Chocoflan/ Pan Impossible

Chocoflan I believe is a Mexican dessert because I've only heard of it and seen it prepared among the Mexican community. It's basically a chocolate cake with a layer of flan (caramel custard).

The first time I made this was on my stay in one of my aunt "Mari's" house where she introduced me to this wonderful cake which she calls "Pan Imposible" translates to "Impossible Bread". It is usually done in a large bundt pan that has a 12 cup capacity because the regular bundt pans can't fit all the cake batter and flan batter without overflowing.... my aunt is lucky to have a giant bundt pan she received as a gift :(

Any who, usually the solution a lot of people have to this problem is they use a regular bundt cake pan and then make a smaller chocoflan with the leftover batter or throw away the excess, however I for one am not one to waste food. I simply divide the batter evenly in two and use 2 bread loaf pans. You can pretty much use any type of mold/ pan to bake this, just work with what you have, that's what I do.

By the way this cake has become a hit in my home, it's my Tata's favorite dessert lately :D and I baked this for my boyfriend's birthday and it was a hit once again.

Ingredients for cake part:
-1 prepared chocolate cake recipe (I used a devils chocolate food cake mix)
Ingredients for flan:
-1 can condensed milk
-1 can evaporated milk
-5 eggs
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 cup cream cheese (optional I do add it because I am SINFUL ha ha)
Ingredients for caramel:
-1 cup sugar
-1/4 cup water

Directions:
(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius), get a shallow dish that is oven proof. Any baking dish, cake pan or mold that can fit the pan you are going to use to make the "Chocoflan" and fill it with water about 1/2- 1 inch and put in oven. This is what we call the "water bath" you'll see what I mean later.
(2) Prepare your caramel, get a sauce pan, throw in your sugar and water and bring to a rolling bubble on high heat, stir occasionally whisking with a chopstick (yes this is how I do it and it always works the water acts as a stabilizer and it wont let it burn or clump and it will still thicken and turn into a caramel) when your caramel is done, add it carefully to the cake pans or mold your gonna use and swoosh it around to coat everything. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IT'S HOT!!!! It will harden quickly as well so work fast. Set aside the mold/ pan
(3) Follow the directions on a Store bought box of chocolate cake mix, or make your own from scratch. Add the prepared batter to the mold/ pan that has caramel coating (in my case I had two molds I use and divided the batter evenly)
(4) Prepare the flan batter, in a large blender or bowl with a whisk or blender combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla and the optional cream cheese to a smooth mixture. Pour them evenly over the chocolate cake batter. DO NOT WORRY IF THEY MIX! They will separate during baking.
(5) Cover the cake pan/ mold with aluminum foil and put in carefully into place them on top of the larger pan that has the water in it in the pre-heated oven. Close and allow to cook in the middle rack for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
(6) When you think it's done, uncover and insert a toothpick or knife if it comes out clean it's done, if not continue to bake covered a little longer, but if done remove, uncover and allow to cool
(7) Once ready to serve loosen edges with a knife, place a plate on top and flip over :) Slice yourself a piece and enjoy. The result will be this delicious moist chocolate cake with a flan layer, most of the chocolate cake will absorb the delicious caramel syrup and be oh so sinful ;)
NOTE (If interested):
*I know it sounds weird, but the flan and the chocolate cake for some reason, I don't know why will never combine they separate, the flan ends up in the bottom of the pan and the chocolate cake on top. I'm guessing sometype of osmosis or something and when you flip it you get this :D

*Some people use a store bought type of Mexican caramel milk syrup made from goats milk or cows milk called "Cajeta" and they will coat the pan with this instead of the caramel sugar syrup I make.

*The easiest way though and guaranteed is using a chocolate cake mix. store bought Cajeta/ caramel sauce or just know how to make a good caramel, and make a flan batter that is rich doesn't need the cream cheese but gives it oomph.

