Corn Chowder

This is a great comfort food when you need subtle favours and a heartwarming dish. If you live in a country that has fresh corn readily available I would suggest using corn on the cob to bring a bit more flavour to this dish.

Ingredients

• 1 stalk celery
• 1 medium onion
• olive oil
• ½ teaspoon fresh or dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 1 cup of veg stock
• 1 medium Yukon Gold potato, peeled and cut into little cubes
• 3 spring onions
• 2 cups frozen corn
• ¼ cup chopped,  parsley

Method

Finely Chop the celery and onion. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the celery, onion, and thyme. Stir until the vegetables start to brown. 

Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir for a few more minutes. Pour in the milk and stock, add the potato and bring to a boil, stirring the whole time so the soup doesn't stick to the pot. Cook until the potatoes are tender, but not mushy – this will take around 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, trim the ends off the spring onions and slice them thinly. When the potatoes are tender, stir in the corn and spring onion. Bring the soup back to the boil, then serve seasoning with plenty of salt and pepper. 

Caldo de Res: Guatemalan Beef Stew

 One thing to note with ‘caldos’ (stews in English) is the Guatemalan obsession of cooking their vegetables whole. Why waste all that time chopping veduras into bite-sized chunks when you can cook them in their entirety? This nutritious Guatemalan ‘caldo’ is available in most comedores or mercados but tastes even better homemade, especially if you just got your fresh produce from domingos organicos. Huisquil (a hard round veg with a green prickly skin) love it or hate it tastes at its best in any kind of caldo so if you’ve got one lurking at the back of your cupboard and you have no idea what to do with it, this may just be the recipe for you!

I’m never too sure which cuts of beef to ask for; I’m told Costilla de res o hueso de paloma work well for this recipe but if you tell the butcher which dish you’re preparing they usually know which cut is best to use. You ideally want beef sold on the bone in order to make a really tasty stock; if not you’ll need to add a stock cube to give it some extra flavour.

The vegetables and quantities listed below are just a suggestion, add whatever is available to you.

Should serve 4-5 people

·       1 pound of a whole cut of beef

·       Oil for browning the beef

·       1 small tomato with an ‘x’ cut in one end

·       1 small onion peeled with ‘x’ cut in one end

·       2 whole celery stalks (apio)

·       1 red chile pimiento, seeds removed and halved

·       1 yuca root, peeled and cut into chunks. If you can’t find yuca a couple of piece of calabaza or ayote works equally well thrown in with the skin on

·       2 whole carrots, peeled

·       1 huisquil, peeled, cutting out the core and quartered

·       2 corn on the cobs broken into halves

·       ½ a small head cabbage, quartered

·       4 whole small potatoes, peeled

·        

la salsa:

·       4-5 chiltepe chiles (the tiny green ones)

·       ½ a diced onion

·       About half a quetzal of chopped cilantro

·       jugo of 1 lime

Preparation

1.Cut the beef into portions, roughly one per person and leaving the bone attached to some of the meat. If this is difficult, cook the cut whole and divide up when ready to serve.

2. Heat some oil in a large pot or pressure cooker (without using the lid), add the beef and begin to brown turning frequently to cook on every side.

3. When the beef is almost browned add all the vegetables.

4. Add enough water to almost cover the vegetables; don’t be afraid to add more water later if it needs it. Cover the pan and cook on high heat to bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low, add plenty of salt and pepper and the stock cube should you need it. Simmer until the beef is tender and the vegetables are cooked.

For the Salsa (for those that like it hot)

6.Toast the chiltepes until brown on every side, this is traditionally done on a comal but can be done in a frying pan without any oil, careful they don’t jump out and burn you! Put them into a chirmolera (they’re about Q15 or less in the market but every ligit host family should have one) if not use the back of a heavy cooking utensil to grind them up a little.
7. Add the diced onion to the chiltepe, the washed and chopped cilantro, and the limejuice. Mash briefly and set aside.

8. When the caldo is ready, serve in big bowls dividing up the meat and veg fairly with plenty of tortillas (black are always my preference) with the bowl of salsa and a plate of chopped lime slices and a couple of avocados quartered for the truly chapin experience.

Platanos en Gloria

If there’s one piece of fresh fruit you’re guaranteed to find in any ‘tiendita’ it’s a plantain, or ‘platano’ and contrary to what you might think the blacker their skin is the more delicious and ripe the taste. So, should you been persuaded into buying the 5 por Q5 deal outside of the demo or you cannot take any more fried plantain for breakfast, here’s a no nonsense dessert that will satisfy those of you who have a very sweet tooth when even a fresh mango wont cut it. 

I haven’t seen this served so often on the street but honestly it’s the most delicious when cooked at home and served fresh. A simple dish to indulge in when fresh fruit just wont cut it.

4 plantain (it roughly works out one per person)

one cup of orange juice (a bag from the lady on the corner would be ideal)

10-15 cloves

tbs of butter o magarina

1 teaspoon of oil

2 ramitas of canela

honey

Instructions

1.    fry a large tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan. You can use margarina but butter tastes better if you can splash out

2.    when the butter’s melted add the whole peeled plantain. Stick 2-3 cloves into the flesh of the plantain and break the two canela sticks in half and add to the pan so the spices infuse with the butter and start to brown the platano over a low heat, turning over occasionally to fry on all sides, this show take around 10 minutes.

3.    Once lightly brown on every side take out of the oil and sit on some kitchen paper to drain a little, leave for a couple of minutes.

4.    Chop up the plantain into slices as thick as you would like(not too thin)

5.    Turn the heat on and add the slices to the oil. Pour over the juice, a good dollop of honey (more if you like it super sweet) and fry the slices for another 5-10 minutes, browning a little on both sides and pouring over some of the juice when turning to get the flavor.

6.    The sauce will become a nice caramel-like sauce

7.    When cook, turn the heat off, leave to sit for a minute or two and serve on plates with a dollop of cream, sprinkle of canela powder and spoon over the sauce.

SRefined sugar free and made with fresh OJ and fruit, what else could possibly justify such indulgence?