Angel Food Cupcakes

I was craving something sweet but didn't want to sabotage my diet. Then, I suddenly ran across angel food cake in the grocery store so it occurred to me to bake my own. I think this fatfree cake owes its popularity to its lightness. It is reminds me of cotton candy.

Once at home, with everything laid out and ready to start, I realized I didn't have an angel food cake pan with a removable bottom. Well, that would make it difficult to unmold the cake without any damage. I, immediately, remembered I had some laminated muffin liners and I could make Angel Food Cupcakes. Why not? The problem was solved and my craving too.

Vanilla Angel Food Cake

1/2 plus 1/4 cups sugar, separated
1 piece vanilla bean, split
1/2 cup cake flour, sifted
6 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325°.
Place 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and add seeds to sugar; discard bean. Work the vanilla seeds into sugar with fingers until well combined.

Combine flour and sugar mixture, whisk to combine.

Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt. Beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat in juice. Sift flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Fold in after each addition.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased tube pan, spreading evenly. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan. Cool completely. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Invert cake onto plate.
Fonte: Cooking Light

Chicken Stir-fry with Edamame

The recipe seemed easy and simple with a promissing combination of ingredients, but I was sort of disappointed in it. I had envisioned something more moist and juicy, that would coat the rice slowly as it was being eaten. Next time, I will use some good old chicken broth to achieve such result. I also think it could be a little more spicy but that is probably due to my northeatern Brazilian blood.

Flavorwise, I would say it was mild but reasonable and the best of all, it didn't turn out oily.

Stir-fried Chicken with Edamame

1/2 TB oil
1 TB fresh ginger, grated
1 onion, cubbed
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces (I used leftovers)
2 cups shelled edamame (green soybeans)
2 cups bell peppers, cut into large pieces (preferably different colors)
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB sweet rice wine
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp cornstarch
Green onions
Salt

Heat oil and sauté onions. Add ginger and garlic. After some seconds, add chicken and stir-fry it. Add edamame and peppers. Combine soy sauce, sweet rice wine, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Add to chicken. Stir in onions and salt, if necessary. Serve over rice.

Adapted from Whole Foods Cookbook

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Coming Back

(Catussaba Resort Hotel , Stella Maris, Salvador)

Coming back from home means going through a re-ajusting process. I need to get used to certain things and re-learn to live without others that I go used to during my stay. Every time I return, I realize that food was present everywhere, at all times. The re-collection of aromas, flavors, textures and colors of everything I ate, brings to mind sweet memories of moments, places and loved ones.

(Homemade sweets: milk, pineapple, banana, coconut, guava & guava-coconut)

Eventually, nostalgia will be replaced by antecipation of another visit and among photographs, new recipes and future experiences to come, time goes by in a simple way, like Silvia said, "simples, como a vida deve ser", simple as life should be.

(Black-eyed peas with dry shrimp, fake dried-codfish moqueca, brocoli rice & lettuce-tomato salad)

Homesick

(Planeta Zoo, Lauro de Freitas, BA)

Dost thou know the land where lemons grow, Gold oranges in leafy darkness glow, Dost thou know? — ‘Tis there! ‘Tis there! I wish to go! Goethe

There are palm trees in my homeland,
Where the Sabiá-bird sings;
No songbird’s voice can here compare
With its sweet warbling.

(Red Macaws)

There are more flowers in our meadows,
More stars in the sky above;
In our forests is more life,
And in our lives more love.
Here alone at night I ponder;
What delight these memories bring!
There are palm trees in my homeland
Where the Sabiá does sing.

Absent here are pleasures dear,
Such lush and wondrous things;
Here alone at night I ponder;
What delight these memories bring!
There are palm trees in my homeland
Where the Sabiá does sing.

O God grant I may return
Before my soul takes wings,
That I may there enjoy once more
Those lush and wondrous things,
And see again the palm trees
Where the Sabiá-bird sings.

(Song of Exile, Gonçalves Dias, translated by James H. Kennedy )

Fonte: TEI