Arroz Amarillo Cubano (Cuban Yellow Rice)

Before I begin let me tell you this is the most plain basic recipe of cuban yellow rice well cubans just call it yellow rice but I know other cultures have yellow rice to and do it differently.

This is my grandmothers from my fathers side recipe.

This is sort of the base recipe you can built on it. I will go into detail with that at the very bottom of the recipe. Read everything before critiquing it for being to simple :)

Ingredients:
-3 cups long-grain white rice
-4 1/2 cups water
-1 red or green bell pepper minced (I prefer red for this dish but I only had green in the fridge today)
-1 onion minced
-4-6 cloves garlic crushed and minced
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1 bay leave (optional)
-1/2- 1 teaspoons "Bijol" (which is what I use) or "Ground Achiote/ Annato seeds" or "saffron" or "Achiote infused Olive Oil" (the achiote infused olive oil should be used to sautee everything and it will make the rice yellow)
-Salt to taste (about 2-3 teaspoons)
-extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
(1)Sift the rice if you wish to get rid of any little grains or impurities, then wash the rice in cold water once or if you wish until water runs clear. Drain.

(2)Put rice in rice cooker with water

(3)Heat extra-virgin olive oil on medium high in a frying pan and sautee bell peppers, onions, and garlic until onions are translucent and everything is fragrant. Add to rice.
(4)Add to the rice mixture cumin, salt to taste, and bijol stirring until the water looks yellowish or yellowish orange(5)Close rice cooker and set on cook until rice is done.
You can serve with anything that you would eat with white rice :)

SO HERE IS THE IMPORTANT EXPLANATION HOW TO USE THIS AS A BASE FOR OTHER RICE DISHES MY GRANDMA MADE A BUNCH OF RICE DISHES USING THIS BASIC RECIPE" there's way more variations that what I will mention but you get the idea :)

(1) You can make this rice dish more beautiful and colorful by adding 1 cup of frozen peas. And then garnish with fire roasted red bell peppers (optional) I've also noticed some cooks like to add 1 teaspoon of sweet or hot paprika (my grandmother never used Paprika for this)

(2) You can add 1 can of pigeon peas and call it "Arroz Con Gandules" sometimes she would brown cubed pork that has been seasoned and browned in a pan along with the pigeon peas. This was her version of the Puerto Rican "Arroz Con Gandules"

(3) You can add little cubes of pork or chicken that have been seasoned with some salt and pepper or salt, pepper, lime, and garlic then browned in olive oil add added to the rice to cook together. Then it will be a very simple "Arroz Con Pollo" or "Arroz Amarillo Con Carne de Puerco"

(4) You can add peeled, deviened cleaned shrimp to the rice and then it is "Arroz Amarillo Con Camarones" or even clams or a mixture of seafood. If making with shrimp I suggest you peel your own shrimp and make a shrimp stock by boiling the shrimp shells with some water and salt until it gets the shrimp flavor.

(5) You can also add some corn cobs cut in 3 parts to the rice before it cooks and cook together it will give the rice a corn flavor and is delicous. This is called "Arroz Amarillo Con Maiz"

(6) You can also add any vegetables particularily blanched okra or sliced carrots or any seasonal vegetable and call it "Arroz Amarillo Con Vegetales"

(7) To elaborate the flavor you can use the plain recipe and substitute water for chicken stock or vegetable stock. Also shrimp stock is tastey to (made by boiling shrimp shells in water with some salt until the water gets the FLAVOR)

(8) You can add a can of chickpeas for "Arroz Amarillo Con Garbanzos" (yellow rice and chickpeas) or you can sautee 4 links of Spanish chorizo in the sofrito for (arroz amarillo con chorizo) or a combination of both for my "Arroz Amarillo Con Garbanzos y Chorizo"

(9) "Arroz Amarillo Con Salchichas" (yellow rice with veinna sausage added)

(9) But sometimes I just like to make the basic because it goes with any Cuban dish, and because I love eating it with some beans :)

This recipe is a re-post of a recipe I had in my archives, while editing and playing around with it I deleted some of the old pictures so I had to re-post it, plus I didn't think the old post gave it justice because the pictures were worse than what I have here.

