Ecuadorian ceviche

Ceviche was everywhere in Ecuador sometimes fish, sometimes shrimp and sometimes vegetarian.  It was not quite like ceviche that I had had before, as the marinade had tomato in it and the prawns did appear to be cooked.  On doing research on my return I found out that after a large cholera outbreak in the 1990's it became a policy to cook the shrimp lightly first, so this is what I did.

3 cups of raw shrimp
1 red onion thinly sliced
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Juice of one orange
6 tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Place the tomatoes in a blender or food processor.

Chop until pureed, then place a sieve over a bowl and push as much of the liquid through as you can.

This will give you about 1 cup of tomato liquid, but it really does depend on the tomatoes.

Add all the other ingredients except the shrimp.

Now for my least favourite job (right after peeling pearl onions) peel and devein the shrimps.

Toss in a non stick frying pan until just turned pink, you really want to barely cook them.

Add to the sauce and taste for seasoning.  

Cover and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to soak up the flavours and let the acid from the citrus finish cooking them.  

These were delicious and would make a wonderful addition to a buffet in the summer, though I would have to have Connie over to do the peeling and deveining.  I am sure for a price you can buy them that way.

Ecuadorian chocolate brownies

When we were in Ecuador we visited a chocolate factory and we brought home a large puck of unsweetened chocolate so for our Ecuadorian reunion I had to use this to make dessert.  One because we had bought it in Ecuador, but two because it was a lot of chocolate and would make dessert for a large crowd.

Luckily this came with a recipe on the package, or it would not have known how to use it.

The quantaties were large and the directions a little cryptic, but I think this could be used by halving the amounts and using unsweetened chocolate to replace the large puck which comes in a more conventianal bar.

I melted the butter and chocolate over a very low heat, my stove has a melt setting on one of the burners, and I got to use it for the very first time.

While this was melting I whisked together the eggs and added the vanilla.  I also added one tablespoon of chili powder.  In this quantaty of chocolate this did not make them hot but just added a little depth of flavour.

Locro de Papa and aji criollo

Almost every meal in Ecuador starts with sopa (soup) and it is often some version of locro de papa, (potato soup).  This soup is not dissimilar to the french leek and potato soup, but with the addition of cheese and avocado. Saturday night we were having a reunion party with some of the participants of our epic to adventure to Ecuador last fall, and I offered to cook an Ecuadorian dinner. Obviously it had to start with this soup

It is simple and easy to make, but does require a good chicken stock. Fortunately in the process of making one of the other dishes I had a large amount of very flavourful chicken stock.  I suspect like all traditional ubiquitous dishes there are as many recipes as there are families making it, so I combined several making it the way that I liked it best. I made enough for 20, but it would be very easy to cut down the quantities to a make more reasonable amount of soup, so I will give the measurements for  6 servings.

1 large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 pounds of yellow potatoes peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes
5 cups of chicken stock
1 avocado sliced
Crumbled queso fresco cheese, or a mild feta would work as well.

Place the oil in a large pot and add the onion and garlic, cook slowly over low heat until the onions are translucent. Then add one cup of the stock.

Pour this into a blender or food processor.  Blend until the onion is pureed and add back to the pot.

Day of the dead

We arrived back in Quito on November 2nd, which is the Day of the Dead which is public holiday and a big family celebration. Everyone goes to visit their departed family in the graveyard and decorate the graves, perhaps have a picnic and leave some food for them.  We went to a grave yard in a small town on the outskirts of Quito, the atmosphere was very festive and we appeared to be the only tourists.

Some of our group were a little uncomfortable about appearing like looky loos, but actually it was not a sombre occasion quite the reverse it was positively festive.  There was even a rock band playing in the cemetery. The square in front of the church was full of vendors selling flowers and other things with which to decorate your family gravesite.

Our guide told us we had to try the traditional drink and bread that are only served on this day in Ecuador. The drink was colada morada made from blueberry, blackberry and other fruit in blue corn flour base.

