Sopapillas

When I was a girl and I walked into Grandma Helen's kitchen something always smelled good. Sometimes it was the salty aroma of beef stew simmering or the sweetness of biscochos baking, but nothing was better than the simplicity of her sopapillas! I loved watching the tortilla being submerged into the hot oil. The oil would boil up around it, sizzling and popping until the sopapilla puffed up and turned golden. Grandma would fish it out with her metal mesh ladle and drop it directly into a paper bag that was filled with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. My brother and I would close up the bag and shake it around like a maraca until grandma said, "Okay, that's enough now." Biting into the warm, slightly chewy sopapilla always felt like the same kind of treat as going to the donut shop on Sunday morning; exciting and delicious!

Ingredients:

Tortillas
Cinnamon
Sugar
Vegetable Oil

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a cast iron dutch oven or a deep skillet.
2. Cut the tortillas into triangles, then submerge them into the oil. Cook until they puff up and are golden in color on both sides.
3. Drop the fried tortillas into a paper bag that has a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Shake the bag until the fried tortillas have been sufficiently covered.
4. Eat!

To be authentic to Sepharina's style of sopapillas, make fresh tortillas that will cook in the oil, use these ingredients per Melinda Price:

Flour
Lard
Salt
Water

If you don't normally make tortillas and would like to try, here is my favorite tortilla recipe from The Joy of Cooking:

2 cups of flour
1 t salt
1/4 c lard or vegetable shortening
3/4 c warm water

1. Mix the ingredients together by hand or in your mixer on low speed until the dough comes together.

2.  Knead for 4-6 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into 8 small balls.

4. Cover and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

5. Roll out each ball into 6-8 inch rounds that are 1/8 of an inch thick.

6. Cut into triangles, then dunk into the hot oil to cook until puffed. Follow as directed above to finish off the sopapillas.

Helen's Macaroni Salad

1 box Ditalini pasta
1 small jar of capers
1 can of water chestnuts, chopped
1 jar of pimentos
Parsley, finely chopped, add to taste
Red Onion, chopped
Black Olives, Sliced
Mayonnaise, about 2-4 enormous spoonfuls
Salt (to taste)

1. Cook the pasta according to directions on the box. You want it to be al dente. Allow it to cool.

2. Mix all of the ingredients into the cooled pasta. (you will want enough mayonnaise to create a dressing but not so much that it thickly coats it). I probably have too much in this photo.

3. Refrigerate overnight for the flavors to meld. You may need to add a little more mayoannise before serving.

Aunt Hilda's Cheese Ball

10 oz Cracker Barrel extra sharp cheese, grated

2 large blocks of cream cheese

1 T onion, finely chopped

1 T bell pepper, finely chopped

1 T pimento strips

1 t worcestershire sauce

1 t tabasco sauce

1 T lemon juice

Squish all of the ingredients together and shape a ball. Then roll it in 1 cup of chopped pecans. Let it sit several days to age. Serve.

Contributed by Vivien Cienguegos Ide Newberry

Sepharina's Mincemeat

This recipe was given to me by Melinda Price and came from Sepharina Cienfeugos (Grandpa Frank's Mother). The prep time for this recipe is 3-4 days.

Day 1: Prepare and cook the meat

Ingredients:

You will need 2-3 lbs of each meat

1 beef tongue (boil this piece of meat, then peel before grinding)

1 boneless beef roast

1 pork roast

1 haunch of elk or venison

1 leg of lamb

You may also use animal suet. Chop it up and it will help bind the meat mixture together. 

1. Degrease the meat really well. Pull off all of the fat, get rid of any and all of the ligaments, gristle etc. Be sure that this is done carefully. 

2. Boil and peel the tounge

3. Roast the beef and pork roasts, as well as the elk haunch, and leg of lamb. 

4. Grind the meat using a hand grinder, do not use a food processor. You want a coarse grind not a pate. 

Day 2: Finish the filling

Ingredients:

Pinon (pine) nuts (roast these but watch them carefully so they do not burn, I am not sure if you want to grind these or leave them whole)

1 lb of golden raisins

1 lb of black currents

Dates may also be used if you would like (Sepharina and Josephine would use them sometimes)

You will hot plump these using 1 cup of hot water. You can also throw some brandy into the water for added flavor while you are plumping the raisins and currents. 

Red Apples, peeled and cored, then you can either grind them or use a knife to chop them coarsely. 

You may use 1/2 green and 1/2 red or golden apples as well. 

I could not get an exact amount to use, Melinda said that is depends on the amount of meat used, but it sounds like you want 2/3 meat to 1/3 apples, or maybe even half and half. 

Mix the meat with the fruit, and pine nuts and then add whiskey and white granulated sugar to taste. The mixture is not supposed to be really sweet. 

Add 2 eggs to the mixture. 

You will also a small amount of flour to the mixture, but not much because that will come in the pastry.

Then you will chill the filling overnight. This step is very important. 

Day 3: Make the pastry and fill the empanadas. 

1/2 lard and 1/2 butter

Flour

Salt

water

Mix the dough. You want it to have an elastic texture, not a flaky one.