Sardinas en Escabeche (Preserved Sardines/ Pickled)

I first saw this recipe at "Nuria's" blog "Spanish Recipes" when I saw it I knew it was something I had to make, looked so delicious and I love fish too so yeah :)

It's pretty much fish that is floured then fried, finally preserved in a mixture of oil, vinegar, aromatics and spices of one's choice. So it's cooked and in a sense pickled because of the vinegar. In Spain things preserved in oil and vinegar are known as "Escabeche" it can be done with meats as well but it's a different process.

Growing up my grandmother would love buying canned sardines and fish that came packed in olive oil from Spain. Nowadays those are harder to come by and are getting pricey. So this satisfied her craving, and honestly it taste way better :)

Ingredients:
-1/5- 2 lbs. sardines (cleaned, gutted, heads removed, rinsed well, pat-fry)
-salt to taste
-flour (enough to coat fish lightly)
-1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
-6 cloves garlic skin (lower stem removed, lightly pressed with a knife)
-2 bay leaves
-2 sprigs thyme or 2-4 sprigs rosemary or tablespoon dried oregano (aromatic herbs of your choice I used 4 rosemary sprigs)
-1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns (optional)
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika (Pimenton Dulce de la Vera)
-1/2 cup vinegar (red, white, apple which ever your choice I use white)
-1/4 cup water

Directions:
(1) Clean and gut the sardines, it's easy, simply make an incision down the stomach, pull everything out, and scrape out any black parts, remove the head (slice it off with a knife) then just pat-dry it.

(2) Get your sardines and season them with salt, then roll them in flour, and set the sardines aside.

(3) Heat olive oil in a large shallow pan on high heat as soon as the oil get's hot, it will release a fragrance not smoking however, to test if it is hot enough dip a wooden spoon or put once fish in it, if it bubbles and sizzles the oil is hot enough. At this point add sardines and lower heat to medium high. Fry them until golden brown on both sides. You may have to fry them in batches. I had to fry my sardines in two batches.

(3) Set them aside in a container.

(4) In the same oil, lower heat to medium high fry the garlic, bay leaves, aromatic herbs and black pepper corns.
(5) When the garlic changes color, remove from heat the pan, throw in sweet smoked spanish paprika, give a quick stir, add vinegar and water (careful it jumps) and a bit of salt, stir well. Bring to a boil on high heat for about 1 -2 minutes.
(6) Pour the boiling oil, vinegar, water, garlic and spice mixture over the sardines
These can last in the fridge a couple weeks maybe more, we finished them in less than a week, they taste better the next day :) You can eat them with anything, simply remove from the oil mixture and you can make sardine sandwiches inside a mini- baguette, put them on toast with some fire roasted red bell pepper, eat them with rice and any other sides, I like to eat them with just a large leafy salad dressed in olive oil, lime, and salt for a light healthy meal, etc. Truth be told I love love the oil it's preserved in I drizzle it with some of that oil whenever I eat it ;)

Please Note:
(1) I love the leftover oil, when you finish all the sardines and you don't know what to do with all that oil, I really like it drizzled over things or use it to make salads (I know I know sinful but the oil is infused with garlic, aromatics in my case I used rosemary, bay leaves, black peppercorns, and the wonderful sweet smoked Spanish paprika so it is so flavorful)

(2) This can be done with Mackarel fish, or fish steaks, in Cuban cooking they also make Escabeche usually using shark, sword fish or red snapper fillets/ steaks cut into pieces and the spice blend is different and maybe the procedure I honestly have never had "Escabeche" before until this time, so if anyone has any recipes for the "Cuban" version of this (I know my reader/ friend Mamey/ Omar might have a recipe he uses since he knows so much about Cuban cooking :)