to thicken, stir constantly.
Stir ocasionally for 3 hours until it reduces its volume and get a brown tone.
Remove from heat and stir until cold.

Dulce de leche (simpler way)

1 condensed milk can

Place the can totally immersed in water on a pan.
Bring to boil over high heat.
Reduce to low heat and keep boiling for 3 1/2 hours.
Add water as needed.
Open the can when completely cold (very important!).

You can also use a pressure cooker.

Italian Meringue

450g sugar
120ml water
230g egg whites
a pinch of salt

Combine 340g of the sugar with the water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Continue cooking without stirring, until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (116ºC).
Place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a wire whip attachment and whip the whites on medium speed until frothy.
Gradually add the remaining 110g sugar and beat the meringue to medium peaks.
Add the syrup to the meringue in a slow and steady stream while whipping on medium speed.
Whip on high speed to stiff peaks. Continue to beat until completely cold.

Assembly:

Spread generously the dulce de leche over a pastry layer (it’s easier if you heat the dulce the leche to avoid breaking the pastry).
Place another pastry layer on top and repeat this operation as many times as you want.
Top with the meringue. Use a torch to brown the meringue.

And because a picture is worth a thousand words…

Chocolate crust:

To a 20-23 cms diameter pan:

15 g cocoa
125 g flour
36 g icing sugar
75 g cold butter, chopped
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water

Pre-heat the oven to 180º C.
Combine together dry ingredients.
Add butter and blend.
Add egg yolk and water.
Wrap tightly and refrigerate (30 minutes).
Roll out the dough (5mm thick).
Transfer the rolled dough to the pan.
Dock the bootom of the crust to prevent it from bubbling up.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Caramel and lemon filling:

150 g sugar
180 ml cream
30 ml lemon juice
1/4 lemon zest
20 g cornstarch
5 egg yolks
90 ml water

Prepare a caramel with the sugar.
Add the warm cream and stir gently until completely blended.
Add cornstarch (dissolved in water), lemon juice and zest.
Bring to medium heat to thicken.
Remove from heat, stir to cool down and add whisked egg yolks.

Meringue:

4 egg whites
250 g sugar
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until stiff peaks form.

Pre-heat the oven to 150ºC.
Fill the crust with the caramel and lemon mixture and top with meringue.
Bake until meringue is dry.

A spirals’ coreography cheers the small meringue discs.
At the oven’s compass, chocolate comes for a solo.
Dacquoise stands up between the ganache and the play ends with an hungry standing ovation…

Hazelnut Dacquoise with chocolate

To make 22 meringue circles:

215 g skinned hazelnuts: 80 g in small pieces + 135 g powdered
150 g Icing sugar
5 egg whites
50 g extrafine sugar
Icing sugar to sprinkle

Pre-heat the oven to 170º C.
Combine icing sugar with the powdered nuts and seive.
Whip the egg whites and add sugar until the whites form firm peaks.
Slowly fold the nut mixture into the whites with a rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
Pipe the meringue on the prepared pan into spirals starting at the center of each circle (12 cms diameter).
Sprinkle the hazelnuts in small pieces over the meringue circles.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and wait 10 minutes. Repeat this process and wait 10 minutes more.
Bake the dacquoises until they’re golden and firm (20 minutes).
Cool on racks.

Chocolate ganache

To make 320 g:
150 g butter
160 g 70% dark chocolate, chopped
110 ml whole milk

Soften the butter with a fork until it gets creamy. Set aside.
Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl.
Bring the milk to boil over medium heat.
Slowly pour the milk over the chocolate and gently stir in circles.
When the mixture is below 60ºC add the butter.
Stir gently and as little as possible to keep the soft texture.
Let it cool until it gets a creamy texture.
Transfer the ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip.

To assemble:

Place one meringue circle hazelnuts-up and make small ganache balls next to the edge. Top with another meringue circle.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.