Guatemala: Las aguas más profundas hacer el menor ruido.

After the indigestion from Thailand had subsided, we moved on to Guatemala.  This Central American country is a paradise full of mountains and beaches.  It’s incredibly colorful with food, dance, and culture as old as the Mayans.  Streaming live Guatemalan radio made the kitchen come alive with rhythm.  The bananas and tomatillos played the marimba while the radish and cilantro salsa’d across the counter-tops.  Es possible que puedas aprender espanol despues de una noche cocinando y escuchando musica de ese pais muy bello.  

We started with a simple salad Picado de Rábano (Guatemalan Radish Salad). A lot of people aren’t particularly crazy about radishes, but the combination of mint, orange juice, lime juice, & salt really complemented this rather boring root veggie.  However, we were divided in our opinion of the end result- Bax thought lettuce might have been a welcome addition, but I thought it was wonderful as is.  We both agreed that the leftover juice was delicious mixed with vodka. Salud!

We’ve come to find in our travels that much of what makes the foreign cuisine so wonderful is it’s simplicity.  It’s incredibly American to add ingredient after ingredient until you lose sight of the flavor of each individual ingredient.  We over-season, over-cook, over-add, and over-sweeten nearly every food we eat.  If you’re refrigerator at home is anything like ours, the condiments outnumber the food by almost 2:1.

Our next dish what can only be described as a Central American ‘Chicken Pesto’.  Jocón (Guatemalan chicken in tomatillo-cilantro sauce) was a fantastic change over the same chicken recipes we’ve been fed since birth.  If the Mayans are as accurate with their calendar as they were with the perfection of this dish, then we'll definitely be in for a surprise in 2012.  Since Tuesday, I have already made this dish again and followed the recipe directly - even with the sesame/pumpkin seed paste.  A coffee grinder truly is the best way to get these seeds transformed into a fine powder, but a food processor and some elbow grease with a pestle & mortar will work too.  The tahini we used on Tuesday was a great substitution...and a lot easier than the whole seed ordeal.  

 We served the dish over rice, but it could have easily easily been served with a pasta or put in tortillas or tacos.  Jocón calls for tomatillos, the likes of which, neither of us had ever encountered.  After a quick ‘google search’ for “How to prepare tomatillos” we were instant experts.  Tomatillos are much like the smaller, over protected, more colorful cousin of the tomato.  Peel off the paper like covering, cut of the top, and dice.  It was that simple.  

 

 For dessert we had Pan de platano (Banana Bread).  This turned out perfectly and the best part is that it’s incredibly easy.  We didn't have either sugar or cinnamon on hand.  But luckily Bax has a sweet neighbor that provided both. We made the bread in a 9x11 casserole dish and it cooked in about 15 minutes.  We're guessing that the loaf or muffin pan may take a little longer. 

Next week we head west to “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines” for a taste of the Caribbean.  Until next time we say “Salud”.