PASTEL DE CHOCLO: Corn Casserole

This is a dish which is very popular in Perú, and comes from our oldest cooking tradition.It has been modified by me because on these modern days, we need to be more practical. The substitute ingredients don't alter the taste of these wonderful dish, and make its confection a breeze!! Hope you like it!!!
Este es un plato muy popular en el Perú, aunque no creo que sea netamente peruano...He sustituido los ingredientes por razones prácticas, sobretodo, en estas épocas modernas!!!  Creo no alterar el sabor de esta receta  y creo que disfrutarán mucho de este pastel que ha cautivado las papilas gustativas de tantos antiguos y modernos.
Pasta:
4 cans of cream of corn  (if  they are not available, grind  the kernels contained in the 4 cans in the blender) 4 latas de crema de choclo (sino la encuentran, licuar los granos de choclo entero de 4 latas...con agua y todo
some star anisse seeds...algunos granitos de anís estrella o normal.
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.  Una cucharadita de azucar blanca.
Aproximately one cup of Parmesan Cheese.  I taza de queso parmesano, aproximadamente
1/2 cup of vegetal oil. 1/2 taza de aceite vegetal.
2 tablespoons of MASECA or corn flour. 2 cucharadas de Maseca o harina de maiz.
3 teaspoons of baking powder. 3 cucharaditas de polvo de hornear... Royal, por ejemplo
1 cubito de caldo de gallina; 1 chicken soup cube,
6 eggs; 6 huevos.
1 lata de leche evaporada..One can of evaporated milk.

Cocinar el choclo en una sartén con el aceite, las semillas de anís y el azúcar y cubito de pollo hasta que se espese un poco. In a pan, heat the oil and cook the corn together with the anisse seeds and the chicken soup cube for a while until the mix gets a little thick.
When this is ready, add the parmesan cheese, the corn flour and the evaporated milk, taking care that it doesn't get lumpy. Add salt, pepper, and soup cube.  Make sure to check the salt before you add more.  The cheese and the cube have plenty of it!  Cuando este preparado esté listo, echar el queso parmesano, la Maseca y la leche evaporada, echando de a pocos y mezclando bien para que no se hagan grumos. Agregar un poco de sal, cuidando que no se sale, porque el queso ya tiene este ingrediente...pimienta y el cubito de gallina (también tiene sal)
Remove from the stove.  When the mixture cools, add 6 beat egg whites, meringue style, blending them in and mixing them very well into the preparation.  Add the egg yolks. Mix well and reserve this mix for a while at room temperature.
Remover de la hornilla y cuando la mezcla se enfríe, agregar las claras batidas a punto de nieve y las yemas.  Mezcalr bien y dejar a un costado, a temperatura ambiente, mientras se prepara el relleno.
Relleno:
1 libra de carne molida: 1 pound of ground beef
1 cebolla: one onion
Ajos molidos: grounded  garlic
salt and pepper: sal y pimienta.
2 huevos duros:2 hard boiled eggs
un puñado de pasas: a bunch of raisins
cebolla china picada: some chopped chives
Freir la cebolla y el ajo hasta que se doren ligeramente: Fry the onion and  garlic until they turn golden brown. Sazonar con sal y pimienta. Echar la carne y dorar
Add the ground meat and fry .  Season with salt and pepper.
Add the chives, chopped hard boiled eggs and raisins. Agregar la cebolla china picada, los huevos duros picados y las pasas.
Mezclar bien y reservar.  Mix well and reserve.
In a greased medium sized pyrex or foil,  add half of the corn mixture: Echar en un molde engrasado mediano, la mitad de la mezcla de la crema de choclo. 
On top of it, add the meat preparation, and cover with the rest of the corn mixture. Encima de ella echar la carne y cubrir con el resto de la crema de choclo.
Meter al horno precalentado a 350 grados F y hornear hasta que dore encima e introduciendo la punta de un cuchillo al medio, éste salga limpio.  Servir calientito.  Se puede meter  a la congeladora, si es que hay que guardarlo unos días.
Introduce it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F. and bake until it is golden brown and when you insert a knife, this last one comes out clean.  You can freeze it if you are not going to eat it in the next two coming days.  Voila!! It's sooo good!!! Buenísimo!!!

Astoria, Queens

Yesterday I went to Long Island City to visit my son. I thought it would be important for those who are not familiar with this area to include some facts about this wonderful and colorful neighborhood adjacent to Manhattan.
In 1870, Astoria and other sorrounding villages, were integrated into Long Island City, which remained as an independent municipality until it was incorporated into New York City in 1898.
Astoria, has turned into one of the best places to live in Long Island City and  into the home of many professionals who prefer to reside near, but not inside Manhattan; and as a consequence, the appraisal of its real estate market is improving.  From a neighborhood which was basically Greek during the second half of the nineteenth century, it has transformed into a multiethnic space.  Now we can find, a great variety of people from different nationalities living together and sharing their languages and cultures. We can find along the neighborhod immigrants from Arabic countries,Italy, France, Brazil Ireland, Mexico, Colombia, and many countries of Central America.
Astoria was originally called Hallet's Cove, after his first landowner, William Hallet, who settled there in the 1700's.  It was also home to many wealthy New Yorkers, who built large residences in this area.
Its actual name comes after John Jacob Astor, a very wealthy man who invested in the neighborhood.The Steinway section of Astoria was named after Heinrich Steinweg, who in 1853 established Steinway Village for the workers of his famous piano company, Steinway and Sons.
In Astoria you can fin the best variety of international food I have ever seen.  As you travel through Ditmars St., Broadway or 31st Street and Steinway Street, you cannot decide easily which restaurant are you going to visit.  Mostly young people invade the bars and eateries, especially during the evenings and well into the early morning hours. Whether you choose a french restaurant like Pomme, a Brazilian like Cafe Brasil, a Colombian like the colorful collector's eatery "El Basurero" or an Italian Pizza Place, you can be sure that you are being treated to the best food for much less than what you can spend in a trendy Manhattan restaurant.  The ambiance is superb, and you can be sure that you will dine out in an elegant and welcoming place.
Astoria is also home to the Museum of the Moving Image, which possesses the nation's largest collection of artifacts relating to the art, history and techology of the moving image.
Also, Astoria Park, built by the East River, is the neighborhood's largest park and contains the biggest New York City Public Pool, former site of the 1936 and 1964US Olympic trials.
The Isamu Noguchi Museum exhibits the work of this Japanese-American Sculptor and has an outdoor sculpture garden. It is open year round.
Astoria can also boast of having the oldest beer garden in New York City, the Bohemian Hall, founded in 1910.
The Hell Gate Bridge,originally the East River Arch Bridge, opened in 1916 as a way to connect railroad traffic from Pennsyvania Railroad routes in New Jersey, into New York and New England. It was also going to tie with Long Island Railroad routes, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad had a controlling interest. The architect who designed the bridge was Gustav Lindenthal. When it opened, it was the longest steel-arch bridge in the world; until the construction of the Bayonne Bridge in 1931. It was called like that because it crossed a portion of the East River that had treacherous currents separating Queens from Ward's Island, an Island which housed a large mental hospital. One of the four tracks in the bridge is no longer in use. Its restoration and painting in "Hell Red Color"was completed in 1996. In 2009, another project to refurbish its concrete walls and  painting of the arch span, was completed.
Lets go to Astoria, Queens, a diverse neighborhood with multicultural features and wonderful, wonderful, food!!!

El Libro Total

Amigos, siempre había querido tener una biblioteca de esta clase.  Qué maravilla cibernética!!! Por favor hacer un click al link para poder consultar esta joya.  No dejen de guardarla.


El Libro Total

Earth Song by Michael Jackson

This video is a  testimonial song about what is happening today with the earth in which we live...a friendly awareness of what we are headed to, shall we not take ation.  Michael Jackson's song is superb and beyond his wonderful interpretation, we are once more reminded that the story and conservation of our planet is a preoccupation we should have in our everyday lives.