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Alcapurria
''Alcapurria'' is a popular fritter dish from Puerto Rico. Origin It may have influence from Middle Eastern ''kibbeh'' as there is a significant amount of Lebanese and Armenian in San Juan. Preparation The dough surrounding the filling, the ''masa'', is made primarily of green banana and grated xanthosoma ("yautía") in most of Puerto Rico with optional addition of squash. Green banana can be replaced with breadfruit, cassava, taro, green or yellow plantains or other arrowroots. Alcapurrias are generally seasoned with lard, annatto, garlic and salt. The annatto gives it signature yellow/orange color. Annatto seeds are simmered in lard to release most of its color and flavor. Seeds are discarded and the tinted lard is then poured over the ''masa''. The ''masa'' is refrigerated for several hours to achieve a solid consistency. Diced potatoes cooked with ''picadillo'' or corned beef are the most typical fillings; others include longaniza, blood sausage, braised meat, cheese, se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rican Cuisine
Puerto Rican cuisine has its roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Europe (mostly Spain#Cuisine, Spain), Africa and the native Taínos. History Puerto Rican cuisine has been influenced by an array of cultures including Taino Arawak, Spanish, and African. Although Puerto Rican cooking is somewhat similar to both Spanish cuisine, Spanish and other Latin American cuisine, it reflects a unique blend of influences, using indigenous seasonings and ingredients. Locals call their cuisine ''cocina criolla''. By the end of the nineteenth century, the traditional Puerto Rican cuisine was well established. By 1848 the first restaurant, La Mallorquina, opened in Old San Juan. ''El Cocinero Puerto-Riqueño o Formulario'', the island's first cookbook, was published in 1849. Taíno influence ''See: Native American cuisine'' From the diet of the Taíno people, Taíno (culturally related with the Maya civilization, Maya and Kalina people, Carib peoples of Central America and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annatto
Annatto ( or ) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree ('' Bixa orellana''), native to tropical America. It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery". The color of annatto comes from various carotenoid pigments, mainly bixin and norbixin, found in the reddish waxy coating of the seeds. The condiment is typically prepared by grinding the seeds to a powder or paste. Similar effects can be obtained by extracting some of the color and flavor principles from the seeds with hot water, oil, or lard, which are then added to the food. Annatto and its extracts are now widely used in an artisanal or industrial scale as a coloring agent in many processed food products, such as cheeses, dairy spreads, butter and margarine, custards, cakes and other baked goods ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empanadilla
An empanada is a type of baked or fried turnover consisting of pastry and filling, common in Spanish, other Southern European, Latin American, and Iberian-influenced cultures around the world. The name comes from the Spanish (to bread, i.e., to coat with bread), and translates as 'breaded', that is, wrapped or coated in bread. They are made by folding dough over a filling, which may consist of meat, cheese, tomato, corn, or other ingredients, and then cooking the resulting turnover, either by baking or frying. Origins The origin of empanadas is unknown but they are thought to have originated in Galicia, a region in northwest Spain. A cookbook published in Catalan in 1520, ''Llibre del Coch'' by Robert de Nola, mentions empanadas filled with seafood in the recipes for Catalan, Italian, French, and Arabian food. By country and region Argentina Argentine empanadas are often served during parties and festivals as a starter or main course. Shops specialize in freshly made em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacalaíto
A bacalaíto is a salted codfish fritter, a traditional Puerto Rican snack that typically is eaten with an entire meal. Bacalaítos are served at the beach, '' cuchifritos'', and at festivals. They are crispy on the outside and dense and chewy in the inside. Description In Puerto Rico, ''bacalaítos'' are served all over the island with many different versions. The salted cod is soaked in water over night to remove most of the salt or is boiled usually three times. The cod is then drained and shredded into a large bowl with all-purpose flour, baking powder, '' sazón'' (spice mix), ''sofrito'', and ''orégano brujo'' is the most common batter mix. The cod is then worked into the batter with water or milk, then deep-fried and when done should resemble a pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COVID-19 Pandemic In Puerto Rico
The COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Puerto Rico started addressing the risks of an outbreak in early 2020. The island took "some of the most dramatic steps of any U.S. jurisdiction to control the virus," and "several U.S. cities and states followed Puerto Rico's lead, imposing curfews and shutting businesses" of their own. On February 29, Puerto Rico then governor Wanda Vázquez Garced established a task force to look into how the virus could affect Puerto Rico and to lay out plans on how to best mitigate any outbreaks. Given the long delays encountered by the Puerto Rico government in obtaining reasonable turnaround from the CDC test labs in Atlanta for samples submitted for testing, the local government took the position that every suspicious case was to be treated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Sausage
