Food In Colombia

Lionheart says on Dec 14, 2004, 21:41:

Colombia is not as spicey as expected I have been exchanging recipes for years now and I am surprised that the food is not with an afterburner. Mexican food is much hotter, even though the hottest chilies are found in the Amazonas.

hmmm ... your post is confusing ... do you want recipes or just names of great Colombian food?

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kernow62 says on Dec 15, 2004, 05:16:

Or how to eat the whole fish?

You can leave the bones. ;-)

The eye is considered the tastiest bit, my wife always asks if I am going to eat the eyes, and... because I am a gentleman I say no my dear, you may have them.

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mantillamj says on Dec 15, 2004, 07:34:

Colombian Food Hi seattlejames, the food in Colombia is traditionally fried foods. A lot of rice, chicken, bananas. They make stuffed empanadas, buneolos which are like hushpuppies with cheese, they make plantanos fritos (fried bananas), and rice with chicken and spanish capers. But no, nothing but the sausage is spicy, a lot of avocado as well. Hope this helps!

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LarsBrink says on Dec 15, 2004, 08:17:

Fotos Hi seattlejames,

Here are some fotos of Colombian food:
Fotos of Colombian food at colombia.dk

Colombian food is not strong/hot but great. I just add some sauce then I'm all happy :-)

Regards,

Lars Brink - colombia.dk - brink-christensen.dk

~ Lars Brink ~ www.colombia.dk ~

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Lionheart says on Dec 15, 2004, 10:15:

Thanks for the photos Very interesting indeed, I wish I could identify the various dishes and compare them to my recipe collection.

Lars, do you remember what the dishes were called?

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LarsBrink says on Dec 16, 2004, 08:05:

Name of the foods.. Hi Lionheart,

Not really. The photos was taken by a friend of mine in february 2002 during a trip after my wedding in Colombia.

Maybe someone can help?

(Last foto shows two great bottles of Ron Viejo de Caldas :-)

Regards,

Lars Brink - colombia.dk - brink-christensen.dk

~ Lars Brink ~ www.colombia.dk ~

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Desideria (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Dec 16, 2004, 08:19:

lars I was looking at the photos and since they show half-finished plates it's hard the name the dishes. There's one that's a churrasco or carne a la plancha, one that could be bandeja paisa, and several that are really too crowded with ingredients to be able to judge.
Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

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Lionheart says on Dec 16, 2004, 14:12:

Food photos I am surprised at how most of the plates are piled up with food, and it looks like many are different preparations served at once.

I have noticed one thing with the potatos - as I have read in recipes they use three kinds of potatos at once.

In pic 689 I see something green, looks like greek dolmeidas (sp?), rice wrapped in a wineleaf. Any clue?

690/691 - the stuff in front of the plate? I that something like an onion salad? I have seen it in other pics too.

513 - what is the name for those huge peas?

754 - looks like an omelette

I recognize the blood sausages in several pics, just like in Germany.

I see a green bowl in some pics with a liquid and green stuff in it. Is that a salsa?

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adrimm (☼Travelguide writer) says on Dec 16, 2004, 14:28:

Lionheart says on Dec 16, 2004, 15:10:

food is my passion Be it learning about ingredients, herbs and spices, growing the stuff myself, preparing meals and sauces, and eating also ... of course, I enjoy it all. Wherever I have traveled or have come in contact with local foods, I try to pick up as much information as possible and try to prepare them as authentic as possible. Call me crazy. Currently I am translating a stack of Colombian recipes into English, but I have no matching photos.

Aji is the South American chili pepper in general, but often is meant for the kind with white seeds, mainly growing in jungle regions. Rocoto is the other cover term for chilis in SA, they are the only chilis with black seeds and seem to grow mainly in the Andes regions. The heat index varies from medium to extremely hot for both kinds. And yes, I am a Chilihead too.

The aji sauce you describe is basically the same as Mexican homemade green salsa, not like the thick salsas prefered in store-bought jars. I agree, it is delicious.

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Lionheart says on Dec 17, 2004, 19:47:

The sauce in the green bowl I noticed that many Colombian recipes are closer related to Argentina's kitchen than the Mexican kitchen, so I was wondering it the sauce is a variant of the Argentinean Chimichurri sauce. Do the ingredients sound right:

1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

All is tossed into a food processor or hand chopped ... done

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LarsBrink says on Dec 19, 2004, 14:51:

More foods.. Hi Lionheart,

I love their potatoes called papas criolla. Small, really yellow ans sweet potaotes that I didn't know from Denmark. Make them into frenchfries and you have heaven :-)

Another thing that looks like potatoe is yuca which is a similar thing. Longer than a potatoe but growing on the dirt.

No clue on the thing in the leaf.

754 - think that it is a arepa. Some kind of bread often made of corn. Served often for breakfast with just butter. Here more like a pizza with topings on.

The morcilla is sussage made of blod. Don't care much for that :-/

Regards,

Lars Brink - colombia.dk - brink-christensen.dk

~ Lars Brink ~ www.colombia.dk ~

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ACBlessing says on Dec 19, 2004, 18:33:

Peppers different Mexican green pepper sauce is made from jalapenos...different than Colombian green peppers sauce right?
I used to eat these tiny green/reddish peppers the size of a pea and man were they hot! I loved them. My salsa was always prepared with those. Also, I had a different green sauce with my sopa mondongo but I think it is a variant from Medellin.
Lioneart, do you have the recipes online so I can see them?

