Recipes from Abroad // Chilean Sopaipillas

On rainy days, my boyfriend often laments about sopaipillas (so-pie-pee-ahs). When the weather was gloomy, his mother would fry up a big batch of these Chilean pastries, as is the rainy day custom in her native country. She'd keep the finished sopaipillas in a basket and the family would snack on them all week long, choosing to cover them with either sweet or savory toppings. Sopaipillas have actually been known to be eaten in Chile since the early 18th century. Today, Chileans with a sweet tooth eat the pastries with a caramel-like sauce called chancaga or with honey or jam, while those looking for something savory cover it with avocado, butter, cheese, or pebre, a spicy Chilean condiment.  

My boyfriend's mother passed away more than a decade ago and, to further complicate things, he has since discovered he has a gluten intolerance. Still, we were determined to re-create this Chilean staple. We tried once with not-so-good results, but this recipe — adapted from just cook already — gave us what we wanted. Although not as fluffy as normal sopaipillas, they did the trick and satisfied our rainy day craving.

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Gluten-Free Chilean Sopaipillas

9 ounces butternut squash (or any orange squash) 4 cups all purpose gluten-free flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt two tablespoons sugar 1/2 cup butter PLUS vegetable oil for frying

• Cut squash into half-inch cubes and boil until they easily slide off a fork.
• Drain, reserving liquid, and mash with butter.
• In a mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir in squash mixture.
• Knead dough on lightly floured surface; add reserved liquid or flour if needed.
• Cover with a towel and let rest at least 10 minutes so the dough can rise.
• Roll dough to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness; cut into circles with a glass or use cookie cutters for desired shapes.
• Poke each disk/shape a few times with a fork.
• Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat; cook until golden on both sides.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Serve plain or with jam, honey, or fresh fruit.

Note: if you don't have a gluten intolerance, you can substitute regular flour to create sopaipillas the traditional way.

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Recipes from Abroad // Spike Your Coffee the German Way

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Walking around the narrow, cobbled streets of Rüdesheim felt like a trip through a movie set designed to look like a “typical” German town. It was all there: half-timbered houses, taverns that open up into old courtyards, overhanging signs carved out of wood with gilded letters, and even some token characters dressed in traditional garb. To make things even more Disney-esque, our first stop was Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet, a museum filled with automated musical instruments. At first Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet seemed like a musty tourist trap filled with weird antique toys. That is, until our guide started showing us how the 18th- and 19th-century instruments worked. Puppets came to life and danced to music and player pianos and violins with mechanical fingers sang to us. I even got to hand-crank a melody from a giant music box (with the help of our tour guide, of course). We were still looking at weird antique toys, but these were fascinating weird antique toys!

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There were about 350 self-playing musical instruments in all at the museum, some so tiny they could fit in your hand and others that filled up entire rooms. It was truly impressive.

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After the museum, we wandered down the famously cramped pedestrian street named ‘Drosselgasse’ or ‘Thrush Alley’ that is lined with wine pubs and restaurants on both sides. It was a brisk morning, and we soon found ourselves warming up with some Rüdesheimer Kaffee, a local treat that is similar to Irish coffee. This coffee, however, is served in a traditional cup (see top image) and the key ingredients are some flaming brandy, a huge dollop of whipped cream, and some shaved chocolate on top. How could you go wrong?

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Of course, you don't have to have a special cup — or even travel all the way to Germany — to enjoy this treat. Here's how to make it at home.

Rüdesheimer Kaffee

• Place three sugar cubes in a coffee cup
• Add a shot (1.5 fluid ounces) of brandy and set alight with a long match
• Stir with a long spoon until sugar is dissolved
• Fill the cup with hot coffee and top generously with whipped cream and chocolate.

For the most authentic version of this drink, the brand of alcohol used in Rüdesheim is Asbach Uralt, which is manufactured there.

Recipes from Abroad // Colombian Calentado

Calentado. Heated. Cooking doesn’t get any easier than that. This Colombian staple takes the previous night’s leftovers – seasoned rice, beans, meat, potatoes – and reheats them into one dish. It can be eaten any time of day, but usually for breakfast or brunch. When my husband and I visited friends in Colombia in August 2009, we enjoyed calentado at a local restaurant. It was there I learned how to take dull leftovers and make an extraordinary meal out of them.

Everyone makes calentado a little differently. Here’s one recipe. But the beauty of calentado is that no recipe is necessary.

Take the leftover seasoned rice – I add some sazon when cooking white rice – and reheat it with a bit of oil in a skillet. If your rice isn’t seasoned, perhaps add sofrito. Add the leftover beans (and potatoes if you have them) and meat such as ground beef, chicken, pork, or chorizo. Get everything nice and warm. In another skillet, fry eggs to desired doneness. A little runny is the way to go, in my opinion. Plate the rice/bean/meat mixture and top with the fried egg. Serve with a side of home fries, hash browns, diced tomatoes…whatever you like!

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A quick note about Colombia. Growing up in the 1980s, I never thought I’d take a vacation to Bogota, Colombia, of all places in the world. I’m glad that the stigma of traveling to the South American nation didn’t deter me from visiting. The people are so warm. We met so many friendly faces and were surprised by the beauty and sheer size of the city of 10 million people.

Tidbits of information come to mind: on Sundays, certain city roads are shut down to vehicular traffic, allowing pedestrians and bikers to take to the streets. There’s an incredible police presence everywhere you go, which is oddly reassuring. Colombians are so serious about deterring the drug trade that it took a full three hours to get to the gate when leaving to return to the States. And any trip to Bogota is incomplete without a visit to the Chia location for Andrés Carne de Res.

Staying with locals, I was able to pick up on so many cultural wonders unique to Colombia. It’s an incredible country and one that I’d like to explore – Cali, Medellin, Cartagena. I could go on for pages about our visit, and we only scratched the surface in Bogota. Check out more photos of Bogota on my photography site.

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