Tortilla española con chayote

Tortilla española with chayote

Tortilla means something different depending on which Spanish speaking country you’re in. Growing up, a tortilla was something I would watch the Mexican neighbors cook over the flames of their gas stoves: flat flour or corn bread that you wrapped around meat or butter and sugar, or rolled up to push around the beans and rice and salsa on your plate.
When I went to Spain, I found that a Spanish tortilla was a different beast altogether. It’s more like a fritatta, I suppose, although tortilla can also refer to an omelet, so I suppose it’s rather omelet-like, although heartier.
The Spanish tortilla is traditionally onion, egg and potatoes. It is one of the first things that I remember my Spanish friends teaching me how to make. In the typical preparation, you peel and cut up a bunch of potatoes, boil them in olive oil, remove the oil from the pan, add the onions, and pour the egg over it, making a sort of crustless quiche, or fritatta without all the additional ingredients. In Spain they have special pans that basically mirror each other, so that you can flip the tortilla when the bottom is done without having to worry about ruining the nice cake shape. The tortilla can then be served hot, or cold in a sandwich. (The first time I ever ate tortilla española it was served sliced and cold on a plate; I was not impressed.
At any rate, I usually add extra fun things to my tortilla española when I make it now: red peppers, spinach, lots of garlic, and oftentimes sweet potatoes. Here in Panama, I have regular access to chayote, which is a vegetable in the squash family, that looks like a large pear and tastes much like a buttery but less starchy potato. I decided that chayote could be a substitute for potatoes – one, since I didn’t have any, and two because I’m trying to avoid root vegetables as part of a candida diet – so I tried it out.
I started by peeling the chayote and cubing it, then sauteing it with onions and garlic. Since it’s not as starchy as a potato, it doesn’t need to be boiled or cooked near as long. Besides, I always want my vegetables a little bit carmelized, so this was my solution. I cooked the vegetables in coconut oil, one because it’s sweet (which I’ve been craving since I had to cut out all sugar) two because it is highly recommended as a candida fighting ingredient, and three because it’s a tropical oil and it seemed to make sense to add it to a tropical version of a tortilla española.
So. I sautéed the chayote, onions, garlic and peppers in coconut oil, and as soon as the onions were clear and the chayote could be easily pierced with a fork, I scrambled up some eggs and poured them over the top. I turned down the heat pretty low and put a lid on it and let it cook.
Because of the less starchy nature of the chayote, the size of my pan and the fact that I was not making the tortilla as thick as it would normally be, I didn’t need to flip it: cooking it at a low temperature with a lid on it ensured that it cooked through without need of a special pan.

Buen provecho!

Mango brown sugar rum jam. Need I say more?

 

Homemade jam is always the way to go. Mangoes have a special place in my heart anyway, so I’m pretty much always going to say yes to them, in any way shape or form. The brown sugar in Panama and most other Latin American countries leaves absolutely nothing to be desired: it’s called raspadura, and it hasn’t been processed to high heaven, so there’s a molasses flavor to it, and so much of the syrup that comes from the cane that it’s extracted from that it holds itself together. (I don’t actually know if that’s true, but I think that’s the case. At any rate, once you’ve started eating raspadura, there’s no going back. White sugar tastes like plastic.)

Add a little bit of rum and you’ve got a perfect tropical near-the-equator jam, at least when Candice makes it. Here's her description: 

Mango Jam with Brown Sugar and Rum: Organic Mangoes.  Slightly chunky!  Great as a pie filling or on french toast and ice cream!   Use within 2 weeks or freeze.

 So, what do you do with it?

