Taste The World - US

A guest post from Anca 

Hi. I would like to introduce myself, I’m Anca, an expat living for the last 3 years in UK and I share my recipes at cookstyle.co.uk.

I want to thank Mellissa for giving me the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about a challenge I started a few months ago and that I hope to finish in March 2017. The challenge is called Taste the World and I will cook 119 meals, from every part of the world. So far I cooked a few meals and I enjoy it a lot. There are things that I wouldn't normally try, but that will change my cooking style.

As Mellissa is visiting US, I decided to make an all American meal. I found a lot of interesting recipes and in the end I chose to make Corn chowder, Mac&Cheese and Hummingbird cake.


Chowder is a northern American soup that can be made with corn or seafood. The base of the dish is milk or cream. It is a simple and fast dish to make and it is very good. 



For 4 servings I've used an onion, 400g creamed corn, 300g corn, 700ml vegetable stock and 300ml milk and a few spoons of olive oil.

Saute the chopped onion for a couple of minutes in the olive oil. When it starts to get brown, add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil. Add the salt and pepper and leave it to boil for a few more minutes. Top the soup with fresh coriander and it is ready to be served.



Mac&Cheese is another very well know American dish. While it originates from England, the pasta was made in a different way and it looked more like lasagne. I've made 4 servings again.

Boil 250g macaroni in salted water. Melt 30g butter and add 25g flour, mixing it. When the flour is dissolved, add 475ml milk slowly and stir. Take the milk off the heat and add black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and nutmeg and stir gently. Add 275g Cheddar and 180g Emmentaler. 

The original recipe was with sliced cheese, but I didn't have any and Emmentaler has a similar texture.

When the cheese has melted, add the macaroni and stir. Put the mixture in an oven dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Bake it at 180C for 30 minutes.

Hummingbird cake was the last on my list. It is a southern recipe with Jamaican influences. It is made with pineapple, pecans and bananas. The cake I've made has 8 servings.


Mix 250g plain flour, 250g sugar, 100g crushed pecans and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Add 100g mashed pineapple, 2 mashed bananas, 200 ml oil, 3 eggs beaten and 100ml pineapple juice. Mix the batter by hand, place it in 3 identical cake trays and bake it at 180C for 30 minutes.

For the icing, mix 50g soften butter with 200g full fat soft cheese. Add 400g icing sugar and 1 spoon of vanilla paste and mix with the mixer or by hand until it's smooth. Add a third of the icing on the first sponge, then cream the second sponge and then the third one. Add some pecans to decorate and enjoy.
I hope you liked my recipes.

13 comments

  1. oh my god, drools over that mac n cheese!!

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  2. I've not heard of chowder before, so it's good to know what is. The Mac and cheese looks good though. :-)

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    1. I tried a lovely chowder in the US. It was served in a sour dough bowl. It's something that San Francisco is famous for.

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  3. Love the mac n cheese will try that, and the cake looks delicious!!

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  4. that looks so delicious! I lovely places where you can taste wht world

    xx

    Dominika

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    1. The dishes do look yummy. I could eat that cake right now.

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  5. Oooh I like the sound of the corn chowder and that cake - yum yum. Thanks so much for sharing these

    Laura x

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  6. I think it's the hummingbird cake that mostvtakes my fancy...yum!

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