A Taste of El Salvador : Semita

El Salvador is the country of my heritage. I am first generation American. It was wonderful growing up and having 2 cultures. I learned the Salvadorean culture from my parents and the American culture from everywhere else. My parents brought me to El Salvador when I was very young and sadly I don't have any memories. I haven't had the opportunity to visit again so the only way for me to experience a little bit of my heritage is through food. When family would come and visit us they would bring us two things, cheese & semita.

Semita is a jam filled or sugar cane filled pastry. The jam traditionally used is pineapple, but you can add any jam filling you want, you can customized to your taste. I didn't have pineapple filling so I used brown sugar and add a couple of spices, cinnamon & cardamon.

Semita comes in 2 forms, alta & pacha. Alta is thick almost a cake like version while the pacha is a flat thin version. I prefer the pacha version. I searched for days to find a good semita recipe. It was not an easy search. I finally found one at salvadorianrecipes.com. Their recipe was the closest that I could get to a true semita. The dough bakes up a bit more crispy than a true semita but it still has the same taste and I actually prefer the crisper crust.

This semita has a crispy top and soft inside and it's filled with sweet gooey goodness that would satisfy any sweet tooth.

Try this delicious Salvadorean treat with a cup of coffee or tea.

Buen Provencho!

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Combine. Dough will be sticky.

Knead dough on a floured surface until dough is smooth and no longer sticky.

Roll out 1/2 of the dough to 8x11. Place dough in parchment lined baking sheet. Trim if necessary.

Add sugar mixture or jam filling to dough.

Roll out other 1/2 of dough and place on top and decorate with leftover dough.

Create long strains and decorate with a criss-cross pattern or any design you like.

Customize your design! Sprinkle sugar on top. Preheat oven to 350.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until golden.

Semita Salvadorean - adapted from salvadorianrecipes.com

Dough:

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp yeast, rapid acting
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
pinch of Salt

sugar for dusting

My Filling:

1-2 cups brown sugar
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp cardamon

Side Note- You can use any jam filling or dulce de panela (a hardened natural unprocessed sugar cane found in most Latin markets).

Road Map:

1. In a bowl add flour, butter, yeast,  sugar, eggs and salt. Mix ingredients with your hands. Dough will be sticky.

2. Place dough on floured surfaced. Knead dough until it is shiny and no longer sticks to your hands and is easy to work with.

3. Put dough into bowl, cover and place in a warm place and let it rest & rise for 2 hours.

4. In the meantime prepare the baking sheet and filling. Grease an 8 x 11 pan or line with parchment. Combine filling ingredients and set aside. 

5.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees for about 15 minutes before baking

6. After 2 hours, divide dough into 2 disk, use a scale to get equal pieces. Roll out 1 disk on a floured surface to fit the pan. Place first dough on pan and trim. Spread brown sugar mixture or your jam choice all over dough.

7. Roll out the other half of dough and place on top of filling. 

8. Decorate with leftover dough. Roll out long, tin string and place over top in a criss cross pattern. Sprinkle with sugar.

9. Bake for 20 -30 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool before serving.

10. Enjoy!

Plum Lime Jam

At my childhood home the backyard was filled with trees. A cran-apple, lemon, pear and plum tree. Now only 2 remain, the lemon and the plum tree. Every summer the plum tree blooms giving us an abundance of delicious juicy plums. The tree reaps so much fruit that sadly some of the plums spoil. Last summer in order to save these delectable purple jewels I made jam. It was certainly an experience! Jamming and canning take time. You need to mark out time before you start. Make it an event!

This summer, my dad brought me a huge box filled to the brim with plums. I now had 10 pounds of plums! What to do? Jam, of course! I divided the work into 2 days. I pitted the plums (I left the skin on, I didn't want to lose any nutrition plus it makes things so much easier) and washed the jars on day 1. Day 2 I made the jam, sterilized the jars and completed the canning. The recipe is really straight forward. It only has 4 ingredients: fresh plums, sugar, lime and cardamon. All the ingredients amount can be changed according to your preference. If the fruit is a little on the sour side add more sugar, its no problem. If you want more of the cardamon taste add more, but be careful cardamon is powerful stuff so be gentle. This is what I love about cooking. You can be creative and just let the ingredients speak to you. Don't be afraid to try new things, experiment or tweak a recipe. Make it yours and have fun!

I don't have a gigantic stock pot so I made my jam in batches. The recipe reflects this. Enjoy!

Buen Provecho!



Plum Lime Jam - yields 5 pints or 10-12 half pints

Ingredients:

5lbs Plums, pitted & quarted
3-4 cups Sugar
1/2 Lime
1 tsp Lime zest
1 1/2 tsp cardamon
1/2 cup Water (only if fruit is not juicy enough)

Instructions:

1. Add plum & sugar into a stock pot. If the plums don't have a lot of juice you can add up to 1/2 cup of water.

2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil until mixture has reduced and thicken (jelly state), stirring often to make sure it doesn't burn and stick to the bottom of the pot. Also skim any foam that rises.

3. While mixture is reducing, sterilize the pint or half-pint jars, lids, and bands, according to manufacturer's directions.


4. Once mixture has reduced add lime juice, lime zest and cardamon. Continue to cook for 10 minutes, continue to stir. Remove form heat.

5. Divide jam among sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch space at top of jar. Wipe rims of jars to remove any jam and seal with lids and bands.

6. Process jars in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Remove jars and let them complete cool, about 24 hours.

7.  Label, share and store in cool, dry place. Should last up to 8 months.

Enjoy!

vmeats.blogspot.com recipe