My husband and I shared this, I was worried that it would be too sweet, but in fact it was not bad and served warm and full of fruit. What was served with this was guaguas de pan which is a bread in the shape of a baby. At least this is how the guide described it, I had trouble eating "babies" so I prefer to think of it as in the shape of a doll.

Baked cassava chips

I am taking a little break from my Ecuadorian trip to post a couple of recipes that might be useful over the holiday season.  This first one is related to Ecuador, as cassava is a staple of the Ecuadorian diet and we had it in many forms on our trip.  But one of my favourites was cassava chips.

Obviously these would normally be deep fried, but as I usually try to avoid deep frying in my kitchen, for so many reasons, I decided to bake them. This did work, but it requires vigilance as they can burn in an instant. So you do need to be hovering around the oven while they are cooking, and not get distracted by the Internet or a phone call, as so often happens in my kitchen.

The cassava is a little intimidating when you buy it, but I had seen them cook cassava in the Amazon and so it had been a little demystified for me.

This cassava was not nearly as fresh as the one in the Amazon which we saw dug up and cooked with in an hour, but it is what is available in Canada in December.  There was a wax coating on it which I have read is for preserving it.  So obviously the first thing to do was peel it, which I did with a sharp knife as the peel seemed to be too thick for my potato peeler.

Then I cut it in to 2 large chunks and placed it in a bowl of cold water. This is what I saw the woman do in Ecuador, so I imagine it would discolour quickly if not covered in water.

Spa in the high Andes

After a week in the Amazon, with the heat, the mud and the lack of hair dryer it was such a pleasure to drive for 10 hours up to a hot springs called Papallacta. The weather was cool everything was clean and there were thermal springs all around and you could get an hour long message for $35.00! Connie and I thought we had arrived in heaven.

We got our room allocations and headed to the Cabana which had underfloor heating provided by the hot springs and joy of joy's a bath. Everywhere we had been staying so far had showers and I really am a bath person.

Right outside was a hot pool, so we donned our bathing suites and jumped in.  Unfortunately shortly thereafter I started to feel a little nauseous and decided to lie down for a little while.  Well a little while turned out to be 12 hours! I was suffering a little from the altitude, we were at over 3,300 metres high and I guess the quick ascent along with sitting in a hot tub was too much for me.  So I can not describe to you how good the food was at dinner that night at a local restaurant, but everyone told me it was wonderful.

The next morning I was a new women and so I went along with everybody else down to the same restaurant for an Ecuadorian breakfast. This turned out to be warm fresh buns (that tasted better than they look) with melting queso fresco inside.

Cassava bread In the Amazon

One day while we were in the Amazon we went to visit a village a further 2 hours up the river to where our lodge was.  The people living here were still living as their ancestors had for centuries, with the addition of some electricity and Internet.  Given these additions I wonder how hard it will be to keep the children of the village continuing this life style.

One of the staples of their diet is cassava.  The cassava plant grows easily here and matures in about  10 months. At the time of digging up the root tubers, a shoot is replanted, so that there will be another plant ready for harvesting in less than a year.  I do not have any pictures of the digging up of the cassava root as I was distracted by chickens and lost my way through the village.

I took this picture as they headed off, the next time I looked up there was no sight of them.  After what seemed like 30 minutes (probably closer to 5) I along with the monkey that had adopted me found them but missed the whole digging up demonstration, the tubers were peeled and sitting in a bowl of water. But I was relieved that this was not the last picture ever of my husband.

The young women demonstrating for us now took the tubers and grated them, using home made graters in a beautiful hollowed out length of mahogany.

Sucking mud and hunting Anacondas in the Amazon

The first day that we were in the Amazon, our guide excitedly told us we were heading off in the canoe to go see an anaconda snake. We were all given wellington boots as it might be a little muddy, (boy was that an understatement).  Now this whole trip did not seem like such a good idea to me, as I was not sure I wanted to get up and close with an enormous snake that could strangle me to death.  But any way off we headed in the canoe across the lake.