Well, I found that once I popped open the jar I couldn’t wait long enough to go get ingredients to make anything more involved, although I instantly had a ton of ideas of what it would be good with. Instead, I ate it on toasted yucca bread from one of the local bakeries. Yucca is a tuber that I most often see as either a potato-like mash or as fries here, but the yucca bread at Ceiba bakery has this crunchy sweet crust on the top, and it’s soft and squishy and just what you’re not supposed to like anymore in this day and age of whole wheat bread. I should have made it into French Toast, but like I said I was impatient, so I just toasted the bread and slathered it in jam. I had accidentally squished it on the way home, so it doesn’t look near as pretty as it could, but there you have it:

But as soon as I had eaten my way into a stupor, finishing the bread and most of the jam, I was finally able to think about other options for this delectable goodness. Here’s a short list:

• On French Toast or waffles, with whipped cream and toasted pecans
• Wrapped in a crepe with ricotta or mascarpone cheese
• Served on a cheese platter, with aged queso manchego or other hard aged cheeses
• On buttermilk biscuits
• Inside a scone, like the ones they sell a the county fair
• And I’m going to go out on a limb here, but it would probably be pretty tasty with cornbread with bacon in it. No? Fine. I didn’t want to share with you anyway.
• It would be great warm on vanilla ice cream, and as a glaze on the top of a tart. And you know what? It would probably be absolutely disgustingly amazing baked onto pork tenderloin medallions with cilantro. Just sayin.

Gourmet coffee: the new wine

One time when I was having my teeth cleaned the hygienist told me I had a stain on one of my back teeth: she said it was either coffee or wine.

“It’s coffee,” I said. “It has to be. I drink a heck of a lot more coffee than wine.”

Yes, I’ve written a wine-pairing cookbook, but that’s because coffee doesn’t grow in Central Washington State. I know something about wine, but I don’t drink it every day…unlike coffee. My closest friends know not to ask me for anything in the morning before my cup of coffee, and although my daily consumption is rarely more than a cup or two, it has been an essential, ritualistic part of pretty much every morning since high school.

I started drinking coffee one Lent when I gave up sweets. I needed something to take its place. Yes, I am addicted. Yes, I probably should not drink it on a regular basis, but you know what? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest when Starbucks took off; in a region of the world strangely far from the coffee-growing areas near the equator, I started to be steeped in the culture far before I liked the taste as much as the smell.

I ended up in Boquete by accident: I started off on the Caribbean coast of Panama, where cacao (chocolate) is the bigger and more well-known crop. To grow coffee you need a mountainous region, preferably (I’ve learned) an eastern-facing slope, with lots of water and drainage. Boquete has all of that: the town itself is nestled in a river valley at the base of Volcán Barú, Panama’s only volcano, and it has more steep coffee-covered slopes than you would think possible. There are a lot of little draws between mountainous ridges here, creating slopes galore for growing coffee.

Some of the best coffee in the world is grown here. Of the two major types of coffee, Arabica is the higher quality type grown in this region; Robusta – used for Folgers and other low quality coffees – is mostly grown in Brazil. Within Arabica, there are several varietals, including Geisha, which, when grown in the absolutely most perfect conditions, picked and roasted using the highest standards, can sell for up to $300 A POUND.

Sound familiar yet? Wine is grown the same way: a good winemaker or sommelier can tell you the varietal, the area it came from, and the essences and hints of flavors within each sip. It is no different with coffee. Instead of wine tasting, you do a “cupping,” but the process is the same: you start with the nose, take a small sip, open your mouth slightly to let the flavor hit the air, and see if you can pinpoint the flavor on the front of your tongue and the back of your throat.

Starbucks may have started the coffee craze in Washington, but its coffee has nothing on what Boquete has to offer. After I grew tired of over-sweetened, milk drenched lattes, I found that I didn’t like the flavor of Starbucks coffee: even though I like dark roast, theirs tasted burnt.

Not long ago I finally stopped putting cream and sugar in my coffee. Not because I wanted to, mind you, but because a chronic issue with candida made me, “Look, Morgan,” it said. “Either you lose the cream and sugar, or you lose the coffee altogether.” I couldn’t do it, so I gave up the cream (well, milk actually, which I already knew was not good for my system especially) and the sugar to salvage my morning coffee ritual. And suddenly, I could taste it: the chocolate overtones, the dark richness of the freshly roasted beans, and the difference between each of the coffees I was trying. I found I could drink more without the dizzying and buzzed side effects I used to get, but I actually wanted to drink less: without the creamy sugar craving, coffee became a rich and subtle flavor all in itself.  

