Saturday, October 08, 2005
Our Costa Rican Kitchen:
Actually we don't really cook Costa Rican food in our kitchen (it's pretty bland overall, so not really inspiring), but being that we are here we do have different tools & ingredients to work with, which has changed both what & how we cook. Here're some things we've learned:
P.S. On a personal note: Kepfram would like to send a "mad" shout to the Roasted Chicken guy @ the Feria Agricultura de Guadalupe, "That was some damn good chicken. See you next week, one love."
Actually we don't really cook Costa Rican food in our kitchen (it's pretty bland overall, so not really inspiring), but being that we are here we do have different tools & ingredients to work with, which has changed both what & how we cook. Here're some things we've learned:
- Did you know you can make "muffins" on the stove? (discovered when we had some over-ripe bananas & no oven...).
- I think we already mentioned that corn flour makes damn good pancakes, we've moved on to crepes, & they're not bad with corn flour either.
- It's REALLY easy to make jam.
- A tobasco bottle with a whole poked in the top makes quite a serviceable salt shaker.
- Fruit flies can live for a few DAYS in a refrigerator.
- Ellie's finally learned how to cook plantains (mmmmmMmm).
- Kepfram's finally learned how to cook with dried beans & how to make pancakes (& crepes!).
- It is possible to get dishes clean with only cold water.
- Tamarind juice ferments into some tasty hard "cider".
- Fresh squeezed OJ ferments into some unforgivably bitter liquid (...we did manage to reduce it down into an interesting sauce, but we don't intend to need to do it again).
- Kepfram's food is delicious (as many of you know), BUT (¡mygod!) does he use a lot of butter....
- Kepfram's remembered how to make fresh coconut milk (mmmmMMmm - coconut rice), but as much as he's trying to kill us with butter, we had to draw the line somewhere... (we've only had it once).
- Achiotte is really a flavorless "spice" (no matter what the website says), but mixed with oil it's used for color - we've been having oranged potatoes & other veggies lately.
P.S. On a personal note: Kepfram would like to send a "mad" shout to the Roasted Chicken guy @ the Feria Agricultura de Guadalupe, "That was some damn good chicken. See you next week, one love."
Kepfram & Ellie, 5:20 PM
1 Comments:
Find some salsa "Lizano", a Costa Rican specialty. It is not at all picante, but it has a nice cumin zing. Jay and I use it on tamales and pasties. Ours was purchased at a store called Super Cristian (probably a grocery?), by friends visiting Costa Rica.
Anonymous, at 9:23 PM GMT-3
