cazuela and charquican

There's not a dish I enjoy making more than cazuela. It's a one-potter, although I know people transform this one-pot dish into a 4-pot orchestra. That's not worth my time. Cazuela is a chicken soup ideal for when you are sick, when it's cold, or when you have large amounts of excess mucus in your nose and throat (read allergies). Cazuela is like a turkish bath for the nose and throat. I definitely recommend it. I like to prepare enough for at least two days of lunch and dinner (once).

Now I'm thinking of expanding my Chilean cooking abilities by teaching myself to make charquican with cochayuyo, zapallo, choclo and other lovely veggies...and a bit of beef (for V).

A book worth reading...Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

This book is a description of restaurant subculture. Bourdain describes the different stages of life as a chef, starting as a dishwasher and working his way up. It's packed with interesting characters and anecdotes, and things perhaps we'd rather not know about the restaurant business. Perhaps you've seen Bourdain on the travel channel. He's the dude that travels around and eats exotic food.

Advice and info from Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential:
standard mise-en-place -

• kosher or sea salt
• crushed black peppercorns (hand crushed, not ground in a blender)
• fresh bread crumbs
• chiffonade parsley
• blended oil in wine bottle with speed pourer
• extra virgin olive oil
• white wine
• brandy
• chervil tops in ice water for garnish
• chive sticks or chopped chives
• tomato concassée
• caramelized apple sections
• garlic confit
• chopped or slivered garlic
• chopped shallots
• softened butter
• favorite ladles, spoons, tongs, pans, pots
• all sauces, portioned fish, meat, menu items, specials and backups conveniently positioned for easy access

Bourdain’s kitchen recommended tools:

• a decent chef’s knife – no shit!!!!!!! – I’ve got a zwilling santoku – best knife I’ve ever used
• a flexible boning knife – don’t have one of these
• a paring knife – I use a serrated steak knife that costs about a dollar. I prefer it to the my $30 dollar zwilling paring knife
• an offset serrated knife that looks like a “z” – I’d like to try one of these some day
• plastic squeeze bottle – for decoration
• a metal ring, or section of PVC pipe - for mounting works of art
• pastry bag
• mandoline – they make cheap effective one’s in Japan, so shouldn’t be too expensive
• pots and pans – heavyweight – thick-bottomed sauté pans are necessary – in order to come across some discount ones, Bourdain’s advice is to wait for that new tapas place on the corner to go out of business, then make your move.
• a nonstick sauté pan – you need a nice thick nonstick sauté pan, not one with a thin veneer of material that peels off after a few weeks. When you buy nonstick, never wash it and don’t use metal in it

Bourdain’s essential ingredients:

• shallots
• butter
• roasted garlic – don’t put it through a press, try roasting it – “It gets mellow and sweeter if you roast it whole, still on the clove, to be squeezed out later when it’s soft and brown. Try a Caesar dressing, for instance with a mix of fresh, raw garlic for bite and roasted for background, and you’lol see what I mean.”
• Chiffonaded parsley
• stock – a backbone of good cooking “Make stock already! It’s easy! Just roast some bones, roast some vegetables, put them in a big pot with water and reduce and reduce and reduce. Make a few months’ worth, and when it’s reduced enough strain it and freeze it in small containers so you can pull it from the freezer as needed.
• demi-glace – To prepare: “take your already reduced meat stock, add some red wine, toss in some shallots and fresh thyme and a bay leaf and peppercorns and slowly, slowly simmer it and reduce it again until it coats a spoon. Strain. Freeze this stuff in an ice-cube tray, pop out a cub or two as needed and you are in business.”
• chervil, basil tops, chive sticks, mint tops, etc

the idiot's guide to cravings

I've distinguished two types of cravings. One type you should listen to, because your body is infinitely wiser than your mind. Your mind can trick you, but your body will always tell you the truth about how you're feeling or about how healthy you are. So listen to it. That said, I experience two types of craving: basically, cravings for junk food and cravings for real food.

My junk food cravings are mostly for sugar, I've had a terrible sweet tooth all my life that I basically kicked after reading Energía sin limites de Deepak Chopra. I still crave sugar a lot, but much less than before. As a sidenote, I was at a healthy weight before I read this book, but lost 5-10 pounds after reading it, because I cut back on my sugar and flour intake and instead began eating more whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, mote, oats) and white rice. I still indulge in sugar from time to time, but not on a daily basis.

My other cravings are for coconut milk, mote, vegetables, whole grains, chocolate (with very little sugar), etc. I can tell they are real cravings because 1) these are healthy foods and 2) I feel better after eating them. Whereas when I indulge in eating excess sugar, I later feel heavy and lazy, leaving me with low energy. So there you have it. Trust your body's healthy cravings. If your body feels better after eating what you crave, it means you needed the food. You can train your body to crave healthy foods. Just start adding more vegetables and wholegrains to your diet and your body will get used to them and crave them. This way you use cravings to your advantage.

I do sometimes crave sweet things that my body really wants and I eat just a bit, and feel better afterwards, but this happens maybe a couple times a week and I only eat a little, because my body is just craving a bit. I always have something a bit sweet after eating a meal with garlic. I don't know what it is about garlic, but I always follow this with something sweet.

saturated fat-packed coconut milk: the new diet food

I've had a hunch since I was 18 that eating fat actually helped me maintain a healthy weight. I basically stopped trusting what the media said at that age when I realized that eating fats was actually really satisfying and my body thanked me after eating them.