At first it was beautiful, with that lovely late afternoon sun giving a warm glow to the jungle, and we were canoeing on the Amazon after all, and then we ran aground. The only thing to do was get out of the canoe and walk it to the island that held the snake, at first just a couple of people.

Then everyone was out walking with the warm Amazon river flooding over the top of the boots!

The worst was yet to come.  When we arrived at the island the water had recently receaded to expose what we lovingly christened sucking mud.

Cuyabeno Lodge

After over 2 hours in a canoe with an outboard motor we arrived at Cuyabeno lodge situated on a shallow (very shallow as it turned out) lake.

When we arrived there was no sight of the lodge just a muddy foreshore, apparently we were going in the back entrance as the lake was low and the closer access at the front was inaccessible.  As the week drew on, each day we had to access the boats further and further away.  First things first, we were taken to the eating area where we were served lunch immediately as it was already past my
normal lunch time.

Our meal started as most meals do in Ecuador with soup (sopa) the eubiquitos soup, locra de papa is basically a potato soup with fresh cheese and avacado in it. Since leek and potato soup is one of my favourite comfort foods I was happy to have this soup often.

The main course consisted of pork, beans plantain and potato fritters.  The food was good, fairly plain, and not too rich, which as the temperature was about 30 and humid was good thing.

Over the Andes to the Amazon

After 2 nights in Mindos it was time for our epic bus trip up and over the Andes to the first big leg of our trip the Amazon.  We left early in the morning as this bus ride was about 12 hours and that is exactly the amount of day light you get when you are right on the equator.  We climbed up and up until we reached the height of the pass at around 13,000 feet.

Here we got out of the bus for a photo opportunity, the air was noticeably thin if you walked very far it felt like you were in really bad shape and short of breath.  But it was very beautiful and rugged and there really was hardly any traffic on the narrow winding road. Back on the bus for the descent down to Lago Agrio (also known as Nueva Loja) which is at 980 feet. Though we were right on the Equator, up at 13,000 feet the temperature was cool and there was a fresh breeze, I would remember this fondly in the heat of the Amazon. Lunch took a spectacular nose dive, as it was what every you could buy at a gas station.

I chose fried salted beans, yucca chips, pork rinds and a cold beer! I can not remember the last time I ate so much salty snacks and it was not all bad. As we descended down from the mountains the weather got warmer and warmer until we arrived in Lago Agrio after dark, which steamy hot.  This is not a city I would recommend traveling to it is not very beautiful and apparantly not really safe. It is an oil town as this is the heart of the oil fields.

Lago Agrio

Sachatamia Lodge Mindo Ecuador

Mindo is a couple of hours drive from Quito the Capital of Ecuador and is a little lower in altitude and therefore a little warmer. It is in the cloud forest though so it is prone to low cloud and rain.  The  Sachatamia Lodge is made of wood as are all the cabins which gives the interiors a wonderful warm feeling and the exteriors blend in to the landscape.

 Around this lodge there are thousands of humming birds, of many different varieties.  They are not shy and if you patiently stand by one of the many feeders they will even sit on your fingers!

The lodge has a wonderful place to sit to look at the view, watch the birds and even have a drink a the same time.

Many of the group that I was in were avid bird watchers some of them even making a living studying birds so you saw this a lot.

Cafe Cultura Quito Ecuador

Old Town Quito in the central square

I have just returned from a trip of a life time to Ecuador, it all started by arriving at Cafe Cultura in Quito after midnight early Tuesday morning after a mammoth trip starting at 4:00 on Monday Morning. We arrived at this amazing lobby with wood fires burning and walls covered in murals.

My husband (who had proceeded me by a couple of weeks) had waited up and led me to our room. Each room at Cafe Cultura is very different, several of them being around the back which are accessed by a covered walk way.