Alex Blessing, Spokane, WA, USA
alex at acblessing.com,MSN Messenger
www.acblessing.com

Just plain poor

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ACBlessing says on Dec 19, 2004, 18:35:

Oh...... You guys are missing the panaderias on every block, even Pan Pa Ya! I can't walk past one and ignore the aroma of fresh breads just out of the oven.

Alex Blessing, Spokane, WA, USA
alex at acblessing.com,MSN Messenger
www.acblessing.com

Just plain poor

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adrimm (☼Travelguide writer) says on Dec 19, 2004, 19:01:

Lionheart says on Dec 19, 2004, 19:31:

Great cookbook and thanks for the links Tinto.

Alex, yes, the Mexicans use Jalapeños or Serranos for the sauce. Columbians use some sort of Aji.

The pea-sized chilis are probably Pequín or Tepín, they are mighty hot. I assume you meant making the salsa in USA. SA has their own hot pea-sized ones, but as far as I can tell they are only found wild in the Amazonas and are called bird chilies. They are assumed to be the mother of all chilies, which are eaten by birds and that way the seeds get carried everywhere.

I posted some of the recipes here, but it is one of them invisible threads. Do a search for a thread on "Chicha" for 2 recipes, the other thread is "Give me local food!" ... once I have more recipes translated I will probably post them on a website.

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ACBlessing says on Dec 19, 2004, 19:57:

I see aji Yes, those are it, very tiny, smaller than a pea actually and ball to oval shape. I collected a bunch of them in Silvania (before Melgar) and they are the hottest I've had...well, second to habanero...incredibly tasty

Alex Blessing, Spokane, WA, USA
alex at acblessing.com,MSN Messenger
www.acblessing.com

Just plain poor

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Lionheart says on Dec 19, 2004, 23:11:

aji = chili As chili pepper is the generic term for North and Central America, the name aji is the South American term for all, sometimes with the exception of rocoto. The chile variations are well defined and standardized, but the aji variations are totally up to whoever writes about them.

I found some new resources I will be reading, a quite interesting find for me. One name I found for the small round wild ones is Bolivian Rainbow. The other real hot ones are a bit longer in shape and are called Piurira, and when then are long and thin they are called Criolla Sella and Pucha-Uchu Tarija ... all in the heat scale 8-10 of a scale of 10 = Habañeros.

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ACBlessing says on Dec 19, 2004, 23:50:

No, these are definitely round, never long. Smaller than pea size... they turn redish after a while but habanero potent either way. I smuggled a handful in a plastic baggie in my shirt pocket and when I got to Houston, they had the beagle from the Dept. of Agriculture sniffing bags for smuggled fruit. I thought I might have been busted but then I thought, what if that little bastard sniffed these peppers? He'd keel over! Hell, I could even smell them coming up from my shirt.


Alex Blessing, Spokane, WA, USA
alex at acblessing.com,MSN Messenger
www.acblessing.com

Just plain poor

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Lionheart says on Dec 20, 2004, 12:40:

bird peppers I did some further research today and now I have a pretty clear picture of the bird peppers, basically the mother peppers of all chilies/ajis. There are more than 50 varieties world-wide and about 20 are defined undomesticated peppers as of today. The American top classification is Chiltepins (evolved from an Aztec word) for the wild bird peppers in the Americas. Other bird peppers are found in Africa and Asia.

The name Chiltepin evolved into three names in North America: Chili, Tepín, the wild chili found in Texas and Mexico, also extremely hot, and Pequín, a domesticated version of the Tepín. The Tepín is also smaller than pea-shaped, and would be the US choice for Chiltepins.

The SA names seem to be pretty local to me, depending on where they are found. Seemingly the same type have a different name for each region. I will be posting some pics with names later today.

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Patriota says on Dec 21, 2004, 18:25:

Bandeja paisa Bandeja Paisa, that it the local dish. I just love it, with frijoles, rice, carne molida, patacon, chicharones , mhhhhhh.


Que viva Colombia, por su gente, cultura y comida :-)

Que viva Colombia, por su gente, cultura y comida :-)

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Lionheart says on Dec 21, 2004, 18:55:

carne molida I see this often in recipes, but I haven't found it as a specific recipe. I assume it means shredded meat, like it is done with brisket in Texas or with pork in the the Carolinas. Is anything added to the shredded meat, or is it added as is to the various recipes that mention it?

Other recipes mentioning carne molida are Pastelito indio (Choco), Los Indios (Cucuta), Frijoles con Rastro (Quinidio), Empanadas con aji and Capon relleno (Riseralda).

I am trying to translate these recipes into English, thanks for any help.

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Desideria (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Dec 22, 2004, 02:25:

carne molida is just simply ground beef. Not shredded, not chopped but ground in a meat grinder.
Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

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Lionheart says on Dec 22, 2004, 15:19:

pepper pix I am uploading a few pix of SA chili peppers into my gallery, enjoy!

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Jaffa says on Dec 23, 2004, 15:06:

recipe for bandeja paisa,anyone? hey! does anyone have the REAL recipe for the bandeja paisa? i had it, but lost it, and i really wanna find it again! the traditional bogota soup (aijaco, i cant remember) is AWESOME! i cooked some, it was so yummy! you should all try it. for now, if you have some bandeja recipe hidden somewhere, please share it with me? gracias!
(jaffa_girl at hotmail.com - if you wanna write)

cheers,
Nadia

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Jaffa says on Dec 23, 2004, 15:10:

cookbook - Tinto sorry,man, i just saw your link! LOVE IT! :) thanx, its very useful

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