Pachamanca at Adely's (+ recipe for Siete Semillas)

In early December I got the amazing opportunity to attend a Pachamanca at the house of one of the participants in a program I work for. Pachamanca (meaning "earth pot" in Quechua) is an Andean manner of cooking where you either dig a hole in the earth or make a brick oven, build a fire and heat very hard stones over it. You then remove the stones from the fire, fill the oven with various types of potatoes and sweet potatoes , cover those with rocks, and then layer various types of meats with hot rocks, before coving the whole thing in rocks and topping it with fava beans. You then wrap the whole oven in wet cardboard, followed by plastic tarps, followed by blankets, and seal it so no heat escapes. Then you let everything cook at this super hot temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, and then uncover it all and dig in! Traditionally, you stand over the oven and eat everything fresh from the oven with your hands. We started that way, and then moved things over to plates :)

Here is a picture guide from start to finish of how to make Pachamanca - plus a few other recipe goodies I learned that day.

El Super Pollón II

Today we cooked a mini pterodactyl!!

Kraawww!!

Just kidding.

We just really missed pollo a la brasa from our Peru days.

Pollo a la brasa is Peruvian style rotisserie chicken. It can be made with any combination of things, but we brined ours for about 20 hours in a mix of beer, chicken broth, cumin, annatto, garlic, salt & pepper, and soy sauce. We then hung the sucker up to dry for an hour, rubbed it down with salt, pepper, oil, and lime juice, and rotisserie'd it for an hour or two. And we made...this! :

Ess gesunt! Pastrami!

My parents bought half a cow, and when they were asked whether or not they wanted the tongue, they said "Sure, we'll give it to our daughter".

 I have never eaten tongue in my life, nor have I expressed a desire to do so. But of course if I am given a raw food material and told that it is mine, that is essentially, a challenge. And I decided, as I had heard of this in New York but had never tried it, that I would make tongue pastrami.

 Reuben sandwiches are one of those pleasures that are very infrequent in my life, they're up there with boneless buffalo wings and good Japanese noodles. There are only so many restaurants that do reubens right, and I have not found one in Denver. Plus, I'm one of those freaks that usually doesn't eat meat, so that complicates things more.

 I didn't use any particular recipe for this, just read a lot of food blogs and instructional tips. By the end when I was ready to smoke the sucker I had serious doubts that this would turn out well, since I had never smoked a thing in my life, much less used a charcoal grill.

 But...OH MY GOD it was delicious. If you want to achieve happiness, follow the recipe below:

Mayonaissey

This is really difficult, so hold onto your pants:

Egg + salt + veggie oil = mayonnaise!

I spiffed it up a little, but if you've never had homemade mayo, you should feel obligated to try this:

INGREDIENTS:
-1 egg
-1 egg yolk
-1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
-about 1/2 c. vegetable oil
-1/2 a key lime, or 1/4 a regular one
-1 tsp. vinegar

Put the eggs and salt into a blender, and turn it on to medium speed. When mixed and while the blender is still going, slowly pour in all the oil in a thin stream. When finished pouring, let the blender run for another half minute to a minute. The mayo should be nice an fluffy as mayo is. Add the juice of your lime and the vinegar, blend to mix, and eat!



For using it, here's a good recipe. Remember that okara from my last post, the leftovers from making tofu? I use this to make a "tuna" salad sandwich.

CHICKEN OF THE...BEAN?

INGREDIENTS:
-1/2 a carrot, diced
-1/2 a stalk of celery, diced
-1/2 a spring onion, sliced
-a spoonful of edamame
-1/2 c. okara
-2 Tbs. mayonnaise
-1/4 tsp. pepper
-1 garlic clove, minced
-a pinch of cumin
-1 tsp. vinegar
-1/2 tsp. Chinese chili-garlic sauce

Mix it all up! I ate mine with whole wheat sandwich bread toasted with mozzarella cheese and tomato slices (like a tuna melt :D)

Spiny, creepy things...(la caigua chilena, en Inglés y Español)

(Mire por abajo para Español)

Once upon a time in Peru, my host dad came home towing a vine-full of spiny, dirty, green things...

so I cooked them!



The caigua chilena is an anomaly, I couldn't find anything on it online--when you search the internet, it only comes up with "caigua", and it's a different vegetable.

I was using the oven for something else and kind of annoyed that this pokey thing was taking up all my kitchen space, so I chucked them into an empty shelf in the oven

And out came something delicious! The peel and seed came right off, and I was left with something that was a weird mix between an artichoke, Chinese winter melon, and chayote.



The first time I made it I made this crazy spicy orange sauce from basically everything that was in our fridge, cooked chopped caigua chilena in it, and covered the whole thing in cheese--my family loved it.