So even though wine is a bigger thing, and even though it can get you drunk and oftentimes makes a better gift to a friend, I feel like I’ve finally found my place: it’s not one coffee shop, but many of them, in a town on a river in the mountains. 

For more information about growing coffee, check out Rachel Northrup's soon-to-be published book: When Coffee Speaks.

For more information about growing coffee in Boquete specifically, check out Elizabeth Worley's just published book, Romancing the Bean: Chronicles of a Coffee Snob in Panama. 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with Pork Shoulder

Sometimes you need something sweet: sweet and delicious. After a reemergence of candida, I have unfortunately been unable to indulge. Candida is an evil yeast (technical term) that lives in your intestinal tract and feeds off of sugars, especially when your immune system is compromised by a lack of good bacteria, something that might happen if you have had too many rounds of antibiotics.

I digress. The point here is that I cannot currently eat any sugars of any type: no table sugar obviously, but also no fruit, no dairy products, no carbohydrates of any kind, and no root vegetables, either. Forget alcohol. I cannot describe just how much this sucks, especially when you enjoy food as much as I do, but also because it makes going out to eat nearly impossible. The only things that are really ON the menu are greens, meat and nuts, but only nuts that aren’t likely to get moldy: no peanuts. Oh, no vinegars either. And maybe stay away from caffeine. SHOOT ME NOW.

There is a bright spot in all of this. It is called roasted tomatillo salsa over pork shoulder. It is never better to be a concoctionist than when your diet must be restricted: it’s sort of the opposite of Iron Chef, where you have one ingredient to incorporate into all dishes. With candida, you are low on options, but not so low that there is nothing available. So, without further ado, here’s a delicious recipe of something that comfort even the most candida-riddled gut:

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with Pork Shoulder

I got inspirations from these recipes that I found online. I was looking for a traditional tomatillo chile verde recipe, but being in Panama I don’t have access to the same chiles that they have in Mexico. However, thisone was a good place to start. (Sorry kids, it's in Spanish, but you can use a translator app if you can't read it). I didn’t really like how they recommended cooking the pork, however, so I used this recipe more closely for the pork directions.

Pork:

4 -5 lbs pork shoulder, bone in, trimmed of excess surface fat 

3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons pure chile powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon granulated or minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon lime zest

You cannot buy pork shoulder on the bone in Boquete, so I just got pork shoulder off the bone. (If you can get pork shoulder on the bone, DO IT. It means the meat will be more tender when it’s done).  I rubbed it with the spices described in the recipe, but I found that the portions weren’t enough, so I pretty much tripled them. Then I added a chile lime dry rub that my friend had in his cupboard.

I did not use a disposable pan; I’m not quite sure why that is considered important. Instead, I rubbed the pork shoulder with the spices and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then I browned it in the oven at 500 degrees for about 30 minutes.

While the meat was resting and browning, I made the salsa.

Tomatillos are a green tomato that grows inside a paper-like sheath. They’re a staple of Mexican green salsas, and have a really tangy almost citrus-like flavor. 

Salsa:

1 pound of tomatillos, cut in half and roasted in a dry pan.
2 serrano chiles, or another spicy chile if serranos aren't available (I used deseeded habañeros)
4 cloves of garlic, roasted
1 onion, cut into thick slices and roasted
1 large bunch of cilantro, washed

The recipe didn’t call for it, but I cut the tomatillos in half and roasted them in a dry cast iron pan along with the onions and garlic. The goal is to get them to start to carmelize without burning them too much. Once I was finished roasting them, I added about a cup of water to the pan not only to clean it but to “deglaze” it to some extent. (I’m not sure you can use that term if you’re not talking about meat, but that’s what I did. I then poured the liquid, the tomatillos, onions and garlic into a food processor, added a handful of cilantro and two deseeded habañero peppers and blended it. At that point, add salt to taste, remembering that there is also salt in the pork rub. 

One note about peppers: when I first tried the salsa before baking it on the pork, it was a lot spicier. If you’re really into spice, add more peppers or keep the seeds in, knowing that the salsa will mellow as it cooks.