Then you will create rounds with the dough that are about the size of a large coffee mug in width, maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter. 

You will add one 1 T of filling in the middle of each pastry. Then fold it in half and use an egg and water mixture to seal it's edges. Then crimp the edges in an empanada fashion. Chill the pastry after it has been filled. 

Before cooking, wash the entire pastry with the egg wash and then deep fry it in oil until it is golden, then flip it and cook the other side. Once the pastry is golden, open it to see if the apple and raisins have been cooked. There will be no need to worry about the meat since it has already been cooked. 

You may also bake them on cookie sheets if you wish. 

Uncle Frank's Biscochos

Biscochos are our family's traditional cookie, however when it comes to making them, everyone has their own technique. If you enjoy dunking a crispy cookie into a hot cup of tea, then Uncle Frank's delicious bizcocho is the one that you will want to make. 

Ingredients:

1 lb lard (= 2 cups)

1/2 lb butter (= 1 cup)

6 cups sugar plus ½-1 cup more for dusting

6 large eggs

1 -1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or 2 to taste)

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1-1/4 tablespoons vanilla

1-1/2 to 3 bags of anise seed

1/2 to 1 bottle anise extract

1/4 cup or more of anise liquor such as pernod

9 cups of flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Cream the fats and the sugar together until light and fluffy.  Then add the eggs and continue to beat until the sugar is almost dissolved. You will feel that the grittiness of the sugar is less when you rub the mixture between two of your fingers. This will take a good 15-20 minutes at top speed
2. Crush the anise seeds in your hands or with a rolling pin. 
3. Add the liquor, anise extract, vanilla and anise seed to the fat mixture and beat until incorporated.
4.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
5.  Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and knead it until it is shiny.
6. Allow it to sit in the fridge for several days
7.  Roll out the dough to a ½ inch thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out the cookies in whatever shapes you want
8. Mix together the cinnamon and ½-1 cup of sugar and place on a plate. Dip the cut out cookie dough into the cinnamon and sugar before baking.
9. Bake the cookies on greased cookie sheets at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10- 12 minutes.

Note: For true Uncle Frank Biscochos, he insists that you must grind the anise seeds between your palms or roll them with a rolling pin to release the flavor before adding them into the fat mixture. I throw them into the mixer and beat them for a quite a long time whenever I make it. I find that it does the same thing and is much less work. 

Also, some family members tend to put less anise seed extract and fewer seeds into the dough because the flavor can be pretty intense. 

As with all recipes, you should make the recipe and then make whatever changes you see fit for it to work for your family. 

Going to Great-Grandma's House

When I saw Grandma Helen's car in the driveway after arriving home from school it never surprised me. She would often be there when my mother worked, however,  when I would see her car on a Friday afternoon and I knew my mother was home, I would begin to get excited.  I knew that we were going to see Great Grandma Josephine.

During the long car ride down, Grandma would tell us stories about her parents. "Your Grandpa Frank was a go-getter," she would say, "he would collect big piles of bricks from construction sites after demolition and after cleaning the bricks, they would stack them nicely in a vacant lot down the street to sell them." Story after story would fill the many hours of travel and when she became tired of telling stories, she would try and guess what kinds of crops were growing along the side of the highway.

On the days that we left early enough, we would make several stops: Aunt Maryann's house for some candy bars, Anderson's for some of grandma's favorite split pea soup, Aunt Vivian's house in the mountains for some cheese and fruit, and finally we would arrive at Grandma Josephine's house. On the days when we arrived late, my grandmother would hustle us into the bedroom that had two twin size beds and an old singer sewing machine in it, but before falling into bed, we would go into Grandma's bedroom and gently give her a kiss on the cheek. She would wake up slightly startled, but once she realized who we were, the corners of her lips would rise forming the most beautiful smile, her skin would crinkle around her gorgeous dark brown eyes and the most welcoming feeling would wash over the room. She would put her hands together and bring them up to her breasts in a graceful gesture,  and she would quietly drink in the sight of us and tell us how much we had grown. Every time that she saw my little brother she would exclaim, "Helen, he looks so much like Tony." Later we would ask, "Grandma Helen? Who is Tony?" She would never answer, instead saying, "Shush, it is time to go to bed." Tony was Grandma Josephine's brother.

Those long trips in the car to go see Grandma Josephine sometimes seemed mundane while they happened, but they are now a treasured memory that I will one day tell to my own children.

(Note about the crops along the highway, Helen and I have different recollections of this event.  I remember her asking, "What is that crop over there?" It looks like such and such, or maybe it is this or that? However, her version is that she would tell me what it was every time. She would tell me a lot of times, but there was some major guess work going on with some of them.)

And So It Begins...

Josephine and Frank Cienfuegos began this amazingly large family when Josephine was only 16 or 17 years old. What began as a friendship between two Colorado families slowly blossomed into the California based family that we know and love today. Together, we will discover the evolution of the Cienfuegos family from the many perspectives of our family members and we will base it around what is of utmost importance, food! Sabriya (Carmen's daughter) and Carmen (Helen's granddaughter and named after Sabriya's mother) have come together to organize this project for everyone. We hope that you will all enjoy it!