Sopa de Huevo - Egg Soup

If you have a hangover, Guatemalans will typically give you 3 remedies, a drink with lots of lime, hair of the dog, or the most famous, ‘caldo de huevo’, the best chapin remedy ‘para sacarte la cruda’ – to get rid of the hangover!

If you drank one too many IPA cervezas last night in Pool and Beer last night (did you know their IPA is over 7%!!!) then this is what you need the morning after. Saturdays are the typical day here in Guatemala to eat sopa de huevo, cruda or no cruda.

I was taught to make this soup with a packet of ‘maggi’s sopa criolla con caracolitos’ but I feel this is cheating a little. For those of you that wouldn’t dream of eating packet soups or you’re trying to impress your yoga house friends, here are the instructions to make it from scratch.

Ingredients

Serves 3-4 people

5 cups of chicken stock (ideally homemade but a cube will suffice if you are time or short on pans)

50g of small pasta shapes, ‘conchitas’ the tiny pasta shells are the best

one onion finely chopped

Roughly 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

half a jalepeño chilli -green or red- finely chopped (if you like it hot or would like to sweat out your hangover)

1-2 eggs per person depending on your appetite.

1.     Heat up the chicken stock (or vegetable stock if preferred)

2.     When at boiling point add the pasta, the chopped onion, chilli if you’re using it, and one tablespoon of the chopped cilantro. Cook for about 5 minutes until the pasta is soft

3.     Using a whisk or if you don’t have one a spoon start swirling to create a ‘whirlpool’, carefully break all the eggs in. Creating a whirlpool keeps the eggs holding together in the soup and the yolk from breaking

4.     Cook over a low heat simmering for another 3-4 minutes to cook the eggs through

5.     Turn the heat off and let it sit to cool slightly

6.     Using a ladle spoon the soup into bowls, serving 1-2 eggs per person depending how hungry they are, or how bad their hangover is

7.     Sprinkle the remaining cilantro on top of the soups and serve with hot tortillas; avocado if you wish, and a little lime

8.     Feel the hangover instantly begin to ease, sit back and once recovered its time to head over to ’El cuartito’ for a Bloody Mary. Hangover cured!

Black Banana Bread

This recipe works best with over ripe bananas. The toasting of the hazelnuts is a pain but the taste is delicious, you can buy blanched hazelnuts if not.

Ingredients

• 175g/6oz unsalted butter, softened
• 175g/6oz sugar (half light muscovado, half golden caster) - I didn't have either so I used soft brown sugar
• 75g/2½oz hazelnuts
• 2 free-range eggs
• 175g/6oz self-raising flour
• 2 very ripe bananas (about 250g/9oz total weight)
• drop vanilla extract
• 175g/6oz good-quality dark or milk chocolate chips
• a little demerara sugar

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 20cm x 12cm/8in x 5in loaf tin with baking parchment.
2. Beat the butter and sugars until light and coffee-coloured. This is best achieved in a food mixer.
3. Toast the hazelnuts, rub them in a tea towel to remove their skins, then grind quite finely - I put them in the food-processor. 

1. Slowly add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, then mix in the toasted ground hazelnuts and self-raising flour.
2. Peel the bananas and chop them the small pieces. Gently fold the vanilla extract, the bananas and the chocolate chips into the cake mixture, turning gently and taking care not to overmix.
3. Scoop the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin. Dust with a little demerara sugar if you haeve. Bake for between 1 hour and 1 hour 10 minutes *** covering the cake with foil if the top starts to darken too quickly which mine did, so didnt do this part and it was starting to burn at about 50 minutes so make sure you keep an eye on it!

Chocolate brownies

makes 8-10 brownies depending on portion size.

• 200g of good quality dark chocolate
• 250g (one WHOLE block) of unsalted butter
• 150g of chopped mixed nuts
• 80g of cocoa powder
• 65g of plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 350g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and grease a 20 x 30 cm tin with butter before placing greaseproof paper to cover the bottom (no creases in the corners though!)
2. The recipe then says to melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and mix until smooth
3. Add the nuts and stir together
4. Now, in a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients before pouring in the chocolate mix and combining well.
5. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.
6. Place the mix in the tin and bake for around 25 minutes. You want them to be gooey and soft in the middle. This should take about 27-30min if you think isn't too gooey at 35mins. Leave them in the tin to cool completely. This will stop them from being TOO gooey.
7. Remove, slice and try not to each all at once.