Once the meat has browned, remove it from the oven, douse it in the tomatillo salsa and cover with foil. Lower the heat in the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and put the pork back in.

The original recipe said to cook for 2 1/2 hours. It was done before then, but as my friend Nate (who is much better with cooking meat than I am) pointed out that the longer it’s in there, the more tender it will get.

The only downside to this dish was that the pork did not seem tender enough. However, Nate pointed out that that has to do with the way it’s cut here, and the fact that it was not available with the bone in. Like I said before: if you’ve got an option for pork shoulder with the bone in, DO IT.

Otherwise, it was DELICIOUS, and even better the next day. Although the tomatillo salsa is pretty good by itself, the juices from the pork make it A LOT better. See? Not all candida diet food needs to be tasteless crap.

Not Your Grandma's Mashed Potatoes

This was literally the thought process for dinner tonight:

"What could I possibly make that would deserve a big dollop of this butter?"

Panama is many, many things, but it is not the best butter producer. In fact, most of the stuff they pass off as butter in the grocery store is overpriced rather disgusting crap. There is one brand that comes from Wisconsin; the rest I do not recommend.

I'm not really a butter eater, but when I found myself staring a plastic sort of Dixie Cup thing full of butter, made about an hour away on the Pacific coast by a couple who also make Gouda cheese, I couldn't help myself. $11-something a pound? Heck yes it's worth it. Hand it over. (At one point I lived on a mountain top in the Alps and our neighbor was a woman on an Ohm whose cows enjoyed their summer pastures while we enjoyed their butter, milk and buttermilk. I would have gladly paid for that stuff, too.)

Only yesterday I finally got all the ingredients together for my favorite butter carrier: sea salt, brewer's yeast, butter, of course, and popcorn. Before that, though, I'd managed to douse a bunch of vegetables in a sage butter sauce that I learned to make as part of a butternut squash ravioli recipe that I got from Visconti's in Leavenworth when I compiled Savoring Leavenworth. (Also a really great use of good, high quality butter.)

Today, however, I was casting about for ideas. It wasn't that cold, but I wanted some comfort -- and for those of you who don't know, I for some reason take a lot of comfort in sweet potatoes. I happened to have some -- or the version of the sweet potato they have available here, anyway, which is a little different. Candice and Curt sell them: Cuban sweet potatoes, or camote as they refer to them here. They're sweet, white-fleshed, organic, monstrously strange shaped beasts that are starchier than U.S. grocery store fare, and fricking delicious.

So I boiled them. As they boiled, I carmelized some onions and garlic and toasted some walnuts. (The key to making nuts delicious, I have decided, is to toast them in a dry pan until they become fragrant. Try it.)

I mashed the sweet potatoes with a fork, added a little bit of milk (available in tetra paks that don't need to be refrigerated until opened, like milk in most parts of the world I've visited) a big dollop of butter and all my carmelized and toasty warm toppings. Holy delicious, Batman.

And because I had some and promised her I'd try it, I added a couple dollops of Candice's Tofu Tahini.

Candice's description: Tofu Tahini:  Organic Creamy Tofu and Sesame tahini are blended with fresh Japanese Rice Wine Vinegar, Organic Green Onions and Organic Cilantro.  This dressing is rich and creamy with no Cream!  Not just delicious on salads, pour it over rice, pasta, beans, grilled chicken!

Holy Hannah, Robin! (I'm sorry, apparently tonight I'm 12 years old.) Candice sells it as a salad dressing, but if you are ever in need of a dairy-free, nutty and flavorful sour cream, this is it, folks. THIS is the stuff. It sure may not look pretty, but neither did I shoveling it into my mouth. 

Incidentally, if you're looking for a less butter-filled way to eat the stuff, might I recommend it as a dip with crudites?

Adventures in Sauces

I have to let you in on a little secret: as far as food is concerned, the only thing that I'm missing here in Boquete, Panama is good Mexican food. Not the ingredients for good Mexican food, mind you: just the ability to get in a car, drive somewhere, get out and be in a place that serves delicious Mexican cuisine. 

