The SB Chronicles #25 – Comida favorita. | The SB Chronicles #25 – Favourite Meal

At home, my wife and I have several dishes that we always enjoy, and we also tend to offer them to our guests whenever they arrive around lunchtime or dinnertime. Sometimes these meals are mainly liquid-based, and other times they consist of more substantial foods.

When it comes to soups, our favorite is what we call sancocho criollo, made with beef. The preparation is relatively simple. You buy a cut of meat that in our country is called pecho or lagarto, which are lower quality cuts that have a lot of fat. Therefore, the first step in making the recipe is to clean all the fat that may be attached to the meat, which is a bit laborious.

After cleaning the meat, we put it in a pressure cooker with a little water. This step is optional; we do it to save gas because the meat softens much faster in a pressure cooker than with the ordinary process. Once the meat is tender, we transfer it to another container and continue the process. At this point, we add various vegetables that are typical of our region. I will give you the names we use in my country: carrots, potatoes, squash, taro, and yams are the most commonly used, but others can be added according to the preferences of those preparing the dish.

On very special occasions, we cook these stews outdoors, using dry tree trunks for fuel. It is a process that takes quite a long time, because with firewood, it can take several hours for the meat to soften. But the idea of doing it this way is to share it with friends or family. It is a meal that is mainly made at social gatherings for celebrations, or when going on a trip to the beach or the river. In these cases, sancocho criollo also serves to bring people together.

Another food we really like is a dessert made with green papaya fruit. To make this dessert, the first thing you need to do is find a papaya that is very green. In normal seasons, green papayas are not easily found in supermarkets, so you have to go to municipal markets and sometimes order them in advance from one of the vendors. During the Christmas season, it is much easier to find in supermarkets. It is a dessert associated with Christmas, but in my house, we eat it all year round.

Once you have the green papaya, peel it, then cut it into strips three centimeters thick. When you have all that, you can start to create the shell for the strips. There are several tricks for this. One is to pass the strips through wood ash, which helps to form the shell. Another trick is to leave the strips outside overnight so they are exposed to the night air. To do this, place the strips in a container and cover them with a mesh that allows air to circulate freely. The purpose of the mesh is to protect the strips from any animals that might damage them. It is best to hang them from the ceiling of the house, which is what we do.

The next day, the strips are cooked over low heat in a mixture of a little water, plenty of sugar, and cloves. This preparation takes time because the idea is for the sugar to turn into molasses. Once it is ready, it is left to rest long enough to be taken to the refrigerator. The sweet is served cold.

There are many dishes in our country's cuisine that could be mentioned, made with different types of ingredients, both from the sea and the land. The two I mention are just a small sample of a large menu.

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