Sweet Potato Pancakes

I didn't know date syrup is now used as an alternate sweetener. One of the recipes on the cookbook, NOPI, by Yotam Ottolenghi is Sweet Potato Pancakes Topped With Yogurt and Date Syrup. Sounds really yummy.

The date syrup in the book's photo is smooth, dark, and thick. I didn't have date syrup so I made a little by cooking California dried dates with water until pulpy. I strained it but the syrup although thick is not smooth and not sweet enough. I also tried making raw syrup by chopping dates and soaking in water but the result also lacks adequate sweetness and even coarser than the cooked syrup. Maybe it's really not that sweet like sugarcane. I'll have to get the ones that come from Israel just to try.

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Lemon Curd Cream Tartlet

This treat is inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, a 60-page book composed of 3 related short stories. The first story involves a young man peddling cream tartlets. He immediately eats the ones that are not accepted. He has eaten 27 tartlets which I presumed are filled with pastry cream. I searched my cookbooks and the webs for recipes and could only find custard tarts and pies.

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Homemade Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

If health websites are to be believed, raw apple cider vinegar could remedy a lot of common ailments from asthma to colds and coughs and may help in losing weight. ACV is natural and cheap and there's really no harm in having it every day, I guess.

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Pan De Manteca (Cuban Bread)

I have a Cuban cookbook for more than a decade now but I seldom cook anything from it. I borrowed another Cuban cookbook, The Cuban Table by Ana Sofia Pelaez, and compared the Cuban bread recipes. The bread and the sandwich have become very popular among food bloggers whether they are made at home or bought from restaurants. I haven't tried their sandwich nor have I been to a Cuban restaurant.

My Cuban cookbook uses olive oil and The Cuban Table cookbook has pork lard for the traditional bread, Pan de Manteca and omits it altogether for the Pan de Agua. The bread is okay, not great but it's good enough for a Cuban sandwich. Well, any sandwich with double the porky goodness is more than a-okay in my book. I will make the bread again but with a little sourdough or a preferment for a better flavor and texture.

The recipe has plantain leaf strips that are inserted in a slit on top of the bread. I really don't know why it's needed. There isn't any explanation and the instruction is rather vague. I used it because I always have frozen banana leaves but you can leave it out entirely.

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