As far as great, high-quality ingredients and specialty products -- Israeli cous cous, spelt flour, brown Basmati rice, spirulina, flax seed, etc. -- we're covered. Don't even get me started on the coffee: some of the best coffee in the world is grown here, and I have gleefully enjoyed tasting all sorts of different brands and types. 

When it comes to fresh, organic produce, I am positively basking in possibilities. Each week I get an email from my favorite farmers, I send off my order and when I show up at the Tuesday morning market, there is a bag of goodies waiting for me in their truck.

In the couple months since I've been here, I have slowly but surely built up a friendship with Curt and Candice, owners of Palmira Produce, originally from Northern California and now farmers and -- wait for it -- sauce  makers for the lucky inhabitants of Boquete, "land of eternal spring." 

Although I had seen Candice's list of sauces every week, I mostly just stuck to the produce, with the occasional foray into the amazing things she had to offer. Her homemade Sriracha sauce is BETTER than the original. Her homemade dill pickles are DELICIOUS, and her peanut sauce is creamy and spicy and downright amazing. 

In four months of being here, though, that's very little compared to the list she has, organized by continent, and made mostly with ingredients from her garden.

So when she walked me to the cooler in the back of her truck a couple weeks ago and started pulling out sauces, what could I do but say yes to trying some? Well, it was less of a "yes" and more of a "HELL YEAH!"

First of all: Banana ketchup. Wha??

Pan fried noodles & vegetables with banana ketchup

Candice's sauce description:  
Caribbean Banana Ketchup:  This is really fun to use. It really does not taste much like bananas. Those who have sampled it have mentioned flavors like A-1 Pic a Pepper Sauce or Worcestershire with a slight sweetness (no added sugar) to balance out the flavors and texture like ketchup.


You heard right. Banana. Ketchup. The consistency of ketchup, with the same vinegar bite, but with a much less acidic consistency (regular ketchup often feels like it's burning my tongue). It pours like ketchup and is surprisingly less sweet. 

I wanted to put it on everything, so I did. I used it as a sauce for my pan fried chow mein and stir-fried veggies, and it went especially well with the purple cabbage I included, even MORE especially because I cooked it in coconut oil. Since the banana ketchup is less sweet than regular ketchup (in my opinion), the coconut oil's touch of dulce was perfect. 
And because my favorite combination is sweet and spicy, I also added some of her Sriracha to the mix. :)
Aside from my concoction, it would be a great accompaniment to sweet potato fries, patacones (the local fried green bananas) and I bet it would be REALLY good on a Hawaiian chicken burger with a slice of pineapple. Ooo, and you know what else it would be good on, even if it's already perfect the way it is? Caribbean Pork Tenderloin.

"I have Harissa," Candice said, her head in the cooler. 
Radio silence.
"Do you know what Harissa is?" she asked.
I had to admit that I didn't. 

Candice's sauce description:   
Moroccan Harissa:  A sauce / paste made from Dried Red Chiles, Roasted Sweet Red Peppers with lots of garlic and various spices, such as caraway, mint and cumin.

Oh thank the gods that I still get to learn new things about food! The Harissa was delicious: almost smoky in flavor, it would make a great better-than-barbecue-sauce topping for a burger, a broiled pork chop, or grilled chicken. I found a recipe online for a Harissa Bloody Mary, with balsamic vinegar. (Note to self: buy some vodka)
It had just enough kick to make me happy, and enough depth of flavor to make me swoon.
I made a phad-thai type dish, with rice noodles, all the vegetables I had on hand -- carrots, cabbage, onions, kale, etc. -- scrambled egg and harissa as the sauce. 
When it came right down to it, though, it was missing something: sweetness. Call me a one-trick pony, but I like my food to have the whole wheel of flavors: spice as in depth, spice as in hot, and sweet to play a little bit on the tongue. So...I added papaya.

Harissa Phad Thai with Papaya

It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. Papaya was what I had on hand, but the real answer that I was looking for is my favorite sweet ingredient that I put in pretty much any dish with savory vegetables: golden raisins. If I had had any, this new concoction of harissa phad thai would have been PERFECT. All thanks to a native Californian with a penchant for sauces that decided her paradise was the same place as mine. 

