Yes I was baking the Mamallena in pijamas! hihihi

Talking to dear Steve and Penelope about having a potluck I always mentioned how I would love them to have a taste of Panamanian cuisine whenever it was possible, and since there is no restaurant in DC area that serves Panamanian cuisine I decided to take responsibility for spreading the love!

Having lunch at Cafe Assorti with them Penelope suggested me cooking for them with their help instead of having a Potluck, at first I thought yay it would be fun, then I thought what if they don’t like it?  Then I realized many of Panamanian dishes are very similar to Caribbean (Puerto Rico & Cuba), Ropa Vieja, Arroz con Pollo, etc.  So they wanted the not so common Panamanian dishes such as:

Appetizers

Hojaldres (fried bread)

Patacones rellenos con queso (double fried green plantains stuffed with cheese)

Empanadas de Maiz con Tuna (corn empanadas stuffed with tuna)

Entrees

Chorizo Guisado (sauteed chorizo in tomato sauce)

Yuca al Mojo (cassava w/ lime juice, olive oil, garlic, butter & cilantro)

Lengua Guisada en Vino (cows tongue in wine sauce)

Ensalada Rusa o de Fiesta (russian potato salad, or party salad)

Sopa de Pata de Vaca (ox feet soup)

Arroz con Guandú y Coco (rice with coconut & green pigeon peas)

Saus (pickled pigs trotters)

Desserts

Mamallena con Helado de vainilla (raisin bread pudding with vanilla ice cream)

Kekis (ginger-unrefined sugar cane-molasses-coconut soft cookies)

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So as you can see there is no sancocho, or tres leches, or sopa borracha, or rabito de puerco or camarones al ajillo, from all the options I gave them this is what they pick and boy did I get great feedback.

On the negative side I learned a lot trying to make the corn empanadas, it was a difficult task because in Panama we use fresh cooked corn and then grind it, but Steve and I drove all the way to Landover to buy fresh Corn Masa just to find out they grind it uncooked, but it wasn’t all bad since that day we had the best chicken I’ve had in DC area so far, Jerk Chicken from a Jamaican joint, it made my day!

After the failure with the Fresh Masa which fried tasted like Frito Lays, I decided to use Masa Harina, at the same time my mom made some tests from Panama to check on this and she said it was perfect, but she used a different corn flour.  My masa harina did not work well, and so when I travel back to Panama this is something I have to learn more about, CORN!

I will share some thoughts and pictures and apologize for not having pictures of the dinner itself but just the process, it was a crazy weekend, started at the restaurant, started selling bread and this dinner, you can imagine.

Now let’s check it out!

Preparing Coconut for Rice and Kekis

This is the unfamous Beef Tongue

So its right tender make sure you boil it for 45mins- 1 hour with salt and water, a soft boil & clean properly.

Sautee your veggies and then add the Tongue

Once you add the Tongue sautee for few minutes and then tomato paste, sautee add water and wine and make sure you scrape  the bottom of the pot with your spoon to obtain those caramelization flavours to your sauce!

This is the final result, this dish I made a day ahead and simmered a little more before serving with a side of Patacones, yuca and Russian Potato Salad.

Chorizo Guisado was pretty simple, buy good chorizo, chop some vegetables, throw in oven 35 minutes at 375F then just toss in a pot with tomato sauce, sugar, water and chicken stock =)

Toast the coconut for the Kekis and grate ginger

Say hi to my daughter, Lady Mixer – For this Keki I worked a recipe by the Chef Melissa (Cooking Diva) and did some variations to it, I will share my recipe also!

And this is the delish delish Keki just as they sell it on the streets of Panama, a touch fluffier and more flavourful!

Brine chicken overnight, then marinate few hours with garlic, herbs & oil, pat dry and bake with some chicken fat until cook (i used dark meat for this).  Save the liquid and combine with chicken stock for cooking beets and shredded chicken for Potato Salad (delish flavours at the end!, promise will share recipe soon!).

Sao or Saus (Pickled Pig’s Trotters), for those interested on this I will share the recipe so you can give it a try, 50% love it, 25% didn’t care for it, 25% disliked it, so it’s a matter of taste, me I love it!

And my Empanada disaster, this is how I will end this post because yes it was a disaster, yes they took too much of my time, but also yes it is a new challenge i have yet to face again and again and again once I arrive in Panama! I must add they had good flavour though!

¡a comer!