So I indulge on fat-filled coconut milk quite often. Since I crave it so much, I thought I'd look up its nutritional value on the internet. Since modern science hasn't been studying coconut milk like it has been studying tumeric, the media still hasn't informed us of all the healthy qualities of coconut milk. But I'm not waiting for the newspapers to begin pumping this food before I start eating it. I found a bit of less "official" info on internet. So, according to this article while coconut milk has as much fat as cow's whole milk, unlike whole milk, coconut milk helps you lose weight! Ha! I chug coconut milk all the time. More reasons to drink coconut milk:

• Promotes loss of excess weight by increasing metabolic rate.

• Is utilized by the body to produce energy in preference to being stored as body fat like other dietary fats.

• Helps prevent obesity and overweight problems.

You see you shouldn't trust the media with their myths and stupid repetitious ideas that fat is soo unhealthy? Now that I've said that if you eat lots of flour, sugar and other processed foods, or eat too much in general, coconut milk might not be the solution. Because there is no panacea for weight loss beyond exercising and a healthy diet. You can't just take a pill and become healthy and thin.

I would drink coconut milk daily, but I feel ethically it's maybe not the best to drink sooo much of it, since it has to be shipped to Chile from Thailand.

I have thought of making my own since they often sell Panamanian coconuts in the street here.

The one-size-fits-all utopic panacea happily ever after

I feel like gringos are always looking for the panacea solution to every problem that they have. This "panacea" manifests as the new gringo fad of the year: low fat diets, adkins diet, low carb diet, green food, green production, green everything. I feel like your average gringo is always following this illusion that the panacea solution will come to them from the media and businesses in the form of consumerism. We consume food, material things as well as knowledge. We can read infinite articles about the benefits of Omega-3s and antioxidants, etc. But can we assume we will ever know more about the minerals, vitamins, nutrients our bodies need than just the very tip of the iceberg? I feel like following my intuition and listening to my body, I will feed myself infinitely better than I would just reading the new SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY that says tumeric might prevent colon cancer. I was eating tumeric long before it was labeled as "HEALTHY" by Newsweek. Because I trust my taste buds and Indian food is my favorite. While, obviously science has its usefulness, I feel like science took the place of religion a few centuries back, and literally became the new religion. I do think US culture is becoming aware of that, slowly.

Like Lori says, gringos need to focus inward. I think it helps to see what our bodies tell us, our minds, our souls. Focus on what our bodies crave (beyond sugar and salt). Down deep, what are we craving? Are we scared to focus inward? What might we find? I remember last July I was feeling really exhausted for like three days straight. And I remember the whole time I was craving mote, this typical Chilean grain. I finally bought some, cooked it and ate a ton. And I felt sooo much better. Later I had a hunch and read up about mote on the internet, and sure enough, it was a good food to eat in order to combat fatigue. Point being my body is sometimes much smarter and more aware than my mind. Perhaps some obese people are out of contact with what their bodies really need? Maybe maintaining a healthy weight/body means being able to dialogue with our body's needs. Listening to what our bodies really want and giving it to them.

In a similar way, it's like the whole "Let's be green" fad is a bit of an illusion to cover up the fact that maybe we'd be better off not consuming so much, not shopping so much. With each "ching ching" of the cash register, I'm contributing to pollution. How organic is that cotton? 100%? No plant was harmed during its production? Yeah, that fuscia color looks like it was made from some super organic dye. Technically, if greeness is what we want, wouldn't we be better off to stop production for a while? Stop producing more clothing, objects. I mean, really, do we need any more clothes or objects in the States? Granted I'm aware if production stopped lots of people would lose their jobs and the economy would probably go into recession, etc. So it may not be the solution. But who are we kidding? Green industry. Is this not an oximoron? Pollution will still happen. Hopefully at lower levels, but it will exist. Can we call a spade a spade? or does everything always have to seem like it came out of a fairy tale?

I was reading about how solar panels can be produced at much lower cost nowadays, and the article listed some of the chemicals used in the process of producing solar panels. While clearly this is better than carbon, how green is it really? ....I kind of think if we want green, we should listen to Rousseau with his idea of the "noble savage", and how, the further away from nature we are, the more corrupt we are. While this is utopic and all, if we want to be "green", wouldn't we be better off running around in the woods/jungles dressed like Adam and Eve. That would be GREEN. I'm just pointing at this illusion that everything in the future is going to be so GREEN. Green factories. Yes, it will probably be better. But we'll still pollute. Obviously consumerism won't just stop, so, yes, the best solution seems to make it greener. Why don't we all just admit we are in denial? We could at least be honest with ourselves: WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT CONSUMERISM, IT'S TOO SATISFYING. Things, useful or not, all rapped up in nice little packages. Yuppie is the new bourgeois. Ha!

On the optimistic side, I do think gringo culture is slowly becoming more aware of its impact on the world and on itself. FINALLY.
Oh, wait, we're not the only country in the world? Shit, now what?