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Feeding Creative Genius with Hummus

I came to Panama to write a book. I came to Boquete specifically because it seemed like a great place to do so...and also because it is the Panamanian mecca of fresh local food...and there's a Tuesday farmer's market that caters to gringa tastes like mine, with organic and hydroponic vegetables, export-grade local coffee, a used English book seller (who also sells stamps and will take your letters to friends in the States, stuff them in a bag and give them to the next expat with room in their suitcase to drop in a U.S. mail box once they're stateside), a honey lady (OMG, DELICIOUS local honey), and a guy who sharpens kitchen knives.

I mean, what else could I possibly need?

Oh. I mean, as long as I'm focusing on a "this, or something better" concept over at my other blog, I may as well ask for some perks. Let's see...how bout an English speaking local theater? OKAY.

First I got roped into bartending at a show by my landlady. It was called Rabbit Hole, and watching it gave me a lump in my throat that turned into open sobbing at the final performance. Then I got an email. They were auditioning for one act plays; did I want to try out?

Bench Warmers opened today. I'm in two shows. In one, I'm a depressed woman trying to jump to her death at Iguazu Falls on the Argentine Brazilian border, but I am thwarted by a super tourist who won't shut up or go away. In the second, I am a woman who leaves her husband and goes on the vacation they were supposed to have together at the Grand Canyon, only to break down sobbing and be comforted by an old lonely curmudgeon whose dead wife accompanied him on the trip she always wanted them to take together...but she died before they came.

And in between all my jumping and sobbing, I somehow also help feed the cast and crew.

Hummus goes great with all the local vegetables available here, and also with fresh bread, and crackers, and breadsticks, and...well, pretty much anything. I got at least three requests for the recipe, so I decided it was worth posting again.

So, without further ado, one of my favorite recipes from Savoring Chelan:

Terrie's Famous Hummus with a Kick 

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves 4

1 can garbanzo beans (16 oz.)
2 tablespoons Tahini
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon or less African cayenne pepper
Small bunch cilantro

Open the can of garbanzo beans, pour out half the liquid, and put the rest in food processor. Add Tahini, garlic, honey and African cayenne; blend until smooth and creamy. Throw a handful of fresh cilantro in at the end for taste and color.

Recipe Tips
Try substituting peanut butter for Tahini.
Take the green growth out of the center of the garlic clove; it makes it bitter.

Contributed to Savoring Chelan: Pairing Local Wines with Regional Recipes by Terrie Holm-Nielsen.

Isaac's Cabbage Slaw

In celebration of KOHO Radio's Cooking in the KOHO host Isaac Kaplan-Woolner's great news that he took a job as a producer for Rick Steves, I am posting his cabbage slaw recipe.

Isaac is like me: he's a concoctionist, and although he has a basic recipe in his head, it is not the same recipe every time he makes it. I recently asked him for the ingredient list, and wrote down amounts as I made it. I checked with him and he thought they seemed about right, but feel free to change up the amounts to your tastes.


Cabbage Slaw
1/2 small head of cabbage
1/3 cup finely diced green onion
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup shaved carrots

Dressing
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed or 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
1/4 cup olive oil
OR
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup plain yogurt

Combine all the ingredients for the slaw in a large bowl. Set aside.

To make the dressing, crush the garlic, brown sugar and sea salt in a bowl with the back of a spoon until you form a paste. Add mustard, lime juice, vinegar and celery seed. Mix until well blended.
Add either 1/4 cup of olive oil, or olive oil mixed with plain yogurt. Combine throughly, then mix into the cabbage slaw. Refrigerate and let sit to allow the flavors to marry.

Serve with fish, fish tacos, or barbecue...or pretty much anything else.

Morgan's Mango Salsa

Morgan's Mango Salsa. Eat with chips, fish, or by the spoonful.

