Chilean food, part II
Well, this week I’m going to talk about several typical dishes not necessarily related to one another.
Carbonada: meat soup with diced beef and all kinds of vegetables such as potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, green pepper and parsley. Of course you can choose to make a carbonada only with a few vegetables. The important thing is the meat. Since I strongly dislike the mix of different flavors in one dish, I don’t really like the carbonada and I never cook it. At my parent’s house it’s a must and it consists (besides the meat) of potatoes, carrots, a big piece of pumpkin, some rice and green bean. A “light” version of the Carbonada, much more edible IMHO, is the Cazuela. It’s a soup with meat (it can be red meat or chicken) and potatoes, some times with rice or noodles. I love a good Cazuela de Pollo (chicken) in a cold winter day.
Porotos Granados: fresh bean dish with ground corn and pieces of pumpkin served hot. Of all the dishes this green earth has to offer, porotos (in all the variants) is the one I hate the most. With a passion. Yucky. I detest beans, its “dusty” taste, like sand or flour in your mouth. A typical variant of porotos Granados are porotos con riendas and it’s even worst, because it’s made not with fresh beans but old ones, mixed with spaghetti and pieces of sausages.
Humitas: I love humitas. It consist in mashed corn (it can be spiced up with small pieces of onion or pepper or other vegetables to make it tastier) wrapped in corn leaves and boiled in a big pot of water. You can eat it with tomatoes or, as I love, with lots and lots of sugar on top. If the humita is hot, the sugar melts and the flavor it’s unique!
And to end this post in a great note, let's talk about our delicious empanadas. This is a true classic for the 18th. According to Wikipedia, empanadas are “essentially a stuffed pastry made by folding a thin circular-shaped dough patty over the stuffing, creating its typical semicircular shape” Yeah, that’s a good definition. Thanks, Wikipedia, for helping me when english words fails me. ^_^
Here in Chile, there’s a wide variety of empanadas. I'll start with the most classic and typical of them all.
Empanada de Pino: Not pino as in “Pine” (tree) although the word is the same. Pino is a mixture of red meat and onions, diced in small pieces, with raisins, one olive or two and a piece of hard boiled egg. You can also add some hot pepper, but that’s optional. That’s the stuffing of the empanada de pino. This empanada can be fried or baked in an oven.
Empanada de Queso: The same empanada, but instead of pino it’s filled only with cheese. This empanada is always fried, so you have a delicious sort of pie filled with melted cheese. Mmmm… One of my favorites.
Empanada de Mariscos: Seafood. Different kinds of seafood makes different kinds of empanadas, so we have empanada de machas (razor clams) empanada de locos (abalone) empanada de jaiva (crab), empanada de caramarón (shrimp) etc. The seafood is also diced in small pieces, with some onion and other optional ingredients (for example, empanada de machas con queso, razor clams and cheese). You can even mix different kinds of seafood in the same empanada to your liking. These empanadas are also fried and they’re my other favorites, in all its variants.
Empanada de Pera: This is the only one to be served cold, it works mostly as a dessert. It’s baked, and filled with mashed pears, previously simmered in water for a while to soften them.
Carbonada:
Cazuela de Pollo:
Porotos granados:
Porotos con rienda (even the pic is yucky!):
Humitas:
That's how they look on the inside:
Empanada de horno:
Same empanada, different look:
Empanada frita:
Carbonada: meat soup with diced beef and all kinds of vegetables such as potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, green pepper and parsley. Of course you can choose to make a carbonada only with a few vegetables. The important thing is the meat. Since I strongly dislike the mix of different flavors in one dish, I don’t really like the carbonada and I never cook it. At my parent’s house it’s a must and it consists (besides the meat) of potatoes, carrots, a big piece of pumpkin, some rice and green bean. A “light” version of the Carbonada, much more edible IMHO, is the Cazuela. It’s a soup with meat (it can be red meat or chicken) and potatoes, some times with rice or noodles. I love a good Cazuela de Pollo (chicken) in a cold winter day.
Porotos Granados: fresh bean dish with ground corn and pieces of pumpkin served hot. Of all the dishes this green earth has to offer, porotos (in all the variants) is the one I hate the most. With a passion. Yucky. I detest beans, its “dusty” taste, like sand or flour in your mouth. A typical variant of porotos Granados are porotos con riendas and it’s even worst, because it’s made not with fresh beans but old ones, mixed with spaghetti and pieces of sausages.
Humitas: I love humitas. It consist in mashed corn (it can be spiced up with small pieces of onion or pepper or other vegetables to make it tastier) wrapped in corn leaves and boiled in a big pot of water. You can eat it with tomatoes or, as I love, with lots and lots of sugar on top. If the humita is hot, the sugar melts and the flavor it’s unique!
And to end this post in a great note, let's talk about our delicious empanadas. This is a true classic for the 18th. According to Wikipedia, empanadas are “essentially a stuffed pastry made by folding a thin circular-shaped dough patty over the stuffing, creating its typical semicircular shape” Yeah, that’s a good definition. Thanks, Wikipedia, for helping me when english words fails me. ^_^
Here in Chile, there’s a wide variety of empanadas. I'll start with the most classic and typical of them all.
Empanada de Pino: Not pino as in “Pine” (tree) although the word is the same. Pino is a mixture of red meat and onions, diced in small pieces, with raisins, one olive or two and a piece of hard boiled egg. You can also add some hot pepper, but that’s optional. That’s the stuffing of the empanada de pino. This empanada can be fried or baked in an oven.
Empanada de Queso: The same empanada, but instead of pino it’s filled only with cheese. This empanada is always fried, so you have a delicious sort of pie filled with melted cheese. Mmmm… One of my favorites.
Empanada de Mariscos: Seafood. Different kinds of seafood makes different kinds of empanadas, so we have empanada de machas (razor clams) empanada de locos (abalone) empanada de jaiva (crab), empanada de caramarón (shrimp) etc. The seafood is also diced in small pieces, with some onion and other optional ingredients (for example, empanada de machas con queso, razor clams and cheese). You can even mix different kinds of seafood in the same empanada to your liking. These empanadas are also fried and they’re my other favorites, in all its variants.
Empanada de Pera: This is the only one to be served cold, it works mostly as a dessert. It’s baked, and filled with mashed pears, previously simmered in water for a while to soften them.
Carbonada:
Cazuela de Pollo:
Porotos granados:
Porotos con rienda (even the pic is yucky!):
Humitas:
That's how they look on the inside:
Empanada de horno:
Same empanada, different look:
Empanada frita: