Un saludo enorme a todos los miembros de esta bonita comunidad, que nos enseña a disfrutar cada día de las artes culinarias hoy estoy feliz de unirme al primer concurso foddie, promovido por Hive account@sirenahippie, y todo el equipo patrocinador, a quienes agradezco la oportunidad de resaltar los valores culturales de cada país desde el punto de vista gastronómico.

A huge greeting to all the members of this beautiful community, which teaches us to enjoy every day of the culinary arts today I am happy to join the first foddie contest, promoted by Hive account@sirenahippie, and all the sponsoring team, whom I thank for the opportunity to highlight the cultural values of each country from the gastronomic point of view.

Food not only feeds the body, it also sustains the soul and a good dessert can fill our lives with happiness, generating beautiful memories with those we share them with. Not only at the moment of eating it, but from the moment of preparing it, with those rich aromas that flood our homes with love.

I am from Mérida, Venezuela, Andean or as they call us colloquially Gocha, so today I am pleased to present "El Currunchete", a dessert well known in the Andean States: Mérida and Trujillo, this dessert is very popular and is usually prepared on June 24, the day when the day of San Juan is celebrated. Usually around this date the first snowfall of the year occurs in the State of Mérida, so this dessert provides energy and comfort for those cold days of thick fog.

This rich dessert is not only prepared for these dates it is also common to prepare it to celebrate Christmas, New Year, Easter, Mother's Day or any day when you want to sweeten your life, because definitely the main characteristic of Currunchete is its sweetness, the sweetness that brings its main ingredient Panela or Papelón.

I chose this dessert for three main reasons, Firstly it is a traditional, native sweet that very few know in my opinion, Secondly its ingredients are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, also its preparation is simple and thirdly it is extremely delicious, as it is a combination of sweet and salty flavors, flavored by spices that intensify its flavor, when you try it you can feel different textures, which makes it an explosion on your palate. It is a dessert to enjoy and share with the family, but as they say: "de lo bueno poco", many people get sick easily for its intensity and sweetness, but surely they will not mind giving it another taste.

As mentioned above the main ingredient is panela, for those who do not know it is a hard block made from sugar cane juice that is subjected to high temperatures, this is combined with salty hard cheese, bread and spices, especially star anise.

Below is the list of ingredients and the preparation process, I hope you enjoy it.

1. The first thing we must do is chop our piece of panela, since we will only use approx. 250 gr. For this I helped myself with a knife and a hammer, as it is really hard panela.

2.- Una vez tenemos nuestros trozos de panela, lo colocaremos en una cacerola con tres tazas de agua y 4 estrellas de anís, a fuego medio.

2.- Once we have our pieces of panela, we will place it in a saucepan with three cups of water and 4 stars of aniseed, over medium heat.

3.- Removeremos constantemente hasta que reduzca y se logre una miel espesa. esto puede tardar alrededor de 15 min.

3.- Stir constantly until it reduces and a thick honey is achieved. This may take about 15 minutes.

4.- While our honey is being prepared, we can cut the hard cheese and bread into squares, the size of your preference, I have even seen that some people prepare this dessert with shredded cheese, but I like it better in pieces, because it is good to find those chewy pieces of cheese in each bite, it is required to be a hard cheese, which does not melt so easily. As for the bread it is preferable that it is salty, as it contrasts more with the sweetness of our honey, I used French bread, but if you do not have this bread, you can use any other you have on hand. we will add it to the honey when it has acquired a thick consistency.

5.- Removeremos por un minuto más, y añadiremos un huevo batido, para unificar los sabores, esto hará que tome una consistencia mas cremosa y suave.

5.- Stir for one more minute, and add a beaten egg to unify the flavors, this will make it take a creamier and smoother consistency.

6.- Dejaremos aproximadamente dos minutos mas en el fuego removiendo una y otra vez. Apagamos el fuego y la dejamos reposar unos minutos para que enfrié.

6.- We will leave approximately two minutes more in the fire stirring again and again. Turn off the heat and let it stand for a few minutes to cool.

A DISFRUTAR // ENJOY

I hope you enjoyed my recipe, as much as I enjoyed preparing it, since many memories came to my mind, of those celebrations where the "currunchete" was present. This is the version I know, I know that in the State of Trujillo and even in other areas of my city, they prepare it differently, as it happens in almost all recipes, everyone gives a personal touch to the recipes. I loved sharing it with my family and especially with my little son, who loved it.

Les deseo suerte a todos en el concurso, si no se han unido pueden encontrar las bases del concurso en el siguiente enlace, tambien invito a participar a mi amiga Hive account@hemma7, quien se unio recientemente a nuestra grandiosa colmena.

I wish you all luck in the contest, if you have not joined you can find the contest rules in the following link, I also invite to participate to my friend Hive account@hemma7, who recently joined our great hive.

Primer Concurso Foodies / First Foodies Contest [ESP/ENGL]

Traductor / Translator :
DeepL

Fotografías Propias, editadas en Macromedia Fireworks / Own photographs, edited in Macromedia Fireworks.
Fondo Utilizado para editar las fotografías / Background Used to edit the photographs and the separator :
Fondo /Background