"The one-size-fits-all utopic panacea happily ever after" would make a really good t-shirt slogan. Maybe Walmart could mass produce them for me on organic cotton at a factory operating on biodiesel made from McDonald's used vegetable oil. Never been greener.

quinoa apple bread (queque)

Last night I made quinoa apple bread following a recipe I found on the internet, well, I sort of followed it.

apple quinoa queque

• 2 whole medium apples, cored and coarsely grated (about 1 cup lightly packed or 200 g.) - ionly had one at the time
• 1/2 cup miel de palma (though perhaps honey and bananas would do the trick
• 1/2 cup (125 ml.) sunflower or other light-tasting oil
• 2 cups (160 g.) cooked quinoa
• 2 tsp. (10 ml.) finely ground flax seeds
• 2 tsp. (10 ml.) pure vanilla extract (I had a bit of vanilla and added about 3/4 tsp of almond -- almond extract is really strong tasting)
• 1 tsp. (5 ml.) wine vinegar (recipe called for apple vinegar, but in Chilito there's much more wine vinegar)
• 1/4 cup (40 g.) sunflower seeds (I substituted chopped almonds)
• 1/4 cup (40 g. ) raisins (didn't have them on hand)
• 1-1/3 cups (160 g.) whole oat flour
• 1 tsp. (5 ml.) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. (2.5 ml.) baking soda
• 1 tsp. (5 ml.) ground ginger
• 2 tsp. (10 ml.) ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. (10 ml.) or less, to taste, cardamom
• 1/2 tsp. (2.5 ml.) sea salt
• 1/4 cup whole oats

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease a 9″ square pan, or line with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix the grated apple, miel de palma, oil, quinoa, ground flax seeds, vanilla, vinegar, sunflower seeds and raisins. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, soda, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, and sea salt. Add the oats. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well.

Pour into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before cutting into slices.

Makes 9 breakfast servings or 12 dessert servings. Best eaten the day it’s made.

granola bars/cookies

I made granola bars the other day, or tried to. They turned out tasty, but they weren't really bars. They turned out more like a gooey mass, which sort of defeated the purpose. I tried to avoid this by using chancaca as one of the sweeteners. I thought this would sort of glue the bars together. But no. My idea was to be able to eat it on the subway, for example. But that just makes for a really big mess. So now I'm pondering the idea of granola bar cookies...or more like semi-sweet cookies made with oats and whole wheat flour, like to eat as a snack/breakfast wherever I may find myself hungry.

coconut milk: heaven on Earth

I am sooooo addicted to coconut milk. It's incredible. I mostly eat it in curries and desserts. I just came up with an orgasmic dessert that uses this tasty product:

Mote, coconut milk and maple syrup. Stir and enjoy.

Mote is the grain used in this typical Chilean dessert..mote con huesillos. It's sort of like bulgur wheat, but bigger and better.

mote con huesillos caliente?

I miss the mote con huesillos. In the summer, the paseos (ahumada, estado, huérfanos) are full of mote con huesillos vendors. Unfortunately, we are in winter (kind of) and these people are gone. The main vendors now sell "nuts for nuts". Cuak. Why doesn't just one of the vendors serve it in the winter, and hot? Yes the Chileans would probably be weirded out, because they are used to drinking it cold. I prepare it hot at my house. It makes a really good breakfast, snack, or dessert. Ñami.

curried squash and bean broth soup?

Am pondering this one. Should I do it? I have nothing to loose. This might possibly be tomorrow's lunch, part of it, anyway.

So I made curried squash, carrots and spinach the other day. The curry sauce turned out fabulous, but the mix with squash wasn't good. The squash is too sweet to be in a curry. Unless it takes a minor roll in the dish. This time the squash makes up half my curry. I've eaten several portions but have gotten sick of it, and I still have like two more large servings of it. So am thinking of blending it with a bit of bean broth I have on hand....probably tomorrow though. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Wednesday July 2: The soup turned out quite well. It's much tastier than the curried squash stirfry. The big chunks of squash were too sweet. Blended with everything else they turned out yummy.

baked falafel

So I made baked falafel for lunch today, following a mixture of recipes, as always.

Ingredientes:
15 1/2 oz canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, or cilantro, fresh, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

I mashed this all together by hand because my blender is no substitution for a food processor, no matter how stubborn I am, it just doesn't blend some things -- like garbanzo beans. Anyway than I formed the doughish substance in little patties and fried them in about 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Then I cooked them in the oven at 350°F for perhaps 25 minutes.

Than I chopped tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro and mixed this together with a bit of lemon juice.

And I blended an entire garlic head (peeled and whatnot) with 1/2 cup of olive oil and a bit of cilantro and then added a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then I mixed half of this with like 150 grams of natural yogurt.

Then you cut the top off the pita, and stuff it full of these ingredients.

The recipe turned out pretty well. This is only the second time I made falafel. The first time was like 5 years ago and I was so traumatized by the experience that I didn't try again until today. Hahahaha.

Next time I'll probably cook the garlic bulb in the oven maybe 10-15 minutes before blending it with the oil, because the sauce turned out sooooo strong, burn your mouth strong. And next time I won't forget the salt!!! That sure complicates things. Overall I was satisfied with the results for the first time in forever that I made falafel, but the one thing that bothered me is that the inside of the falafel patties weren't at all "bready", like I've eaten before. Cuak. Anyone have any tips?

back to medieval times...mmm almond milk

I made some tasty almond milk yesterday. It's just a bit pricier than real milk at about 1.000 pesos the liter (It takes one cup of almonds to make a liter).

Almond milk:

• 1 cup of almonds (soaked overnight in a couple cups of water)
  
• a few dates
• vanilla extract or artificial rum or some other flavoring
  
• 3 cups of water

Throw the strained soaked almonds in the blender with dates and a cup of water. Blend until well blended, add 2 more cups of water and vanilla and blend some more. Then strain in fine strainer holding on to the almond pulp to put in cookies, granola, to eat straight, whatever. Drink milk. It's supposed to keep 3 days in the fridge, but Vuko and I drank it all right away. Yummy

Next time I may add 4 cups of water to see if I can make the almonds go a little further.

Back in the medieval day, apparently people drank almond milk rather than cow's milk because it kept longer in those pre-refrigerator times. That's what I read on the internet anyway.

