Tres Leches Cake

Are you a big fan of dessert? How about cake? How about cake infused with a delicious three-milk mixture? I don't know about you but I am a big dessert fan and while I was in Peru Tres Leches was one such dessert that rocked my world! As you read through and try out this recipe I hope you too enjoy the savory taste of Tres Leches!

In order to make this delicious dessert you will need a mixer, measuring cups, mixing bowl, a round 8 inch baking pan, a deep-dish round pan (larger than 8 inches), and a sifter for the flour. Along with the above materials you will also need the following ingredients:

Cake Ingredients

• 1/4 cup milk
• Pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour 
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Three Milk Mixture

• 1 cup condensed milk
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Start off by combining the flour and baking powder and sift the two together 3 times. 

2. Next separate your eggs and whip the whites together with a pinch of salt. Gradually add the sugar once eggs are well whipped. Follow the sugar with the egg yokes, adding them in one at a time with sufficient mixing between the two. 

3. Continue by mixing 1/3 of a cup of flour into the mixture followed by the milk and vanilla and beat the mixture while gradually adding the remaining flour. 

4. Pour mixture into a greased round cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly brown at 325 degrees fahrenheit. 

5. While your cake is baking mix together the three milks and then let them chill in the refrigerator until your cake is done and cooled. 

6. Once your cake is done and out of the oven let it cool before removing the cake from the pan and place the cake in a deep dish pan that is larger than the cake. Proceed to poke holes all throughout the top of the cake with a toothpick or fork. 

7. Next spoon the milk mixture onto the cake and let it soak in until you have poured the whole mixture on the cake. Once all the milk has been poured on the cake put it into the refrigerator and let it chill.

8. If you would like you can top your cake off with a fresh whipping cream and cinnamon. (pictured above)

After your cake has chilled and soaked up the milk mixture go ahead and serve this delicious dessert to all your friends and family and watch their faces light up with satisfaction! Also if you enjoyed this recipe please comment below and share this link with your friends and family! If you do make this recipe please share a photo of your cake on the Culinary Arts Abroad Facebook page as well! Happy baking to you all! 

Tallarines Verdes: Green Pesto Noodles

Today before I share with you a new recipe I just want to point out a few things I have noticed lately about peruvian cuisine. First off Peru has one of the most expansive varieties of foods ranging from typical rice dishes to noodle dishes to the very popular Chinese dishes. One of the reasons why Peru has such a diverse selection of foods is because it has a diverse geographical layout, with different foods growing in all the different environments. Furthermore Peru has had a fair number of immigrants crossing their boarders in the past few hundred years, thus further explaining the influx in cross-cultural cuisine. Today I will be teaching you how to make Tallarines Verdes, also known as Green Pesto Noodles. While pretty much every Peruvian dish contains rice, this is one of the only ones that is focused on noodles, because it comes from an Italian background. 

While at school at Washington State University I live in a house with 8 really close guy friends. We are all very active within the school, our church and many other things so we often get stuck in a diet of chicken and spaghetti, although some people choose to run to McDonald's or go to Little Caesar's Pizza for a $5 Hot-N-Ready. Since we often get stuck in that spaghetti diet I figured this would be an excellent recipe to share because it is quick, easy, and adds a new flavor to the sometimes boring college spaghetti diet. The final thing I have realized lately about peruvian food is that they often throw a fried or boiled egg on top of everything, whether it be this noodle dish, a beef, rice and potato dish, or even mixed vegetable salads. Don't ask me why they do this, because I have yet to figure that out, but if you have a good prediction or want to humor me with your own ideas behind the egg phenomena, please share your thoughts in a comment below! 

