Cocina

ingredientes para hacer vino

My free time lately has been spent exploring a gem of a book that PCVs received during training.  It's called The Food Security Cookbook.  Now, this book isn't your everyday cookbook; it covers everything from typical Nicaraguan recipes to fermentation to nutrient dense chicken feed to natural medicine.

When I first moved into my house, I had no problem eating and receiving food day-to-day from my very generous neighbors.  Recently, however, I have decided that I need to do some more exploring in the kitchen. 

Not only do I have generous neighbors, but I also have a generous site-mate who gifted me a bag of red beans.  My first major kitchen endeavor was cooking these beans over my wood-burning stove.  See, cooking beans is a slow process, and although I have a gas stove, I knew that leaving beans to cook for a few hours on a gas stove would cost a lot of gas.  And gas is expensive.  Gotta be economical (pinche!)!  So, after using an upright fan to separate the grass, sticks, and small rocks from the beans (you turn the fan on, hold the bucket of beans above and in front of the fan, and pour the beans into a pan that is sitting on the floor.  The airflow from the fan blows out the grass, and the beans fall into the pan on the floor.  Get it?), I continued sorting and cleaning the beans for a good hour or so.  Then, my awesome neighbor, Luis Carlos, came over to help me get my wood stove lit.  It's tricky.  You'd think that typical backyard wood would suffice and light pretty easily, but that's not the case.  We ended up using a small piece of hocote wood to get it started (this type of wood lights easily and smells wonderful).  I put my pot of cleaned and sorted beans above the fire, filled it halfway with water, hechared some salt and garlic, and let it sit for a few hours.  They came out delicious.  I don't have a refrigerator, but they keep for a few days without refrigeration; you just have to make sure you boil them each day.

Another kitchen experiment I have recently tried is fermentation.  In fact, I'm in the process of making my first batch of wine.  Wine-making involves water, sugar, fruit juice, yeast, and an airlock contraption to allow the release of carbon dioxide.  I purchased twenty oranges for 87 cents and a brick of "dulce" for a dollar.  Dulce is sugar that comes straight from the cane--100 percent pure and natural.  Squeezing the oranges took a while, maybe an hour or so.  My hands hurt!  Next, I boiled the brick of dulce in some water until it melted, added the fruit juice, and then made a mixture of sugar, warm water, and yeast.  Once the fruit sugar juice cooled, I added the yeast mixture (don't want to burn the yeast!).  Everything was put into an airtight, two-gallon plastic container.  In order to create an airlock system, I inserted a plastic tube into the plastic container (I held a match to the lid of the container until it became very pliable; I was then able to press the tube into the melted plastic to create a hole) and led the tube into a separate plastic bottle of water.  This allows fermentation to take place in the container holding the wine because carbon dioxide can escape through the tube and into the water.  I started the fermentation about two weeks ago, so it has another two weeks to sit.  I hope hope hope it turns out!

Today my site-mate and I made pancakes from scratch using banana flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, milk, and salt.  They turned out delicious, and the scrambled eggs on the side were a nice touch.  This put me in breakfast mode, and when I got home, I decided to try to make some whole-wheat english muffins from scratch.  SUCCESS!  These little gems were a delicacy, and the taste of whole-wheat bread, which I haven't had since being in the States, was delicious and nostalgic at the same time. 

Yesterday I visited one of my Nica Mommas (this term refers to the large number of Nicaraguan women in my town who have pretty much adopted me as their own-- I have quite the family here), and she taught me how to "sacar quajada".  Quajada is a type of very soft cheese-- it almost has a greek yogurt consistency.  In order to sacar quajada, you need to have a few gallons of fresh milk, "fresh" meaning straight from the cow.  Then, you insert a curdling agent, which is usually in pill form, and let the milk sit for a while.  The curdling agent causes the milk to coagulate, separating the quajada (cheese) from the suero (whey).  Once the milk has sat, you insert your hands and slowly push down the cheese curds to the bottom of the pail, forming a ball (as best you can).  Once the curds have amassed, you remove the cheese curd from the suero and continue to compress the cheese until all of the suero has dripped out.  Quajada is delicious with a warm tortilla, and suero can be made into a drink or fed to the pigs. 

Being accustomed to the food here has not been difficult for me.  Since arriving in Nicaragua, the VAST majority of food that I've consumed has been fresh and local.  I haven't had fast food or canned food for months, and although Nicaraguan food can be heavy on the grease, it's delicious.  And you can always reduce the amount of oil you cook with.  Nothing beats a typical Nicaraguan plate of crispy gallo pinto, avocado, quajada, a warm tortila, and fresco de avena. My goal for the month of November is to learn a few more simple dishes and possibly invite my neighbors over for a Thanksgiving dinner.  We'll see what happens :)  Miss all of you back home!  Any easy recipe suggestions?