Shop at Suitt

Woah. My bud Fer and I came across a sweet place to buy dried fruit, nuts, and Belgian chocolate. I soo recommend shopping here. It's cheaper and tastier than the supermarket. To date I've bought dates, almonds, coconut flakes, coconut cubes--extremely sweet-to die for, Belgian chocolate - pretty good, huesillos-the best huesillos I've ever eaten. I repeat, everything I've tried is tasty and cheaper than the supermarket. Suitt is on Miraflores between huérfanos and Merced.

Food, food, food

So today I made merluza and mashed potatoes for lunch. The cooking time was soooo much longer than what the recipes said. It turned out pretty good for a first try. I'll post the recipe after I've made it a couple times.

Lately, I've been thinking about how to be a locavore in Northern Minnesota, and have thought of some ways of going about it:
pumpkin pancakes -- I found a recipe that looks just fabulous
hunting deer - there are tons of them..possible recipes:

• venison stir-fry
• venison curry
• grilled venison steak?
• venison paella (made with wild rice if possible, hehe)
• venison cazuela
• whatever the Ojibwes ate
  

Another recipe that occurred to me:
The Up North sushi roll, consisting of wild rice and fresh walleye in a maple syrup sauce. Yummy. Someday, when I make it, I will post a picture. Hahaha.

I found a super interesting website that talks about food and diet. For people interested in healthy diet, I recommend checking it out. It's actually a pdf file that describes the "Intergrative Nutrition" program in NYC, like for people who want to study nutrition. But the actual pamplet they have prepared is intriguing. They even have posted a new food pyramid, the best one I've ever seen, might I add.

dish/food repertoire

When I took piano lessons back in the day, my teacher enfasized the importance of having a repertoire of songs that you play well (and hopefully by memory), so that, should the opportunity arrise, you can play a few songs for friends, family or whoever.

I've found that this strategy is good for food as well. It's nice to have a bunch of tasty dishes that I can just whip up when need be. So here is a my repertoire list:

• chopsui de curry
• sour chickpeas
• enchiladas
• cazuela
• pesto
• vegetables and/or meat in almond sauce
• hashbrowns - I make this as a meal with lots of vegetables like grated carrot, onions, green peppers, and sometimes other veggies I have laying around. I use a ton of oil and salt. That's the key to achieving tastiness
  

can also do:

• pork chops and mashed potatoes
• hamburgers
• french fries
• sushi
• fajitas
• burritos
  

and I hope to incorporate these dishes into my repertoire soon:

• merluza - my suegra's got a great recipe for merluza made in the oven
• paella
• falafel (I hope to find a recipe for baked falafel)
  

One of my favorite desserts lately is grated apple and coconut milk topped with cinnamin, nutmeg, ground cloves, and sweet garam masala. I think I'm addicted to coconut milk, but I personally think it's pretty healthy, after all it is 100% natural.

I made vegan paella the other day because I didn't have any chicken or anything and it turned out surprisingly well.

towards sustainable living [in Chile]: shark fin melon soup

So our generation seems to have inherited an unsustainable way of living, an unsustainable culture(s), really. A few years ago I never heard the word of "sustainable" applied to plans for the future of "first" world countries, it was only ever referred to when talking about the sustainable development of "third" world countries. Seems like the world's really messed up because probably every piece of clothing I'm wearing was made in a sweat shop, the food I eat is full of chemicals as is the clothing I wear, the weather is all screwed up, the air I breathe is toxic and those are just some of the problems of modern life. But in the wise words of G.I. Joe, "Now we know, and knowing is half of the battle."

So here's an article that describes the locavore movement in the States as bigger than just another fad. It's actually catching on.

And I'm doing my part, experimentally cooking. So I bought an alcayota the other day. This food grows here in Chile and the only thing that Chileans make with alcayota is "dulce de alcayota", which I believe is similar to a jam. Since I'm trying to cook with unprocessed foods, and I suppose with an enfasis in local foods, I didn't want to use sugar. On the internet I found a recipe for "shark fin melon soup" which I guess is a Chinese soup. (This is not to be confused with shark fin soup.) They have alcayota in China too. It's a sort of melon, though it's a bit tasteless. The soup actually turned out pretty decently. The big problem I had, however is that this soup calls for pork ribs, and the carnicería didn't have pork ribs, but it did have costillar, so I bought that, but it has a ton of fat. Yucky. After the soup cooled, a layer of lard formed on the top. It just floated there. So I scooped it out. (Lard is fabulous hand lotion.) And the chunks of pork were super fatty as well, and really not that tasty. Ribs aren't big here in Chile, at least how we eat them in the States. But I will find some pork ribs and try it again, because this could be some mighty tasty soup. Besides the lard and pork, I really enjoyed it.

piña colada

Preparé una piña colada de la ostia¡¡¡ Super rico. Corté la piña, como 2/3 y la batí en la licuadora, después la colé (thus the name piña colada...means strained pineapple. Yeah, I just learned that today...el colar la piña es un poco webeado, pero da buen resultados) y serví 1/3 taza de jugo de piña en cada vaso, después abrí una lata de leche de coco y eché otra 1/3 taza a cada vaso. Añadimos ron a gusto y un poco del jarabe que preparo para el pisco sour. Y hielo si te gusta. De hecho, se puede batir todo al final con hielo en la liquadora y voilá. Yo no soy muy aficionada del hielo en invierno. Pero, pucha, con piña fresca, leche de coco y su buen ron... es refácil preparar.

gyosas, ñami

Compré gyosas de cerdo donde los chinos, y las preparé hoy día. Las cociné al vapor como 5-8 minutos y después las eché a freir unos 8-10 minutos con un poco de aceite, aproximamente 1/4 taza. Como no tenía colador de metal para cocinar al vapor, agarré la lechera y eche una pulgada de agua herviendo, después pusé un trozo de zapallo casi el tamaño del fondo de la lechera y puse las gyosas encima. Eso funcionó de maravilla. Lo único que haría distinto es que había echado salsa de soya a la sarten con el aceite para freir las cuestiones sabrosas y en realidad, no hacía falta sal. Parece que las gyosas vienen saladitas.

