F1 Foods Brazil Round-Up and the next challenge: Abu Dhabi

The most recent Formula 1 Grand Prix took place in Brazil, though perhaps it wasn't quite the right time of year for bloggers to be inspired by Brazilian food or cocktails - I have to admit, images that spring to mind involve sunshine and beaches and it's very cold here in the UK today! But there is plenty more to Brazilian cuisine than just that, as I found when I discovered this condensed milk cake or bolo de leite condensado. Unfortunately it took a lot longer to bake than the recipe suggested and I didn't like the texture - I wasn't sure if it wasn't quite cooked through or if it was just the mixture but I wasn't very keen on it. Next time I might stick to steak!

Suelle from Mainly Baking made this banana, chocolate and brazil nut loaf, though she says she thinks it has too much chocolate so the flavour combination doesn't really work. You can never have too much chocolate in my book!

The final Grand Prix of the season comes from Abu Dhabi - which I have to admit will involve a lot of Googling on my part to find a recipe, but I can think of a few Middle Eastern flavours which should work well. The race is this weekend so I'm opening the linkup now - an as it's the final round of the challenge, you can send in anything inspired by Formula 1, cars or racing overall as well as Abu Dhabi. You have until December 6 to get your entries in.

Bolo de Leite Condensado: Brazilian Condensed Milk Cake

 

Reaching into the larder for a tin of Carnation caramel recently, I grabbed a tin of Carnation condensed milk and only realised when I’d taken the lid off. Oops! So I needed to find a recipe to use the condensed milk.

 

 

Luckily, I was also looking for a Brazilian recipe for the next round of Formula 1 Foods, and happened across this recipe for condensed milk cake – bolo de leite condensado. Perfect!

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the cake all that much. It had quite a rubbery texture – I couldn’t entirely tell if this was from the condensed milk as it almost looked undercooked, but in fact I had to bake it for a lot longer than the 40 minutes the recipe instructed – it was in the oven for 1 hour 10 minutes, as even after an hour it wasn’t cooked through. There are a couple of comments on the website for this recipe, one of which says it took 90 minutes to cook and wasn’t great, but two other comments saying the cake is lovely if a bit too sweet and you could reduce the amount of sugar. So take from that what you will – I for one won’t be making this cake again, but since I went to all the effort (and I need a Brazilian entry for Formula 1 Foods) I am sharing it with you anyway.

 

 

You can read the full recipe here: the steps are very simple but as I said I would disagree with the cooking time and think it needs at least 70 minutes and perhaps it does need 90.

 

It does look very pretty when it comes out of the oven though!

 

 As I didn’t like the texture, I didn’t take it into work as planned, but also didn’t want to waste it. So I decided to try it as a hot dessert with custard which was a bit better!

I'm sharing this with Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I host, as the next race is in Brazil.

I also co-host Alphabakes with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker and the letter she has chosen this month is M so I'm sending in this condensed milk cake.

 

Brazilian Coconut Chicken

Brazil is playing the Netherlands in the World Cup third place playoffs today. Did you see Brazil's amazing (ly bad) game against Germany? Nonetheless Brazil is the host country so I wanted to make one more of their national dishes in honour of the occasion. This is Brazilian coconut chicken; a sort of South American curry and the recipe comes from All Recipes.

To serve 2, you need:

2 chicken breasts

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper

Fry Light or 1 tbsp oil

half an onion, chopped (which I left out as my boyfriend doesn't like it)

1 green chilli, seeded and chopped (also left out!)

1 tsp minced ginger

200ml coconut milk

the recipe says to use 3 chopped tomatoes for 4 people; I don't like fresh tomatoes and didn't want to open a tin so used 1 tbsp tomato puree which worked really well in this recipe

Mix the cumin, turmeric, coriander, salt, pepper and oil in a small bowl and use to coat the chicken breasts.

Chop the chicken breasts into chunks, heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion, chilli and chicken, until the chicken is cooked through.

Add the ginger, coconut milk and tomatoes or tomato puree, stir gently until well combined and simmer until the sauce has reduced.

Serve with rice and enjoy.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World for his World Cup challenge.

Beef and Black Bean Stew

Having a slow cooker is very useful, as it means I can put something on in the morning and come home to a meal that would have taken ages to cook otherwise. In the spirit of the World Cup, I found a Brazilian recipe for a beef and black bean stew.

I had a packet of cubed stewing beef that I put in the slow cooker along with half a can of black beans, a large squeeze of tomato puree, a small squeeze of garlic puree, a quarter of a teaspoon of chilli powder, half an onion (chopped) and two cups of water.

I put the slow cooker onto 'auto' setting, which means it cooks for about 4 hours then keeps the food warm until you are ready to eat.

I served it with some Jersey royal potatoes and vegetables, though I guess rice might have been more traditional.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World for his World Cup challenge.