For this dish all you will need is a blender, sauce pan, pot to boil noodles, and the following ingredients: 

• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1 cup basil leaves
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup queso fresco or queso blanco or farmer's cheese (Mild feta cheese can be used as well but you may need to adjust the salt at the end) 
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. oregano 
• 1/2 cup ground parmesan 
• 2 lbs. spaghetti noodles 
• 1/4 cup pecans 
• 1 small red onion
• 1 tbs. garlic paste (or one minced clove of garlic)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg for each plate
• vegetable oil to fry eggs

Before preparing your sauce follow the directions to start preparing your spaghetti noodles. After starting to prepare your noodles start off by washing your spinach and basil leaves and add them into the blender along with 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. Mix these ingredients for about 1 minute and then add the queso fresco and continue blending for another 30 seconds. Next season your mixture with the nutmeg, oregano, and then add salt and pepper to taste. Next you will need to dice the onion and put the onion and garlic in a sauce pan with oil on medium heat till the onion is translucent (The garlic and onion aren't always used when preparing this dish but Lucy prefers to use it so we are adding it on our recipe, if you prefer to make it without that is okay too). After onion mixture is ready add the sauce from the blender into a saucepan over low heat, also add the parmesan cheese and the rest of the milk until the sauce boils. Once your sauce is boiling remove from heat and mix it with your spaghetti noodles after you have drained the water from them. If you so choose, varnish your dish with crushed pecans and a bit more parmesan cheese (the pecans can also be added in the blender if you prefer). Finally fry an egg to go along with each plate of food. 

If you want to add some meat to the dish, chicken or steak are a great way to infuse some protein and  add extra nutrients into the dish! 

I hope you will enjoy trying out this recipe and thus learn another traditional peruvian dish! If you do prepare this dish please leave a comment below along with sharing a picture on the Culinary Arts Abroad Facebook page! Also if you have enjoyed this post please post it to your Facebook, Tweet it, Pin It to Pinterest, and post it on any other social media outlet you use. Thanks again and be sure to follow the blog so you can return later for further posts!

The Journey Starts Now

Throughout the past year I have been to Greece, Jamaica, many different states in the United States, and I am currently studying in Lima, Peru for 5 months. During all my travels I have begun to realize that my experiences with food have been limited to say the least. Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to blame this on my family or anything, I am just noticing that through living in the United States, and not eating out very often, I have been unaware of all the varieties of delicious foods out there. 

I have been in Peru now for three months and at first all I could think about was the amazing food, so my photo blog, Finkster Photos, quickly became overridden by pictures and stories of peruvian food. That's when I got the brilliant idea to start up a second blog that had the soul purpose of talking about food, sharing recipes, and hopefully highlighting ethnic foods from around the world through the vantage point of myself and other international students studying in other countries. While this is still the focus behind the blog, I must confess that my studies and other social activities have swallowed me up and spit me out and so about a month after I had planned to launch my blog I am finally doing so. Today I would like to give you just a little taste of what is to come by giving you this nice photo collage of one of my resent dinners I had here with my Peruvian Host Family. This past weekend we ate this delicious spread of peanut chicken with potatoes, a salad mixture, and a peach dessert to top it all off. Based off of this photo alone you may be able to infer that my living situation in Peru has been pretty fantastic, between the warm interactions with my host family and the abundance of delicious food. 

Since you will be hearing a lot more about my culinary adventures in Peru I should let you know that my inspirations stemmed not only from peruvian food, but also from a specific Peruvian woman, Lucy. Who is Lucy do you ask? Lucy works at my host family's house and prepares the most amazing food in all of Peru. Yes that sounds like a pretty broad generalization, but I am serious, her food is to die for! There is one other international student at my house, from the United States, and we have started to tag out Tweets and Facebook messages with the hash-tag #ILoveLucy whenever we talk about food. So as a heads up I wanted to let you know that you will be hearing of Lucy a lot through my following blogs and you will hopefully be able to see pictures and videos of her preparing authentic Peruvian dishes. While I would love to take videos of us preparing food together all the time I unfortunately haven't found a good way to capture the video yet, so if I can do so I will be able to not only provide commentary, pictures, and recipes but I will also provide step by step videos. 

As I finish this first blog entry I would like to say thanks for reading and ask that you help me make this blog a hit by following my blog, liking my Facebook page, and sharing this entry on your social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and whatever other social media sites you use. Also if you are a student who is currently studying abroad please leave a comment on this blog entry and let me know so we can work together to get a blog post up about your culinary adventures in your host country.