The best coffee comes from Brazil, right?

Well yes and no. I'm no coffee expert but I know how to appreciate a good cup of fresh brew and I believe I have had som much coffee in my days that I know a good coffee when I try it.

Most people believe that the best coffee comes from Brazil. Or that is if you live in Brazil you only drink the best coffee. Boy you couldn't be more wrong!

The coffee that is exported may be one of the best coffees in the world but the coffee the Brazilians drink… is horrible! Not the same as European coffee...

When I arrived to Brazil I bought several new coffees every month before I could find one I really liked. The coffee here is very bitter and I understand why they add more sugar than coffee to their brews. Well now after a few years I know what coffee to buy and which ones to avoid. These coffees are drinkable:

3 coraçoes – three hearts

Café Pilao

Café do Ponto – this one is exported and is double the price compared to “normal” coffee.

Café Tradiçional Melitta- you know the Melitta filters right? They make coffee as well.

Local coffees are often more bitter and has a strong after taste, but if you go to Brazil I would recommend the above coffees. Then you won’t have to spend time on trying out coffees. Do keep in mind that Brazilian coffee (that you drink at someone’s house) is normally sweetened but if you go to a bar or coffee shops you will be able to add sugar to taste. It is very unusual that they drink black coffee. I only drink black coffee without sugar and I get very surprised looks every time I ask for it.

What’s your favorite coffee?

Technorati Tags: Coffee, Brazil, Brazilian food, Brazilian cooking, Brazilian coffee

A Christmas without chocolate?

A Christmas without chocolate? I don't think so! For me eating chocolate during Christmas is unthinkable, it's like Easter without Easter eggs. OK almost.

If you don’t know what to give then chocolate hampers are a perfect gift! It never goes wrong. I have never seen anyone getting sad for receiving chocolate that’s for sure.

As Christmas is approaching so quickly now in November I have started to worry about advent calendars. My son is 4 now and surely it’s time for him to get his first advent calendar. I just can’t decide on chocolate or Lego. First choice would be chocolate as I love the calendars myself. He would probably want to eat everything the same day though.

I live far from my family so I have to send things to them as I can’t give them in person. That’s why it’s good you can send chocolates by post, that makes it possible to give without being there.

I am a complete chocolate lover so I would be very happy if I only receive chocolate gifts for Christmas. OK, I will eat the chocolate but if it is good chocolate I will never forget it. In fact I still remember a delicious coffee chocolate that I was given when I was 11 years old and can until today still feel the taste. So chocolate eating is an experience you will not soon forget.

Now talking about it I have to go and eat some… Would you be happy if you got chocolate for Christmas?

Technorati Tags: chocolate, chocolate hampers, chocoalte gifts, christmas gifts, sending chocolate by post

Christmas is coming!

Oh dear, time flies and oops it's almost Christmas! OK still another 7 weeks to go, but before we know it we will be wrapping gifts and finishing off our wishlists.

Of course the planning has already begun in many houselholds. It hasn't begun here yet tough. I'm still trying to control myself. The only thing I do know is that there will be marinated salmon, gravad lax,on my table this year. It's oh so expensive but oh so good so I can't possibly not buy it.

Have you started planning your Christmas food yet?

Technorati Tags: Christmas gifts, food, recipes, dinner, salmon, lax

Hot and peppery

If I had to chose between all the spices that exists and only use that for the rest of my life I would no doubt chose black pepper. I love black pepper! And even better is the combination black pepper and pink pepper.

I have a coffee grinder where I grind my own pepper mix. The perfect combination is a little bit of white pepper, some more pink pepper and lots of black pepper. That is the ultimate seasoning!

I use black pepper on almost everything! I add it to almost every dish and even sweets. My favorite fruit salad contains black pepper and oranges.
Try it and see for yourself how good it is;

Simple fruit salad with black pepper
Oranges
Cheese, use ricotta or other fresh cheese that is not too salty
black pepper
(salt)

Peel and chop the oranges, dice the cheese, add pepper and salt to taste.
Enjoy.

See how simple it is. Of course you can add apple and other fruit as well. This combination is also very nice with red onion. Of course then it´s not going towards sweet but more salty.

What seasoning could you never live without?

This post belong to Brazilian Food Love, if you see it elsewhere please tell Linda.

How did you learn to cook?

Many of my friends often say " I´m not as good at cooking as you are". And I always say: Everybody can cook.

Because I truly believe it´s something most of us can do. All we need to do is practise.  When I was a child I had no idea how to cook, in my teens my mother was very hestiant at letting me cook. She thought I made a mess only eventhough I would clean everything afterwards.

I´m not a great cook, I just like to improvise and letting my fantasy and teste buds take over. But I am far from being as creative as many chefs or hobby chefs. Or at elast I think so. I am probably more creative than I think.

How did I learn how to cook? I got married. Haha. It´s actually true, after I got married I discovered I had a great interest in cooking and I needed to do it everyday.

How did you learn how to cook or do you think that some people are just not meant to cook?

Technorati Tags: cooking, learning to cook, a good chef, creative

What will the food be like?

What will the food be like?

That is a normal and very common question when you go abroad. But strange as it seems it´s never anything that has worried me. I have never thought too much about it.

When I traveled in Thailand for 6months it was a slight problem, I don´t like noodles, I don’t eat spicy food and I hate curry. So basically you could say I don´t like Thai food. But actually I do. I learned to find other kinds of food that I enjoyed. I learned how to say “fried chicken with cashew nuts". That was my favorite food when I traveled in Thailand. The way they prepare the food varies, in the south they do it one way and in the north they do it another way. I like all ways, as long as the cashew nuts are included. *lol*

And it´s the same here in Brazil of course. We in the south don´t eat the same food as they do in the north. In the north the food is more "picante" - spicy then it´s here. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard. I have never been to the north but the culinary experience is supposed to be special there.

So what will the food be like? Well that is an impossible wquestion to answer but you will surely find something you like.  You can expect a lot of rice tha´s for sure. *lol*

Technorati Tags: food, thai food, brazilian food, cashew nuts, rice

Jabuticaba cooking

My mother in law called me on Saturday and told me that there were lots of Jabuticabas on her mother in laws jabuticaba tree. I had already told her that I wanted some so I told my husband that we needed to go there immediately.

Jabuticaba is like a big blue colored berry that grown along the tree branches. Inside it is white and got tiny kernels. Those you either spit out or squeeze out.
We got to my husbands granny and my husband climbed the tree and started picking the jabuticabas. He picked 4 plastic bags. One being really big. I ended up with almost 3.

When I came home I rinsed them all in the sink and started to think about how I would store them. All my bowls were too small so I went and got the biggest bowl I had.

I am not sure how big this bowl is but it´s huge, probably 20 liters or so. The Jabuticabas are really big so I figure I had about 10 liters in the bowl. Here you can see the differnce between my big one and a normal little bowl.

My mission was to make squash and jelly from it. I have made 2 liters of squash so far. Burned one load of jelly and managed to make one load of jelly into syrup.
So it’s going pretty good. *lol*

The syrup will be for ice cream or yogurt, it´s very sweet. And todays mission is to make Liquor de Jabuticaba, a sweet tasting liquor with Cachaça – sugarcane rum.
I haven’t started on that yet so I can´t tell you how it´s coming on. But hopefully it will be good. And I still have about 4 liters of Jabuticabas left that I need to take care of today so I think I will make more squash as that seems to be the easiest.