Peach upside down cake is the perfect breakfast of brunch cake to accompany a cup of tea or coffee. Although there is nothing more spectacular than taking a peach right from the tree and sinking your teeth into its juicy flesh, there is only so many fresh peaches one can consume when living on a…
Arroz Zambito is a sweet Peruvian rice pudding prepared with nuts, coconut and unrefined sugar. I fell in love with this dessert on the streets of Cusco. Every night on the walk from the main plaza to my hotel I passed a woman and her arroz zambito cart. Cusco at night is extremely cold and…
A granita is super simple to make and very rewarding at the end. In Mexico we have raspados, in Guatemala they are granizados, and in Puerto Rico they have piraguas; all are shaved ices. Usually you begin with a block of ice and you have a tool to shave ice into a cup then you top it with a flavored…
High quality guava jam is not easy to find in stores but very simple to make. Guavas are amazing because they can be consumed as a fruit, candy, snack, or paired with cheese for an appetizer or dessert. I grew up eating a lot of guavas; we had two trees behind our house in Los…
This is a basic and traditional arroz con leche recipe, typical in the Central West coast of Mexico – Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan. My mother and grandmothers arroz con leche is reason number 3 that I was a large little girl. They would not stop making it and I could not stop eating it. If…
Candied pumpkin, plantains and guavas are some of my favorite snacks/desserts. You may not know this but pumpkins, along with beans and maize, were the most important food items in Meso-America (Aztecs, Toltecs, Olmecs, Maya). My mom has been candying pumpkin forever and it really resembles pumpkin pie with maple syrup but with half the…
Candied Coconut is coconut meat boiled in water and unrefined sugar. It seems like an easy enough recipe but the quality of ingredients make all the difference. Throughout Latin America you can find every type of candied fruit and vegetable, but coconut has a very special place regardless of the country. Walking through the markets…
When peach season comes around California, June thru August, we have too many peaches and have to get creative. You can reasonably eat 2 fresh peaches per day, but you would still have hundreds left over. After the peach upside-down cakes, peach cobblers, peach ice creams, and peach pies; I make peach preserves. The great thing…
Tamarindo or tamarind is a very sour fruit that is native to Africa but the largest consumers of this fruit are in Latin America and Asia. In Mexico you can find tamarind agua fresca, tamarind popsicles, tamarind candy with or without chili, and tamarind mole sauces. We love the stuff. My family has trees in their…