Cuando cocino, me he dado cuenta de que me gusta dominar la receta y hacerla mía. Un ejemplo, llevo 23 años que cocino galletas de chip de chocolate (así de jovencita soy, jeje), las he preparado en 3 continentes (2, según los profesores de colegio latinoamericanos), en 3 países y he chupado harto medio ofreciendo mis galletas sobre todo a directores de colegios tanto chilenos como estadounidenses y profesores, pero también a mis jefes, y bueno, los que realmente benefician son mis parientes, amigos, los conserjes, y otra genta que cruza mi camino en el momento justo. Pero me estoy alejando del tema..kind of...la cosa es que quizás las galletas de chip de chocolate son tan cercana a mi alma como la música blues lo fue al alma de Jimi Hendrix. De allí, él inventó su estilo propio..y eso es lo que me gusta hacer tb, pero no al nivel genérico, sino al nivel del enunciado (de una receta). Claro mi público es algo más limitado en cantidad que el de Hendrix...supongo que me falta un Woodstock o una Isle of Wight.

Las galletas ya me las sé, partí de una receta de Betty Crocker y la enseñanza de mi mamá cuando niñita, y, durante los años, mi receta ha evolucionado y cambiado. Mi manera de preparar ahora tiene más de instinto que conocimiento, mi conciencia la sabe tan bien que pasó la tarea a mi inconciente, y así cocinar se vuelve meditación. Repité una pauta parecida con mis otras recetas estrellas, los Sour Chickpeas, las enchiladas, el chopsui de curry, etc. Ahora le toca al pisco sour.

en busca del pisco sour para llevar (al carrete)

He preparado el pisco sour varias veces. La gracia de la receta que estoy desarrollando es que sea buena para llevar a la casa de los amigos... De la Kuky, aprendí que el truco es echar harto hielo a la cuestión para que casi queda como frappé y así va derritiendo en el metro, la micro, el auto, las dodge patas...en el camino. Bueno y uno de las secuelas del hielo es que el jarabe de goma tiene que ser bien concentrada para no echar tanto líquido porque si no, la cuestión va a quedar como una limonada. Lo otro que recien caché es que es buena idea ocupar pisco 40 en vez de 35, pero esta vez voy a ocupar 35 porque es lo que hay.

La receta:
1 taza jarabe de goma
2 tazas pisco 40
2 tazas jugo de limón
hielo
rinde como 2 litros de pisco sour

jarabe de goma
voy a adjustar la receta que tengo para el jarabe, pide demasiado agua encuentro yo. Voy a intentar así:
1/2 kilo de azúcar
1 taza de agua
clavos de olor
palito canela
cáscara naranja
un poco de nuez moscada
Calentar hasta hervir y deja enfriar. Al rato, colar jarabe para sacar especias, naranja.

Quedó super bien el pisco sour...Otra cosa para hacer en el futuro, preparar el pisco sour el día anterior o la mañana del carrete y dejar en congelador hasta salir. No creo que se congele, pero quedará heladísimo. Es bueno guardar una botella de jugo Watts (como de litro y medio) para portar el pisco. La gracia de la botella Watts es que tiene la boca más ancha que una botella cachatun, p. ej.

I love Patronato

There's this section of Santiago where you can buy really cheap clothing because it's fabricated there. And now today I stumbled across the main Santiago market (or so I think). It's called a vega. Ever since we arrived to Santiago, I've been shopping at a market in the metro station Puente Cal y Canto across from the Central Market (the Central Market mostly is full of seafood restaurants). The produce is generally fresher and cheaper there that in the supermarkets. It did kind of surprise me how small the market is being about the same size as Valparaíso's market. Valpo's population is about 260,000 while Santiago's is around 6.5 million. But I just figured there must be lots of ferias in Santiago, where venders set up in the street to sell produce on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But today, I took the wrong street to Patronato and found myself in front of this huge city-block-sized mass of produce stands with a sizeable parking lot. I saw a couple guys with dolleys stacked three meters high with cochayuyo. I LOVE food, especially fresh produce, so this was a felt like a huge personal jackpot to come across the vega. So I made my way in, figuring the exit on the other side would be pretty close to the clothing stores and when I came out on the other side, I was right by the Patronato metro station, across the street from the stores. Cheap clothing and cheap fresh food. What could be better?

I bought a couple pairs of pants and then headed back to the vega and bought a Chilean mango, which was tiny, but tasty, and a mankaqui, so good, and other fresh produce.

I've never bought so much expired food in my life.