A blood sausage is a sausage filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until it is thick enough to solidify when cooled. Most commonly, the blood of pigs, sheep, lamb, cow, chicken, or goose is used. In Europe and the Americas, typical fillers include meat, fat, suet, bread, cornmeal, onion, chestnuts, barley, oatmeal and buckwheat. On the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America and Asia, fillers are often made with rice. Sweet variants with sugar, honey, orange peel and spices are also regional specialties. In many languages, there is a general term such as ''blood sausage'' (American English) that is used for all sausages that are made from blood, whether or not they include non-animal material such as bread, cereal, and nuts. Sausages that include such material are often referred to with more specific terms, such as ''black pudding'' in English. Africa ''Mutura'' is a traditional blood sausage dish among the people of central Kenya, although rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longaniza
Longaniza (, or ) is a Spanish sausage ( embutido) similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça. Its defining characteristics are interpreted differently from region to region. It is popular in the cuisines of several regions of Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Chile. In the Philippines, it is called longganisa and has hundreds of variants with different vernacular tastes and forms due to the 144 ethno-linguistic groups of the archipelago. Varieties by country Spain In Spain, ''longaniza'' is similar to ''salchichón'', though thinner; both differ from chorizo in that black pepper is used for them instead of paprika and may have different spices in them like nutmeg. Argentina and Uruguay In Argentina and Uruguay, longaniza is a very long, cured and dried pork sausage that gets its particular flavour from ground anise seeds. This results in a very particular arom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corned Beef
Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and spices are added to corned beef recipes. Corned beef is featured as an ingredient in many cuisines. Most recipes include nitrates, which convert the natural myoglobin in beef to nitrosomyoglobin, giving it a pink color. Nitrates and nitrites reduce the risk of dangerous botulism during curing by inhibiting the growth of ''Clostridium botulinum'' bacteria spores, but have been linked to increased cancer risk in mice. Beef cured without nitrates or nitrites has a gray color, and is sometimes called "New England corned beef". Corned beef was a popular meal throughout numerous wars, including World War I and World War II, during which fresh meat was rationed. It also remains popular worldwide as an ingredient in a variety of regional dishes and as a commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Picadillo
Picadillo (, "mince") is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries and the Philippines. It is made with ground meat (most commonly beef), tomatoes (tomato sauce may be used as a substitute), and also raisins, olives, and other ingredients that vary by region. It is often served with rice (hence it is commonly known in the Philippines as ''arroz a la cubana'', "Cuban-style rice") or used as a filling in dishes such as tacos, Umami, savory pastries or croquettes. The name comes from the Spanish language, Spanish word ''picar'', meaning "to mince". Picadillo can be eaten alone or incorporated into other dishes, like tacos, empanadas, pastelón, chiles en nogada, or alcapurrias. History Although the dish was common in Hispanic cultures before the 19th century, a 19th-century recipe from California for pasteles ''a la argentina'' is given for a filled pastry with layers of beef picadillo and chicken cooked in a green chili and onion sauce with olive oil and raisins. "Picadil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masa
''Masa'' (or ''masa de maíz'') (; ) is a maize dough that comes from ground nixtamalized corn. It is used for making corn tortillas, ''gorditas'', ''tamales'', '' pupusas'', and many other Latin American dishes. It is dried and powdered into a flour form called ''masa harina''. Masa is reconstituted from masa harina by mixing with water before use in cooking. In Spanish, ''masa harina'' translates to "dough flour", which can refer to many other types of dough. Preparation Field corn grain is dried and then treated by cooking the mature, hard grain in a diluted solution of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) or wood ash, and then letting it soak for many hours. The soaked maize is then rinsed thoroughly to remove the unpalatable flavor of the alkali. This process is nixtamalization, and it produces hominy, which is ground into a relatively dry dough to create fresh masa. The fresh masa can be sold or used directly, or can be dehydrated and blended into a powder to create masa hari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater. The open ocean has about of solids per liter of sea water, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation. Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 6,000 BC, when people living in the area of present-day Romania boiled spring water to extract salts; a salt-works in China dates to approximately the same period. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Byza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeastern Iran and has long been used as a seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use. It was known to ancient Egyptians and has been used as both a food flavoring and a traditional medicine. China produces 76% of the world's supply of garlic. Etymology The word ''garlic'' derives from Old English, ''garlēac'', meaning ''gar'' ( spear) and leek, as a 'spear-shaped leek'. Description ''Allium sativum'' is a perennial flowering plant growing from a bulb. It has a tall, erect flowering stem that grows up to . The leaf blade is flat, linear, solid, and approximately wide, with an acute apex. The plant may produce pink to purple flowers from July to September in the Northern Hemisphere. The b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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