Oh man do I love mangoes. Don't tell anybody, but they're my favorite fruit, even more than apples, which is awkward when you grew up on an apple orchard in Washington State, far far away from any mango groves.
There are a couple different types, but my favorite are the ataulfos (seen whole in the picture), which are thankfully now in season in Panama.
I will eat mangoes in smoothies almost every day, but the mango salsa is also a dietary staple as far as I'm concerned. A lot of people call it mango chutney…call it whatever you want, it's delicious. Of course it's great with chips, but I also use it on fish, with chicken, as a salad dressing of sorts, or, honestly, sometimes I eat it with a spoon. What? I like mangoes.

Please note my formula for making this recipe; it makes it easy to make half as much (although why you would want less is beyond me) or twice as much or more, very easily. Basically, the formula is 2:1:.5:.25, or 2 cups mango 1 cup tomato, 1/2 cup onion, 1/4 cup lime juice and cilantro. Get it?

Enjoy!




Mango Salsa

Makes 3.5 cups

2 cups mango, cubed - about 6 small mangoes (click here to learn how to cut a mango)
1 cup tomato, diced
1/2 cup onion, finely diced
1 serrano or jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely diced (for more kick, add more peppers, or leave the seeds in)
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
1 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all your ingredients in a bowl, and add more salt if needed to taste. The salsa is best if you refrigerate it for a couple hours first to allow the flavors to marry. Enjoy!

Panamanian Summer Rolls

It's summer in Panama. In the small town of Boquete, that means that it's sunny and windy almost every day.
The rainy season starts in April, and I'm not quite sure what that will mean for my produce consumption. For now, however, I am thoroughly enjoying the mountains of fresh greens that I have to choose from, and the well-established farms and providers who make it easy for me to get otherwise hard-to-find items, like rice wraps. Access to international items is one of the advantages of living in an expat community, with international tastes like mine.

My neighbor stopped by on a walk with her dog and tasted one, then asked me if I might be interested in catering a house-warming party for her in May! Sometimes all it takes is a well-made meal to open doors, and hearts.

So here's my take on fresh spring rolls. Keep in mind that I used what ingredients I had available; create yours as you see fit.

Panamanian Summer Rolls

Dressing
1/4 cup goat yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh thinly sliced ginger
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Filling
Instead of measuring, I simply filled a medium-sized bowl with a mix of the following:
Fresh basil
Fresh arugula
Fresh salad mix (romaine, butter lettuce, and dandelion)
Shaved carrots
Cucumbers, sliced julienne style

4 Vietnamese rice wrappers
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Make dressing and set aside to let the flavors meld.

Meanwhile, chop or tear filling ingredients until you've filled a medium sized bowl.
Hint: tearing instead of chopping will make the leaves last longer without browning.

Toast walnuts in a dry pan, stirring occasionally, until aromatic -- about 5 minutes.

Toss filling, walnuts and dressing in bowl.  

Fill a large plate with water. One at a time, dunk the rice wrap in the water, coating completely. Count to 10, remove the wrapper and place on a cutting board. Place filling in the middle of the wrap and fold sides to make either open-ended or closed summer rolls. Repeat until all wraps are filled or you run out of filling. Enjoy in the sun, perhaps with a glass of cold white wine.

Boquete Breakfast Smoothie

My new writer's retreat above Boquete, Panama

 About six weeks ago, I moved to Panama. I am here writing a book, and I chose Panama because I was looking for a cheap, quiet and inspirational place to do it that I had never been to before.
After moving for the third time, I settled into a small casita above the mountain town of Boquete, near Panama's only volcano. It's beautiful here: I have access to tropical fruit from the coast, plus organic local produce. There are tangerine, lemon and orange trees outside the door, and every morning so far I've been able to sit in the grass in the yard and watch the sun come up over the mountain as I drink locally grown coffee and write in my journal.
This morning, I made myself a smoothie for breakfast. I think it may quickly become my new favorite meal:

Boquete Breakfast Smoothie

1 mango from the Panamanian coast (to learn how to cut a mango, click here)
1 orange from the tree outside
1 handful locally grown organic basil
1/4 cup organic pineapple goat yogurt (just because it's expensive, and only comes in tiny containers)
1/4 cup water
ice

Blend ingredients until you have made a smoothie, or until the blender starts to smell like the motor might burn up. Enjoy in the sunshine on the porch.

