Magical Pancakes ~ Panqueques Mágicos

Last night I tried to show my mom how to do a blog post with pictures over skype. Let's just say it might be a while before she posts. So, in the meantime, you're stuck with me.
Anoche traté de enseñarle a mi mamá como postear un blog con fotos por skype. Basta con decir que quizás necesite otra clasecita. Mientras tanto me tienen a mí.

I love pancakes. I love them for breakfast, I love them for lunch, and I love them for dinner. And I make some pretty good ones. I thought I'd share my magical pancake recipe with y'all because I probably make it once a week. I will warn you though, I can't measure; I mean, I can, but I don't. I don't measure anything when I cook, and for that, I apologize in advance.
Me encantan los panqueques. Me los puedo comer a cualquier hora y los que hago me quedan ricos. Voy a compartir mi receta para "panqueques mágicos" con ustedes porque creo que los hago una vez por semana. Les voy a advertir que no sé medir, digo, lo sé hacer pero nunca lo hago. No mido los ingredientes a la hora de cocinar y me disculpo con ustedes de antemano.

Ingredients / Ingredientes

• flour / harina de trigo
• baking powder (2 t?) / polvo para hornear (¿2 cucharaditas?)
• baking soda (1 t?) / bicarbonato (1 cucharadita)
• cinnamon (to taste) / canela (al gusto)
• sugar (1/4 cup?) / azúcar (¿1/4 taza?)
• salt (7 shakes) / sal (agité el salero 7 veces)
• butter, melted (1 T?) / mantequilla derretida (1 cucharada)
• 1 egg / 1 huevo
• vanilla extract / vainilla
• liquid yogurt (1 cup?) / yogurt líquido (más o menos una taza)
• milk / leche
• water / agua

Directions / Procedimiento

1. Put the flour in a bowl. Here's a picture so you know about how much I used. Maybe two cups? Two and a half? Pon la harina en un recipiente. Aquí hay una foto para que vean cuánto usé. ¿Quizás dos tazas? ¿Dos y media?



2. Mix all the dry ingredients. I whisk them to get the lumps out. Revuelve todos los ingredientes secos. Yo los mezclo bien para que no queden grumos.



3. Add the wet ingredients. Agrega los ingredientes líquidos.





4. Mix until you get the right consistency. It should look like the picture. Add water and / or milk until it gets there. Mezcla todo hasta que llegue a la consistencia deseada. Debe estar como se ve en la fotos. Agrega agua y / o leche hasta que llegue al punto.



5. Here's the key: butter the pan between pancakes. These aren't healthy, just delicious. Fry them up, letting the edges dry before flipping. La clave es esta: ponle mantequilla al sartén entre panqueques. No son saludables, sólo deliciosos. Cocínalos dejando que se sequen las orillas antes de darles la vuelta.



This recipe made approximately a million pancakes.... Con esta receta me salieron un montón de panqueques....



Yummmmm!

Sofrito

So, I made sofrito today, and I figured it'd probably be the best recipe to kick off the blog partly because it's in the title and partly because I think my sister needs to know how easy it is to make this.

So first, a quick intro:
Sofrito is magical. It's the perfect cooking base, and I can't cook without it. There are probably a million ways to make it, but this is how I do it with the ingredients I can get here in the mountains of Costa Rica.
Many of the non-Latino people I've known have eaten this raw as a dip, but I just can't do it. I mean, I won't judge you if you do, but I kind of secretly will. It's a cooking base, y'all.

Now that you know, let's talk ingredients:

• 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 1/2 heads of garlic, peeled
• 2-3 sweet peppers, quartered
• 2-3 bunches of recao (check a Latino or Asian grocery store if you can't find it elsewhere)
• 2-3 bunches of cilantro
• oil of your choice (vegetable, olive, soy, bacon grease - whatever)

Directions:
Throw your quartered onions into the blender. Add a little bit of oil so that they'll blend smoothly. My mom doesn't add oil, and instead uses a jar of roasted red peppers to add the necessary liquid for blending. That's probably better, but I can't get those here, so I make do.


Blend away and add your veggies in batches:

Peppers....


Garlic and greens....

Blend, blend, blend until you get something like this:


Pour the sofrito into a tupperware and store in the fridge. This particular batch made enough to fill a 2.5 cup tupperware and about half of an old butter tub (the 500g size), which means I've got some stored away in the freezer for later.
And yes, it freezes well. Really well, in fact.

You can totally tailor this to suit your own palate and the aromatics that are available in your local market. I happen to love cilantro, but you could probably leave it out, or substitute some other leafy herb (parsley, oregano, basil....). Play around with the peppers - add some different kinds and mix things up a bit (ají dulce or cubanelles or even some jalapeños, if you like it hot).
 Really, the possibilities are endless.


Once you've got this stuff in your fridge, you won't have to chop anything before cooking, just saute this mixture and you've got all the aromatics you need in the pan. Hello, convenience!