Friday, May 30, 2008

May 30, 2008 - Latino Recipes

The foods available in Costa Rica definitely inspire experiments - if you click on the "recipe" label on the sidebar, you will see all of mine (the successful ones anyway - my Starfruit Chicken was a complete bust).

At the same time, I'm on the lookout for interesting pre-invented :) recipes. In the next year, I hope to spend some time learning some cooking from Teresita (the mother in our Orosí family) - wow! what a fabulous cook!

But until then, I just keep my eyes open for other possibilities. Here is one I just found - Platillos Latinos - it is a free ebook of heart-healthy traditional Latino recipes. And it is bilingual, so you can learn some Spanish while cooking :D.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd read about how bland/blah Tico cuisine was before we went, but I found the food to be pretty good. I suppose having fresh ingredients was a big part of that. One of the coolest things was the ready availability of ceviche, which is not exactly Costa Rican but you'd think maybe it was due to how common it is. I've only become an enthusiastic seafood eater in the past few years but the ceviche rocked!

Julie said...

Hi Arp -
I'm with you - Tico cuisine is a great part of world cuisine, and fresh ingredients make the meal. Ceviche is great, but you do have to be careful - cooking with lime doesn't kill off the baddies like cooking with heat does.
happy eating!
Julie

Anonymous said...

I forgot about pinto gallo too - I miss that a lot as well! Our one attempt to recreate it was a miss. I can't believe it all comes down to an msg-laden condiment that's been around for less than 100 years. There must be some way to make it without Lizano...

Julie said...

We found an *excellent* recipe on TicoGrande's blog http://blog.therealcostarica.com/2005/12/02/yum-gallo-pinto/. Of course, it *does* call for Salsa Lizano, which I like (this recipe says you can substitute...). The thing that always hangs me up is chopping the cilantro. I know some people who make it look easy, but I *always* get stems in the food, and leaves stuck to my hands. UGH.