Moros y Cristianos, Crumpets, Knekkebrød, and more International recipes

Moros y Cristianos
This dramatic photo is my version of the classic Cuban rice & beans dish Moros y Cristianos -- Moors & Christians.   This presentation lets you can mix the rice and beans in any proportion you choose as you serve yourself.   Guess who's who!

I use a teaspoon of Badia's Sazon Tropicaletm spice blend to make my yellow "Spanish" rice, and cook the black beans with plenty of thyme and cumin.

Crumpets

Five years ago was the last time I made crumpets.  Five.  Years!  That was the First Anniversary of this blog.  Wow, time flies when you're having fun (and fruit flies like bananas, as Groucho Marx famously said!).

Crumpets are what English Muffins would like to be, but aren't.  Crumpets are a batter, like a very special kind of pancake; English Muffins are a dough -- a kind of skillet bread.  The only similarities  are that both are round and fairly thin, and a product of the UK.  Crumpets are never (properly) split;  English Muffins invariable are split before consuming.

This recipe, which I tweaked from King Arthur Flour (added just a bit of sugar to feed the yeast),  is MUCH better, easier, and tastier than the recipe I used back then...

1-1/2 cups warm Water

1 cup warm Whole Milk
2 Tbsp melted Butter
3-1/2 cup AP Flour

2-1/1 tsp Rapid Rise Yeast (1 packet)

1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt (never leave the salt out)
2 tsp Sugar

Whisk together all the ingredients.  Beat together with a hand or stand mixer for two minutes until you get a smooth batter.  Cover and let rise for an hour in a warm place until nice and bubbly.  I use a warmed kitchen towel to cover, and put my bowl in the microwave because it's draft-free.

Heat your electric skillet or griddle to 325F; grease 4 "egg rings" (crumpet rings are hard to find on this side of the Atlantic) and let them warm up a minute.   Egg rings are easily found online.

Ladle the rings mostly full of batter (it will rise a bit as it cooks), and cook for 5 minutes on the first side.  Your crumpets will get lots of holes like a pancake; that's a good thing!   Remove the rings, flip the crumpets and cook the second side for 3 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack just a minute before serving, slathered with butter, marmalade/honey and/or clotted cream.  Crumpets can be refrigerated and heated in the toaster the next day for breakfast; or even frozen/thawed and reheated.  

Knekkebrød – Norwegian Crispbread

Bread or cracker? Cracker or bread?   Either way you look at it this is a tasty snack.  This recipe makes about 40 crackers.

1 cup Rye Flour

1-1/2 cups Quick Cooking Oats – not “old fashioned” or steel cut

1/2 cup Wheat Bran *

1/2 cup Sesame Seeds *

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds *

1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds *

1/4 cup) Linseed/Flax seeds *

1 Tbsp Honey

Salt to taste

2-1/2 cups Water

* Any combination of 2 cups of seeds or whole grains of your choice.  Sunflower, pumpkin, flax, chia, millet, quinoa, caraway, sesame...  whatever you have on hand or like in combination.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cover two sheet pans with parchment paper.  Chop pumpkin seeds roughly, if using, they'll crunch better...

In a large measuring cup, mix the honey with a little bit of warm water until diluted. Add more water until the mixture is 2-1/2 cups total.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, wheat bran, seeds and a pinch of salt.   Slowly add the honey water, stirring, until a wet paste forms. You may need to wait a minute or five until the flours and grains soak up more of the water and you get the right consistency.  You want this "gloppy" but not runny.

Pour half of the mixture over one of the sheet pans and spread evenly and thinly, to the very edges -- 1/8" thick or less or they won't be crispy. Use the back of a spatula to get an even thickness across the sheet pan. 

Repeat with the remaining mixture and sheet pan.

Place both pans in the oven. After 10 minutes, take them out and cut gently into rectangles with a pizza cutter or knife. This will make it easier to separate them when they are fully baked.

Return the pans to the oven and bake for another 60 minutes, alternating the top pan with the bottom one at the 30 minute mark. Occasionally open the oven door to release steam. Check the knekkebrød in the last 15 minutes of cooking -- look for them being dry and brittle with light browning on the edges -- but not burnt.

When finished, break the breads apart gently and let them cool completely on a wire rack. 

Store in a tight plastic or tin container and they should last for several weeks, even in Florida's humidity!.

Curry Stuffed Acorn Squash

How simple is this?  Make a thick, not watery, curry.  Halve and seed an Acorn Squash.  Nuke the squash until tender, then stuff with the curry.  Yumm,

Curry is a technique, not a recipe!

My curry here was chunky cut potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, onion and celery;  Garam Masala spice blend to taste, and a splash of water to simmer the veggies in after a quick browning in the skillet.