El Día de San Valentín

On Monday we returned to cold, white Wisconsin from some time in hot, colorful Costa Rica. What a letdown. Fortunately Tuesday was a holiday, I’m still layed off this week, and one of the mementos we brought back from Puerto Jiménez was a cookbook. All the means to compensate for having to come home were in place. The book is “Gallito Pinto: Traditional Recipes from Costa Rica.” I consulted it to devise a menu and went grocery shopping.

 

The first course was a cocktail I concocted with carambola, also known as starfruit. It’s got sort of a weak flavor but some calvados and lime juice rounded it out and the garnish couldn’t have been more obvious.

 

 

For  munching along with the cocktails I whipped up a batch of striped seabass ceviche. We’ve been talking about making ceviche for three years since we had it so often in Ecuador but this is the first time we’ve followed through. It’s so simple there’s really no excuse.

 

 

For the salad I took the easy route and did a pseudo-Caesar but with fancy-schmancy heart-shaped eggs. I briefly entertained the possibility of coloring them pink. Maybe next time.

 

The main course was Bistec Encebollado, better known as steak and onions with Chacletas de Chayote—mashed chayote and cheese stuffed in the exotic fruit’s skin. It was unusual but good. Cheese can make anything good, though. I’d make it again.

 

 

For dessert I whipped up a couple of simple mini flans. They weren’t much to look at but tasted delicious. I only wish I had remembered to put some coconut in them. As it was, they were so good I dug in before I remembered to take a picture.

 

 

One traditional dish we did not have but saw a lot of in Costa Rica was the black bean and rice dish called Gallo Pinto. It was served at any or all of the three meals of the day and with all the hiking we were doing was a welcome, high energy dish. I’ve definitely found a use for some of the black beans I grow every year.

 

Check back to see the wild side of Costa Rica coming soon!

All About Sausage

For some inexplicable reason I like to pick up the odd vintage or kitsch cookbook that I run across from time to time. The graphic styles of bygone eras are often a treat to see and they also show how different food and entertaining have been in the past. A very good friend of mine knows of my cookbook interest and once gifted me with "All About Sausage" published by the Oscar Mayer company in 1973. It's enlightening, amusing and disturbing all at the same time.

Beginning with a self-serving glossary that manages to define even the most unfoodlike products they make into "sausage", the authors take us on a meatfest joyride. Stops along the way include party platters, breadless sandwiches and more ways to combine beans and weenies than you can shake a weenie at. My personal favorite is the Holiday Meat Tree. Correcting Mother Nature's oversight we are instructed how to compose a tree-like lump of twisted and folded luncheon meats pinned to half a bread loaf.

O sausagebaum, o sausagebaum! They leaves are pink and greasy.

Tarte Normande Aux Poires

I must have expressed a proper interest when a good friend mentioned that her neighbor's pear tree was bearing right now. A bag of little, delicious pears appeared on our doorknob the next day. As usually happens in the cooler seasons when hearty or rich foods feel more appropriate I turned to Julia. Last year I finally broke down and bought volume one of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. The tart is made by partially baking sugar-coated pear slices in a short crust, adding a custard topping and completing the baking. Tonight we'll find out how it tastes.

I think most people forget three cooks worked on this classic cookbook. Perhaps it's because of Mrs. Child's later, greater fame as a television cook that she might be presumed the sole author. A few years ago I made the mistake of reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I can't imagine what the movie version will be like--yes, they're making a movie based on a book that grew out of a blog that documented a young woman's year-long project of cooking every recipe in MTAOFC. Julia Child will be played by Meryl Streep. I'm not kidding.