I've even bought expired soy sauce at the Chinese Commercial Center. I used it for several months before I even noticed. Who checks the expiration date on soy sauce? I do now, when I remember. I've bought and eaten expired yogurt. First I noticed the funny taste, than the funny color and lastly the expiration date. Nasty. Although, I do generally check the expiration date on yogurt because it's a handy food to have on hand, sitting in the fridge for a week or two or three. Though it rarely lasts that long. I had crackers expire on me the other day. Crackers. In fact I wouldn't have even noticed. Vuko noticed. Though, they weren't already expired when I bought them like the other foods. They still had a month or so left, but we went on a 3-week vacation, so they were past expiration when we got back. I just bought expired chicken the other day, but cooked and ate it anyway. It was only one day past expiration. Normally I notice the expiration dates on chicken and meat products, but the other day I was looking for the smallest chicken breast (half a kilo) and forgot to crosscheck it for freshness. I've also bought expired milk. Nothing else occurs to me at the moment, but I will think of more things... and I'm sure I've cooked and eaten more expired food than I am aware. But I'm still living. I've eaten waaaay worse things in Chile and survived to perhaps blog about it someday.

low-carbon diet and related babblings

The locavore movement is now contending with the organic one, because although no chemicals are used to produce organic food (supposedly), considering the impact one's carbon footprint puts into question how ethical it is to buy Chilean grapes, unless of course you live here. Because if you live in the States, fuel will be needed to export those grapes. Eating locally appears to be where its at and previously obvious choices (for some) are put into doubt. So in order to combat the maybe-not-so-good-for-the-Earth organic fad, you can now partake in a low-carbon diet. I can barely contemplate the hordes of deer and wild rice someone living in Minnesota may have to eat to stay low-carbon. A lot of weight would be lost in the north country. Perhaps pumpkins and squash could be used for more than just Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving pie. Luckily strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and apples all grow there, as well as corn, peas lettuce, etc. ...I suppose that corner of the Earth is rather bountiful. In Chile I could almost live off the fruit and vegetables sold on the street. Speaking of bountiful...the pears are absolutely gorgeous and the cactus pears are sooo sweet right now, and quite cheap too. Capitalism's homogenizing/essentializing effect means consumers may not even know what fruits and veggies are in season. Here in Chile I've got more of a grasp on it. Though in Minnesota, there's not much in season 6 months of the year.

Anyway I suppose my idea is to have a garden. Some of my ex-co-workers in Minnesota have a HUUGE pumpkin patch and surplus zucchinis every year, so I could probably partake in those if I ever go home. Meanwhile, I imagine that studying pre-Colombian diets could go far to give an idea as to what to eat in América.

excellent enchilada recipe

I recommend this recipe!!! It's one of my favorite. The best part is the enchilada sauce; that's what gives the recipe it's super addictive tastiness. What goes in the tortillas is relative. I've prepared the recipe below and it's quite good, but it's also quite tasty stuffed with chicken, green peppers and cheese, or even quinoa, veggies and cheese. When I put chicken or pork in the enchiladas, I always have cooked the meat first. Often I use meat left over from the day before.

Poroto, Corn, and Zucchini Enchiladas

Prepare the Enchilada Sauce a day or two ahead of time, and refrigerate. I generally prepare enough to make enchiladas twice in a week.

2 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup diced red onion
2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup organic vegetable broth (such as Swanson Certified Organic)
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 juicy tomatoes

Preparation
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in broth and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.

3 cups (serving size: about 1/3 cup)

Ingredients (what goes in the tortillas)
2 teaspoon canola oil
2 cups diced zucchini
1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn
1 cup porotos of your choice, cooked
3 cups Enchilada Sauce, divided
8 (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas
2 cups shredded cheese, divided

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups zucchini and corn; sauté for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in beans.

Spread 1 cup Enchilada Sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with oil. Spoon about 1/2 cup zucchini mixture down center of 1 tortilla; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cheese, and roll up. Place seam-side down in baking dish. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, zucchini mixture, and 14 tablespoons cheese. Spread remaining 2 cups sauce evenly over enchiladas.

Cover with foil; bake at 350°F (180°C) for 15-30 minutes. Uncover; top with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.

Chili Powder

INGREDIENTS:
* 1 part paprika (ají de color)
* 2 parts ground cumin
* 1 part cayenne pepper (merken) - I always use merken instead of cayenne because it's such a good spice and easy to get in Chile.
* 1 part oregano
* 2 parts garlic powder – or add garlic sauce or garlic when cooking and leave out garlic powder

Matar aloo

Today I prepared matar aloo. It turned out quite well besides the under-cooked potatoes. The technique for next time may be to boil them beforehand. I omitted the green peas because the ones I bought here don't cook. Even in the pressure cooker they take forever to soften at all. Is that normal? I just plan on substituting other things rather than using green peas (dal). I also think that adding chicken or veggie broth instead of water would be a tasty addition to the recipe. Although I tried to prepare a ton of this to have leftovers for tomorrow, there's barely any leftover. Cuak. Next time.

Matar aloo

1 T butter
½ t cumin seeds
1 C dried Green peas (dal) soaked overnight and cooked just until soft but mushy
1 potato cubed
1 t ginger paste
1 t garlic paste
1 small onion, minced
1 big tomato or ½ cup tomato sauce
1 T cumin seeds pd,
½ t red chilli pd
salt
cilantro
1 t sugar

To Grind:
2 T coconut
2 T toasted almonds
½ t garam masala

Melt butter,add cumin seeds.Add cubed Potatoes,saute until reddish.Put in minced onion until it gets color,then add Giner-Garlic paste and saute for a minute.Add in all the dry spices,stir fry until you see little butter on top.Add in Tomato.

Keep stirring until Tomato sauce thickens and you see the shine of butter in the pan.Add 1 cou of water,salt and cooked Green Peas with it's cooking water if any,(Do not add too much water,sauce should thickish), 1 tsp sugar and simmer gently.