This time, I cooked it for an hour in the pressure cooker (the thing wasn't only spiny, it was a brick), took off the peel and seed, chopped it, fried it, and put it in a Chinese "mapo" (麻婆) sauce that I learned from my host mom in Japan.

and BAM! Chinese food deliciousness!




"Mapo Caigua"

-3 caiguas, boiled until completely tender, with the skin and seed removed
-1 onion, cut in big chunks
-vegetable oil for frying the caigua

SAUCE:
-1 tsp. tojan chili sauce or Chinese pepper garlic sauce
-1/2 onion, minced
-1 inch. chunk of peeled ginger, minced
-5 cloves garlic, minced
-1 Tbs. sake
-1/3 c. white or rice vinegar
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1/2 c. water mixed with 1/2 Tbs. corn starch
-3 Tbs. soy sauce

METHOD:
Cut the caigua into big chunks, and fry in oil until golden brown. Set on paper towel to drain.

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce BUT the water with starch and soy sauce together in a bowl. Set aside.

Put a pot over medium-high heat, and pour 2 Tbs. sesame oil in the pot. When the oil is hot (you can smell it), throw the chopped onion into the oil, and cook until it begins to turn brown (but not so that it starts shrinking). Add the caigua and the prepared sauce, and stir. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Clear a spot in the pot, and drop the soy sauce in--it should start boiling immediately. After a few seconds, stir it in. While stirring it so the starch doesn't clump, add the water with starch. Cook over medium-high heat until it thickens, about 5 minutes.

Serve over piping hot rice, and maybe with some fried wonton skins :)



NOTE!
I realize that a caigua chilena will not be sold in your local piggly-wiggly. That said, this recipe would go wonderfully with a chayote, which you should find at any local Latin-food store. Otherwise, just make it the traditional with pan-fried tofu and it is equally delicious. Use your imagination--just about every other vegetable out there would be delicious with this.



ESPAÑOL

Una vez, mi padre anfitrión trajo a la casa una vina llenada de cosas espinadas, sucias, y verdes.

entonces las cociné!

La caigua chilena es anomalía, no pude encontrar nada sobre lo por internet. Cuando buscas, solamente viene páginas de la caigua, una verdura muy diferente.

Yo estaba usando el horno, y le me molestaba solamente sentando en la encimera, pues se eché adentro el horno.

...¡y salió algo rico! La piel y la semilla se separaron fácilmente, y dejo algo parecido a una mezcla extraña de alcachofa, chayote, y melón de invierno (benincasa hispida, un tipo de melón de Asia).

La primera vez que los cociné, hice una salsa picante de ají amarillo y queso. La familia anfitriona le gustó

La segunda vez, los herví en la olla de presión para cerca de una hora, y los guisé como una comida china, "Mapo". Usualmente mapo contiene carne molida y carne de soya, pero la salsa tambien se puede usar con otras cosas.


MAPO CAIGUA

-3 caiguas chilenas, hervidas, con la piel y semilla sacadas
-1 cebolla, picada
-Aceite para freír las caiguas

Para la salsa:
-1 cucharilla chile fresco molido (como rocoto o jalapeño)
-Mitad de una cebolla, picada muy fina
-2 pulgadas de jengibre pelado, picada muy fina
-5 dientes ajo, picados
-1 Tbs. sake (vino de arroz), o otro liquor blanca como pisco
-1/3 taza vinaigre blanco
-1/2 cucharilla sal
-1/4 cucharilla pimienta
-1/2 taza agua, mezclado con 1/2 cucharón fécula de maíz
-3 cucharones de salsa de soya (sillao)

Direcciones:

Corta las caiguas en cubos, y fríen en el aceite hasta están doradas. Ponga en una toalla de papel para que puede escurrir el aceite.

Mezcla todas las ingredientes EXCEPTO el agua con fécula en un plato ondo, y dejarlo a un lado.

Ponga una olla sobre fuego medio, y vierta 2 cucharones de aceite de ajonjolí adentro. Cuando está caliente (y puede olerlo), se echa la cebolla, y cocine hasta pone dorada. Añada la caigua y la salsa preparada, y revuelva para 5 minutos. Añada la salsa de soya, y mezclarlo. Revueva el agua con fécula de nuevo, y agregue a la olla. Cocine sobre fuego medio-fuerte hasta cuando la salsa hace gruesa.

Sirve encima de arroz caliente, y talvez wontons fritos :)


NOTA:
Porque el sabor no es muy fuerte (es poco dulce, y la textura es suave), se puede usar la caigua chilena en vez de otras verduras en cualquier plato. Pienso que sea rica en salsas italianas (como de espagueti), o en platos saltados asiáticos.