]]> https://www.cocinerita.com/panamanian-dinner-for-chowhound-friends/feed/ 4 https://www.cocinerita.com/mamallena-raisin-bread-pudding/ https://www.cocinerita.com/mamallena-raisin-bread-pudding/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:44:21 +0000 http://www.aristologa.com/?p=120

After baking the Challah many friends gave me the advise for what to do with leftovers, french toast, but since we are just two people and on Sunday morning I’m in a hurry to go to play volleyball in the morning, what comes in mind is Mamallena a.k.a. “Bread Pudding”, you can freeze the rest and you can take it as a snack, I even took one for my game!

This is a dessert I grew up with, my parents love freshly baked bread so every morning my dad would go to the Chinese Bakery in our neigborhood for mini French baguettes (don’t you love the culinary mixing in Panama hehe!).  By the end of the week we had much leftovers because these baguettes would get very hard and the next day Papi would buy fresh so we just kept in saving them in the fridge.

At home we always keep evaporated milk and eggs so with those two ingredients you can work so many things depending on what you have in your pantry and your fridge, this time I decided the Raisin Bread Pudding so I hope this helps you the day you need to know what to do with bread leftovers!

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Después de hacer el Pan de Moña (Challah) muchas amistades me recomendaron hacer tostadas francesas con las sobras, pero como solo desayunamos dos personas y en domingos ando de apuro para salir a jugar volleyball temprano en la mañana, me vino a la mente que lo más conveniente es la Mamallena, uno puede congelar los restos, llevarse algún trozo como merienda, incluso me llevé una para mi juego.

Este es un postre con el que crecí, a mis papás les encanta comer pan recién horneado, así que cada mañana mi papá iba a la Panadería China a comprar Baguette francés (¡no les encanta la mezcla culinaria en Panama ja!).  Ya para el final de la semana tendríamos muchas sobras porque estos baguettes se ponen muy duros y al día siguiente mi Papi saldría de nuevo a comprar pan fresco y lo que quedaba del día se guardaba en el refrigerador.

En casa siempre tenemos leche evaporada y huevos así que con esos ingredientes uno puede hacer tantas cosas dependiendo de lo que se tenga en la despensa y el refrigerador, esta vez yo decidí hacer Mamallena (Pudín de Pasitas), así que espero haberte dado una idea que te ayude qué hacer cuando tengas ¡sobras de pan!

Leftover Challah РRestos del pan de mo̱a

Evaporated milk, raisins, cinammon, vanilla extract, salt, unsalted butter, brown sugar, all spice, eggs

Leche evaporada, pasitas, canela, extracto de vainilla, sal, mantequilla sin sal, azúcar morena, pimienta jamaicana, huevos

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Ingredients (all of the ingredients quantity vary depending on the quantity of your bread and your taste, so yous experiment!).

1 Challah (1 day old) and some pieces (4 cups of pieces of bread)

1 can evaporated milk (354 ml)  (if you need more use more water or regular milk)

1.5 cups of water

1 cup of raisins

1/2 cup of brown sugar (this quantity in particular depends on the type of bread you are using, my challah was a touch sweet so I didn’t need that much sugar.

1/2 stick of unsalted butter melted room temperature, but if you want to use more is just fine

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs lightly beaten

pinch of salt

1 cup of rum or sweet wine (you can use just water for this purpose also)

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Ingredientes (la cantidad de casi todos los ingredientes varían dependiendo de la cantidad y el tipo de pan que se utilice).

1 Pan de moña (Challah) (1 día viejo) y pedazos de sobra (alrededor de 4 tazas de pedacitos de pan)

1 lata de leche evaporada (354 ml)  (si necesitas más puedes utilizar agua o u otro tipo de leche)

1 1/2 taza de agua

1 taza de pasitas

1/2 taza de azúcar morena (esta cantidad de azúcar dependerá particularmente en el tipo de pan que estés utilizando, en mi caso la Moña tenía un toque dulce así que no utilicé mucha azúcar.

1/2 bara de mantequilla sin sal derretida a temperatura ambiente, pero si deseas utilizar más está bien.

1 cucharadita extracto de vainilla

1 cucharadita canela molida

2 huevos ligeramente batidos

pizca de sal

1 taza de ron o de vino dulce (puedes utilizar agua si prefieres para esta función).

Seco Herrerano (Panamanian sugar cane liquor) for the raisins! You could use any other rum, sweet wine or just water if you want no liquor in your pudding, I can just guarantee you that you won’t taste the alcohol once it’s baked since most of it will evaporated during the process and you don’t need to use the liquid just the raisins.