Meanwhile,grind coconut,almonds,garam masala until very smooth and add to simmering Matar Aloo and mix well.Simmer (must be on low heat to prevent coconut fro curdling)gently for 10-15mins until thick and butter shows up on top.Adjust the salt and chilli pd to your taste.

This dish tastes great the next day,please have some patience!!
Serve Matar Aloo with either Poori or layered Parathas, lemon slices and sweet onion slices on the side!!

a ton of sour quinoa

I made "sour quinoa", which is quinoa with Indian seasonings, I altered Madhur Jafrey's Sour chickpeas recipe. Lunch got a 4 from Vuko, he doesn't think quinoa can be a main dish. He said it was good but the pork chops were missing. jeje. poor guy. But now a have a weeks worth of sour quinoa so maybe tomorrow I can fry up the pork chops he wanted. We had apple pie/crisp for dessert. That turned out quite good. I give lunch a 5.5.

I find the sour quinoa and sour chickpeas recipes to be quite addictive. I think it's the cumin that gives it the pull to eat more. I really do. My enchilada recipe uses cumin as well and boy are the enchiladas addictive. That might be a good idea...to make quinoa-stuffed enchiladas this week. I have a ton of quinoa now, both regular and sour. So I could fuse mexican and indian and get an interesting dish. Both traditions seem to use a fair amount of cumin. Both enchiladas and sour chickpeas start by frying onions and tomatoes.

Last weeks food (mostly lunches) in review...

Monday - cazuela -- tasty
Tuesday - estofado de cazuela -- okay
Wednesday - chicken veggie stir-fry, yummy. I didn't think Vuko liked it so I asked him to give it a grade (between 1-7) and he gave it a 5. I give it a 5.8. I liked it because it had a ton of vegetables which is why I thought Vuko wouldn't like it, but I was wrong. (Granted it's diplomatic of him to compliment the hand that feeds him.)
Thursday - salad kind of like at Naturista restaurant (boiled potatoe, porotos granados, half an avocado, goat cheese with merkén, black olives) and quinoa. mote con huesillos for dessert
Friday - vegetable consomé and quinoa salad. and mote con huesillos for dessert.
Saturday - leftover quinoa salad... and tapas goat cheese with merken, crackers, olives, nuts
Sunday - pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese accompanied with gatorade. Absolutely spectacular.

And I made the apple pie-like thing last night. It's kind of a apple crisp/apple pie hybrid. But all the butter and sugar made it tasty.

apple pie

Vuko's b-day is coming up, so I asked him what kind of cake he wants. And he said he doesn't really like cake, but that's because he hasn't tasted the cake I make. hehe. Really the store-bought cakes here are terrible, except for the mil hojas which has manjar. Or if you buy a cake in a German bakery, those are incredible..and expensive. So we decided on apple pie instead of cake...I really think it should be accompanied with cinnamon ice cream from El Emporio La Rosa...yummy. I´ll have to get a pint of that to go with it. So in true scholarly fashion, I looked up apple pie recipes on the internet...I have my preferences as far as recipes go, and I found a cookie crumb sort of crust...flour, chopped nuts, brown sugar and butter, it sounds simple enough. Not only are pie crusts supposedly hard to make, I honestly don't find them that tasty, except for the cookie crumb variety. Otherwise it's like eating bread or something, sort of blah, really. I've never been a big fan. So this pie crust sounds tasty. The filling is basically apples, sugar, a bit of flour, spices, and maybe I'll add some pecans or cherries or something, I don't know. And then, you know, the lattice top crust is like essential to have, except I've decided on a "crunch top" that is composed of butter, sugar, a pinch of salt, and flour that you distribute in clumps on top of the pie filling. These are just parts of recipes I harvested off the internet. We'll see how it turns out. Thinking of trying it out this weekend.

teflon is the pits

Freeking annoying. I can't stand teflon and wish it were never invented. What's wrong with stainless steel? I bought this teflon fry-pan a couple years back and you aren't supposed to wash it with soap or abrasive things... And the food gets stuck anyway..then what do you do? Stupid teflon. Another invention WAY OVER-RATED. I was at Target the other day looking for a new fry pan and of course they were ALL coated with teflon. So I bought one anyway, because I really did need a new fry pan...

I've been flirting with trying to find a copper fry pan. They sell a lot of copper pans here, I see lots on the way to Con-Con. They don't seem to be lined like the copper cookware in the States..but perhaps unlined copper is worth a try... this is random, but, according what I've read about ayurveda philosophy, copper balances kapha..

mote, cazuela, estofado, Young Combatant's Day

So I'm cooking like a pound of mote and considering instead of making rice to go with the stirfry to use some of the mote as the acompañamiento. I wonder what Vuko will think of this. He's not as experimental with the food he ingests as I am. After putting all this mote on to cook, I remembered Vuko doesn't like that much mote with his huesillos...though I love mote. I s'pose I´d eat it but probably getting more to the truth of the matter I don't feel like making rice today. After all the mote's already cooking.

Oh. Last week I tried a new thing and it worked out well. I made cazuela de ave (this wasn't the new part), a typical chilean soup. This was Friday. Turns out Young Combatent's Day fell on a Saturday this year, but who protests on Saturday? Stopping traffic in Alameda (the main drag in downtown Santiago) on a Saturday doesn't affect anyone. Plus, generally I think people have better things to do on Saturdays. So the protesters made a morning of it on Friday. Though I thought I saw some protester signs that were complaining about the Public Education or something. Anyway, Vuko called to say he was getting out of work at 3:30pm due to the protests, and wouldn't be coming home for lunch. So I had this huuuge pot of cazuela just for me and we were going to Viña for the weekend. So after lunch, I transferred it to a smaller pot and put it in the freezer. When we got back, I took it out and it defrosted for like 12 hours and I heated it up for lunch Monday. It was still quite tasty. I was suprised. And then we had it again on Tuesday. hahaha. By yesterday it was more like estofado (stew) de ave than cazuela, but it was still good.

menus, food ponderings and possible heresy

I imagine this will be a sort of journal of my cooking so I can look back and see what worked and what didn't with different culinary endeavors, and also to record and remember recipes that I've used and foods that I've prepared and I could talk incessantly about foods and diet...and I think I will.

