Dulce de Leche Brownies

I had never even heard of dulce de leche until I read this post by my cousin Kate. When I read that a few months ago I thought that I had to try that sometime, it looked delicious! Well the other day I was on another blog when I saw this recipe, so I decided to try it. This were so good! Now I have to admit that I didn't make the dulce de leche from scratch like Kate did, I took a short cut which I've seen talked about in a few places. I put a can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie plate, sprinked it with a little kosher salt and covered it tightly with tinfoil. Then I placed the pie plate in a large roasting pan and filled it halfway up the pie pan with hot water. I baked this for an hour and fifteen minutes at 425 degrees and got this...

Not exactly what I was expecting. I mean, it was delicious, but I eat sweetened condensed milk out of the can so how couldn't it be? I think this needs to be baked another 15 minutes or more. I think it would carmelize more and be more like dulce de leche. Now that I had the dulce, I put it in brownies!

Dulce de Leche Brownies

adapted from David Lebovitz

8 Tbsp (115 g) butter, cut into pieces

6 ounces (170 g) semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup (25 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

3 large eggs

1 cup (100 g) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (140 g) flour

1 cup Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch square glass pan. I've given my rant on the importance of weighing ingredients before, so I won't do it again here, but just remember it's important and produces a much better product.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and then, over very low heat, melt the chocolate pieces into the butter. You don't need to use a double boiler set up if the heat is really low and you stir it constantly. After all the chocolate is melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder. Then add the eggs one at a time while stirring, followed by the sugar, vanilla and flour.

Add half the batter to the greased baking pan. Take a third of the dulce de leche and drop it into the batter (try and get it evenly spaced). Take a knife and drag it through the leche and swirl it all around.

Now pour the rest of the brownie batter over the first layer and dollop the rest of the leche onto it. Again, swirl your knife through the dollops until it is nicely marbled.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the center is just firm. These were so delicious! And they received a number of compliments at this weeks happy hour. These brownies were so thick and rich, and the stayed warm and gooey in the center for hours (maybe because it was 90 degrees outside). I think these would be very good with bittersweet chocolate too. The slight bitterness would be offset by the sweetness of the dulce de leche. 

Frijoles Refritos and Arroz a la Mexicana

Well, this picture looks familiar. I told you to get used to it. Refried beans and Mexican rice, these two sides are served with just about every Mexican meal I've had at restaurants. According to some reading I've done in my Mexican cookbook, the main meal of the day in Mexico is set up kinda like an Italian meal. The sopa seca course is served after the appetizer and before the main course and is like the pasta course in an Italian meal. However, in Mexico, 70 percent of the time this course will be a rice dish. There are many different kinds of rice dishes served in Mexico, but this one is the most popular and seems to be the one most often served in the United States. I got this recipe of the internet and I have to admit, it didn't do it for me. It was alright, but it needs work. The main thing was that it was a little soggy. I don't know how they get the rice so dry not lumpy in the restaurants but I must be missing on some technique. I didn't even realize my Mexican cookbook has an authentic recipe for this, I should have checked first.

As for the beans, the style I cooked them in is more traditional to Northern Mexico because I used pinto beans. There are many different styles of cooking beans, and many different types of beans you can use, so find one you like. No matter what kind of bean, or how they are cooked, beans are served with almost every meal in Mexico. Sometimes beans make it onto the plate three times a day. The reason for this is pretty obvious, beans are cheap. Luckily they are also delicious (and nutritious!).

Arroz a la Mexicana

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the rice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the grains are golden and puffed. While the rice cooks, add the garlic salt and cumin.

Stir in the onions and allow to soften. Stir in the broth and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Frijoles Refritos

This is as traditional and simple as you get with these beans. I love this cookbook, I'll talk more about it later.

First you have to make the Frijoles de Olla (or pot beans) and then fry them.

1/2 lb. dry pinto beans

1/4 white onion, roughly sliced

1 Tbsp of pork lard

Kosher salt

I did this the easy way and did not soak the beans overnight. In fact my book tells me not to do that; apparently bean skins give off an unpleasant flavor when soaked, who knew? I just added all the ingredients (except the salt!) to a pot with enough water to cover the beans by about 3 inches. Bring the beans to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the skins are soft, then add the salt. DO NOT add the salt at the beginning because it will make the skins tough. Legumes are the only thing you don't want to salt during cooking. Continue cooking until the beans are very soft and the broth is soupy. Now to fry them!

3 to 4 Tbsps of pork lard

1 Tbsp finely diced white onion

All the beans you just cooked

Heat the lard in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook until transparent. Add a cupful of the beans and broth and mash them over high heat. As they reduce, add more beans and broth and keep mashing until you have added everything. Continue frying, and constantly mixing, until it becomes a thick paste. Enjoy topped with some melted Mexican cheese.

Notes:

1. The pork lard is really necessary here. You can use oil or butter but you are not going to get good flavor. The lard adds an amazing pork flavor. I also do not recommend bacon fat, I think it would overpower the beans.

2. Don't throw away the broth you cooked the beans in, use it when you fry them. When you boil the beans, a lot of the minerals and nutrients are released into the water and you do not want to lose them.

3. The Mexican cookbook I keep talking about is Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking. Kennedy is considered an authority on authentic Mexican food and this book is great for all sorts of authentic recipes. Sometimes I find the recipes a little to simple though.