Buen provecho!

Mexican Fish Tacos in Panama

I have a confession: cooking fish is not my strong point. The first time I ever tried to cook fish I was in college. I baked it. It came out as white fish leather. Since then I have always been a little leery -- it is definitely not something I would choose to make for anyone I wanted to impress...or even anyone I ever wanted to see again.
However, I have just moved to Panama. I am living on an island. Frequently, local fishermen stop by and offer their freshly-caught wares for $1 a pound. Considering that it costs me at least $10 in gas to get to the mainland, why would I say no to fish that is fresh, and delivered to the dock?

Fresh fish, delivered right to the dock? Why would I say no?

My second problem with fish? Fileting the suckers. Anyone who knows anything about fish would either laugh or cry at the butchery I perform when trying to filet a fish by myself. Yes, I know how to do it; no, I have not done it enough to do it well.
There's good news, however: fish tacos are the perfect vehicle for badly fileted fish. No, it's not an excuse, but until I gain some skill, why not eat something that I love anyway? Thankfully, I have yet to make fish leather with fish tacos. The breading keeps the fish from drying out.

 

See? You can't even tell they were badly fileted.

El Vaquero Tijuana Baja Fish Tacos

Prep time: 30 minutes

Set time: 1-2 hours (optional)

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves 6-8

Beer Batter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup dark Mexican beer (Negra Modelo)

Salsa Roja

2 medium size chiles anchos (dried poblano peppers)

2 cups water

1 tablespoon oil

Dash salt

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Mexican crema (crème fraiche) or sour cream

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 cup finely diced dill pickle

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pico de Gallo

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/4 head of cabbage, finely chopped

4 green onions, thinly sliced

1 jalapeño, finely chopped (optional)

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Fish Tacos

Oil, for frying

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning

2 pounds skinned Halibut, Cod or other white fish, cut into 1/2-inch strips

Freshly ground black pepper

Yellow corn tortillas (do not use white corn or flour tortillas!)

Pickled jalapeños for garnish (optional)

Salsa Roja

Place the chiles in a saucepan on medium heat. Add a tablespoon of oil and lightly toast the chiles for 10-15 seconds on each side or until they change color, whichever happens first. Do not burn. Let the oil in the pan cool for about 5 minutes. Put the chiles back in the same saucepan, add water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let sit until softened; about 5 minutes. Grind chiles in a blender until pureed. Add some of the soaking liquid – about half a cup — to facilitate blending and to dilute the salsa to a medium-thick consistency. Add salt to bring out the flavors. Let salsa roja cool in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

Mix mayonnaise, crema and pickles in a medium bowl. Whisk in the lemon zest, lemon juice and water. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the chile mixture once it has cooled and whisk. For best results, make the sauce at least 1-2 hours ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve the fish tacos.

For better taste and consistency, do not use an electric whisk.

Pico de Gallo

Combine ingredients in a bowl; add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 2 cups.

 

Beer Batter

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the beer. Set aside and let the batter rest for 15 minutes before using.

Fish

Over medium heat, add enough oil to a large skillet to reach a depth of 1 inch. Heat the oil until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350°F, or until a drop of water dances and sizzles on the oil’s surface.

On a large plate, combine the flour and salt. Season the fish pieces all over with salt and pepper and coat with the flour. Working in batches, dip the fillets in the beer batter, coating both sides. Fry in the hot oil until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Place on paper towels to drain.

For a nice semi-crispy tortilla, warm the yellow corn tortillas in a dry pan over a gas burner or grill until golden brown on both sides. Prepare tacos by filling the tortillas with fish and topping each with the salsa roja cream sauce, pico de gallo and fresh lime juice.

Recipe Tip

For best results, make the Pico de Gallo and Salsa Roja 1-2 hours ahead of time so the flavors can blend.

Contributed to Savoring Chelan: Pairing Local Wines with Regional Recipes by JC deVivero of El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant.

Try fish tacos with these local Chelan Valley wines:

Karma Vineyards Chardonnay

Nefarious Cellars Riesling Stone’s Throw Vineyard Estate Grown