I put some huesillos (dehydrated peaches) in a bowl and mote (a grain commonly eaten in Chile) in another bowl to soak for the evening, planning on making mote con huesillos (a Chilean food) tomorrow to have for breakfasts and desserts and snacks. The chancaca's been sitting in my cupboard for awhile now.. I´m planning on making stirfry for lunch tomorrow -- red pepper, carrots, celery, dientes de dragón (soybean sprouts), chicken and cashews. With rice to accompany.

For Wednesday am thinking of preparing a vegetable broth to cook the quinoa in and make a little soup. We eat a lot of quinoa. According to Wikipedia it was the most important food for the Incans. And maybe chop up some vegetables to stirfry to eat with the quinoa...The main dish is often a bit complicated for me. I have vegan tendencies though I don't know that I will ever become vegan, I'm sort of a vegan/vegetarian eater for most of my quotidian foods, especially breakfast. haha.

And I like the idea of being a locavore. There's supposed to be an organic restaurant near the U de Chile, the humanities building, that I would like to check out some day. Too bad I haven't had to go to the U de Chile humanities in months : (

Anyway, it's sort of a problem having vegan/vegetarian tendencies when my boyfriend loves meat, fish, poultry, etc. One way I've negotiated our dietary preferences so far is I buy canned tuna and some days I make him a tuna salad as the first plate and then it doesn't matter as much if the main entree contains no animal. I like meat too sometimes. Lately I´ve really enjoyed pork chops and pork ribs -- prepared with olive oil and lemon. yummy. In Chile the most typical get together that a person is invited to (be it a family or friend affair) is the barbecue -- asado. And I love the choripanes...It's one of my favorite foods. They are little fat sausages put in a little fat bunlike piece of bread. Bread is made fresh here daily. I suppose that's the other gliche in a possible plan of becoming a vegan.. I like barbecues. Especially in Chile. In the States I didn't have quite the passion for them that I do here.

So why would I want to be a vegan? My 1st reason is because I can't stand what I've heard about the food industry. I mostly avoid thinking about it when eating chicken (that are supposedly injected with sodium so they'll absorb more water and thus be larger and heavier and sell for more money), meat, salmon (antibiotic-injected), any of it really, even Chilean vegetables are likely to have of pesticides and other chemicals. Today on the cover of La Tercera, The headline was "USA: third chain of supermarkets suspends buying Chilean Salmon". (Safeway) Though I'd already read about this deal in c.hileno's website. Anyway, this is after a report is published in the New York Times about the elevated amount of antibiotics used in the Chilean Salmon Industry based on a report written by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development back in 2005. Capitalism can be so insidious. (I don't have anything against capitalism per se; its actually the business people and consumers that screw it all up.)

The soy industry is totally consciousless, conscienceless, rather. I've read they are clearcutting in Brazil and Argentina to plant more soy. Needless to say I mostly avoid soy. So anyway, I´m looking forward to having a garden again someday and being a member of a Community Supported Agriculture farm to perhaps transport me out of this downward spiral. In downtown Santiago I can't even grow spices on my balcony because the smog fallout coats my plants like chocolate coats strawberries.

... Oh, and as a side note, I read an article in El Mercurio a few months back saying how Coca-Cola Zero doesn't meet FDA standards to be sold in the US. It's sold here in Chile. I used to prefer it to diet coke even, until I read this article. I think it has more sodium which makes it a bit tastier. Regular coke is probably the way to go anyway...

Back to menu-planning... I haven't cooked in like a month and am excited to be back at it. Thursday and Friday I'm thinking of salads, mostly quinoa salad -- my typical one with chopped scallions, peppers, soy sauce, fresh grated ginger, fresh grated garlic, olive oil and possible other ingredients that may be laying around. And a perhaps a lettuce salad with olives, goat cheese with merken, and a little bowl of mixed nuts. That sounds quite good really. I should make a greek salad some day. Those are tasty. I got some good feta cheese at the market last year.

This has given me an idea for a character in a book or a short story... When I did the cruce de lagos from Bariloche, Argentina to Puerto Varas, Chile, there was a tour guide in the bus of the last leg of the trip and she explained the that Salmon industry had salmon growing in All Saints Lake, (Lago Todos los Santos) while the salmon is young, and then it is transported to the ocean to continue growing there. But say the tour guide gets sick of her job one day, maybe she experiences an existential crises, well this time as she talks to all the tourists on the bus about the salmon industry she could go into how very blessed these All Saint's salmon are..unfortunately they ruin the lake's ecosystem and are later injected with antibiotics because they get a contagious harmful fungus from having their cages too close together and she could go on and on.... Imagine being on that bus. I´m sure there are many things I'd rather not know about the industry since I eat salmon once or twice a month in the form of sushi. But since its the antibiotics I´m worried about, maybe it makes no difference whether the fish is cooked or raw.

The other thing I read was that now some scientists are saying that overuse of antibiotics may be a factor in developing asthma and peanut allergy.

I'm just going to stop eating.