Double Ginger Cake

I'm afraid this is a really English-based recipe. I have not found a good alternative in Guatemala for Golden Syrup (you could try corn syrup) and I never even attempted looking for stem ginger although I don't see why you couldn't use fresh ginger.

Serves 8.

250g self-raising flour

2 level tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
200g golden syrup
2 tbsp syrup from the ginger jar
125g butter
3 lumps of stem ginger in syrup (about 55g)
2 heaped tbsp sultanas
125g dark muscavado sugar
2 large eggs
240ml milk

You will need a square cake tin measuring approximately 20-22cm, lined on the bottom with baking or greaseproof paper.

Set the oven at 180°C/gas mark 3. Sieve the flour with the ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and the salt. Put the golden and ginger syrups and the butter into a small saucepan, and warm over a low heat. Dice the ginger finely then add it to the pan with the sultanas and sugar. Let the mixture bubble gently for a minute, giving it the occasional stir to stop the fruit sticking to the bottom.

Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and beat gently to break up the egg and mix it into the milk. Remove the butter and sugar mixture from the heat and pour into the flour, stirring smoothly and firmly with a large metal spoon. Mix in the milk and eggs. The mixture should be sloppy, with no trace of flour.

Scoop the mixture into the non-stick or lined cake tin and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean. Unless you are serving it warm, leave the cake in its tin to cool, then tip out on to a sheet of greaseproof paper. Wrap it up again in foil and leave to mature for a day or two before eating.

Pollo alla Cacciatora

This was a really quick and easy recipe that can be easily made without to much stress of finding complicated ingredients. Just make sure you have the herbs as this gives it lots of flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp garlic flavoured oil (we used olive oil and added half a clove of chopped garlic)
• 110g pancetta cubes, or small pieces of bacon (we made one half without pancetta but it wasn't as flavorful)
• 6 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 500g chicken thigh fillets, each cut into 4 pieces - I would suggest using around 600-700g as there wasn;t much chicken
• 1/2 tsp celery salt ( I just used salt)
• 110ml white wine
• 1 (400g) can chopped tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 (400g) can cannellini beans

Instructions

1. Put the garlic oil into a pan with the pancetta, sliced spring onions and chopped rosemary and fry for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the bite-sized chicken pieces, stirring well and sprinkle in the celery salt. Pour in the wine and let it come to a bubble before adding the tomatoes, bay leaves and sugar. Put the lid on and let the pan simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Drain and rinse the cannellini beans, if using and add to the pan about 10 minutes before the end of cooking. When they have warmed through, you are ready to eat. A simple rice goes well with this recipe

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Vegetarian, Easy Pad Thai

Ingredients - Serves four

450g of flat noodles
400g of tofu diced
80g of chopped peanuts
2 eggs, beaten
one onion sliced
2 gloves of garlic, crushed
one green chilli, deseedded and chopped
1-2 tsp of grated ginger
1 red pepper finely sliced
60f of peanut butter
6 spring onions sliced
2 tb of fresh coriander chopped
150g of bean sprouts
60ml of soy sauce
juice of 2 limes
1 tbs of brown sugar
oil for frying

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the noodles, cooking for 5-10 minutes until soft. Keep stirring and try to separate the noodle strands so they all equally cook. Drain
2. While the noodles are cooking, dice the tofu and fry in oil in a wok or frying pan, turning until browning on most sides
3. Heat some oil in a small non-stick frying pan and pour in the eggs to make a light omelet. Cook for a few minutes until set and then remove and set aside. Cut into thin strips.
4. Next, saute the onion, garlic, chilli, ginger and red pepper. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. When the onion is soft, add the peanut butter and mix well. Then add the noodles and stir well.
5. Add the tofu, spring onion, bean sprouts, omlette strips and half of the coriander. Heat through strirring.
6. In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, lime juice and sugar. Pour over the noodles and strir. Scatter the peanuts and remaining coriander on top.

7 Serve with extra lime, chilli, coriander and a nice green dish goes well to add some color to this great basic pad thai.