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Seco Herrerano para darle vida a las pasitas.  Puede utilizar cualquier otro ron, vino dulce o agua si no deseas licor en tu pudín, pero te puedo garantizar que no tendrá sabor a alcochol una vez que se haya horneado ya que el proceso evapora casi todo lo que tenga y no necesitas utilizar el líquido, solo las pasitas.

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Directions through pictures

Pre-heat the oven to 350-375F depending on the size of the tin or cake pan and how crunchy you like the borders and the top of the pudding.   Break the bread in tiny pieces.

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Pre calentar el horno de 350-375 dependiendo del molde que hayas escogido y de qué tan crujiente te guste la parte de arriba del budín.  Reventar el pan en pedacitos.

Add water until you feel most of the bread is soaked and let rest 20-40 minutes covered with a towel, depending on how dry the bread is it will define the time for soaking in water, at the end you can keep breaking pieces and get rid of the pieces that won’t break, add the milk, melted butter, beaten eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, raisins and spices, mix with your hands always making sure you are breaking the bread with your fingers

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Agregar agua hasta que uno sienta que el pan está remojado y dejar tapado con un paño de cocina, dependiendo de qué tan seco es el pan eso dictará el tiempo en que deba dejarse remojando y al final podrás empezar a reventar los pedazos de pan y deshacerte de los que no se quiebren o mojen, agregar la leche, mantequilla derretida, huevos ya batidos, azúcar, extracto de vainilla, sal, pasitas y especias, combinar con las manos asegurándose de seguir rompiendo el pan con los dedos.

Spray non-stick spray or just brush butter to the pan

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Rocear anti-adherente al molde o engrasar con mantequilla

For this work is good to use your hands, you can feel the bread and the rest of the ingredients working together and if you are not afraid of raw eggs then have a taste of it to see if the sugar is enough for you, you can add more milk to it or some of the liquid in where the raisins were being soaked.

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Para este trabajo es bueno utilizar tus manos, así podrás sentir el pan y el resto de los ingredientes trabajando juntos y si no tienes miedo de huevos crudos entonces pruébalo y así sabrás si el azúcar que he recomendado es suficiente para vos, puedes agregar más leche o un poco del líquido que ha quedado de las pasitas.

This is the texture you are looking for after mixing everything together, I wish I had added more raisins so don’t be shy and if you have nuts at home just throw some, they add amazing texture to it, but I’m a Mamallena purist and Mama never addes Nuts so no nuts for me!

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Ésta es la textura que buscas después de haber mezclado todo, en esa ocasión me hubiese haber agregado más pasitas, así que no seas tímido y si tienes nueces en casa agrégalas, ellas dan una increible textura, pero soy una purista de Mamallena y mi Mami nunca agrega nueces así que ¡sin nueces para mí!

As you can see you don’t need to leave too much space on top of the Mamallena, and if you have a cake pan or bread pan etc, just adjust the time! (I don’t recommend glass or ceramic if you are looking for crunchy texture). For me crust is important and that’s why I make them in Muffin tins.

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Como puedes notar no necesitas dejar mucho espacio entre la parte superior y la mezcla ya que ella no crece casi, y si utilizas otro molde como de pan o redondo, etc, recuerda ajustar el tiempo (y no recomiendo utilizar moldes de cerámica o de vidrio si estás buscando una textura crujiente).  Para mí la corteza es importante y por eso es que la hago en molde de Muffins.

As everything you bake remember to flip them and switch them when they are halfway done, also make sure they are not stick together in the middle or to the sides of the oven so the air can circulate properly.

When they are done you will know because the raisins and cinnamon will take over your kitchen and inserting a tester it should mostly dry, some crumbs maybe.  But don’t be afraid of your results, the first time I made Mamallena, they were very dry I just sautee them in butter, used it as raisin bread and still delicious! So go and use your week bread leftovers!

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Como todo lo que horneas recuerda cambiar los moldes de posición y lo que estaba hacia adentro ahora debe mirar hacia afuera, además asegúrate de que no estén pegados en el medio o a las paredes del horno y así el aire podrá circulas sin problemas.

Cuando esté lista la Mamallena lo sabrás por el olor impregnado de pasitas y de canela en tu cocina, además agrega un palillo y debería salir casi seco, tal vez con algunas migajas.  Pero no te asustes del resultado, la primera vez que yo hice Mamallena, me salió muy seca así que las cociné en una sartén con mantequilla y la utilicé como pan de pasas ¡aún delicioso!  ¡Así que anda y utiliza las sobras del pan de la semana!

¡a comer!