Busy Busy Busy

Two days since posting! This is kind of like all the diaries I've kept since childhood. I've kept myself busy these past few days. A visit from my friend Johanna always brightens me up and lets me be my immature self. She inevitably sleeps over when she's at my place, and vice versa. I ended up on an overnight visit to see her mom, sisters, and dogs, which is always relaxing.

Thursday morning found my in Northern Virgina at 7:45, with a pre-school graduation to attend by 10 AM back in Wheaton! My commuting expertise got me there by 9:59, and I enjoyed an afternoon with my family.

Then I was off to begin my first day of volunteering at the local library. A job is kind of difficult to find when one has to leave for A MONTH in the middle of suffer, thus volunteer work if my cup of tea. I'm always glad to keep busy, and now that I'm home for the evening, I feel like I can fully deserve a nice relaxation session, with some TV tossed in. Hope everyone else is equally productive!

Why am I up this early?

nuff said

Coming Soon

The quintessential peruvian dish: Ceviche

Mastering the Art of Peruvian Cooking

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It's been a while since I've attempted a new Peruvian dish. From spicy to sweet, all of these childhood dishes hold a spot in my heart, and I am determined to learn them all to perpetuate their existence for everyone else!

Today's challenge was a painstaking dish, Papa Rellena. It's basically mashed potatos molded back into their potato shapes, but not without being stuffed with a nice ground beef filling! The result?

Sooo good!

Unfortunately, this is not the end result of my own endeavors, but I did a pretty damn good job. Let me showcase my quest :

I started with the ingredients. My mom set 'em out for me, so at around 11:30 I was ready to start cooking, dicing, etc. etc.

About 2 cups of raisins, soaked for at least 10 minutes. It might be weird to see such sweet raisins in a lunch/dinner dish, but these seal the deal when it comes to the flavor I've learned to expect.

4 medium sized onions - You've got to dice them. I dreaded this fact.

3 cloves of garlic - If you don't have garlic (or onions for that matter), this dish can not be made!

About 1.5 Pounds of ground beef. Yummy!

POOOOTAAAATOOOOOOES - 5 pounds. Preferably, Yukon Gold potatoes are great for all the mashing and molding you'll to with them. I had small to medium sized potatoes, and I counted about 20. I thought I snapped a shot of them in the pot, but I guess I lied to myself...

10 Eggs, for two different purposes!

Flour - whatever kind works, I havent seen this being an issue.

A slightly less conventional ingredient, Aji amarillo is basically air dried peppers ground into a paste. This comes in a yellow and red variety, I actually ended up using both generously.

So what to do now? Let's start from the beginning. The meat should be thawed, and ready to put on heat. The potatoes and 6 eggs should be put in a large pot to boil and cook. Meanwhile, I got a start on the veggie prep, including the dicing of the onions (SUCKY) and garlic. My diced garlic can be seen above, and I slaved trough the onions with several tiny breaks for fresh air and eye wiping...

Dicing it pretty small is how you've got to go!

I got the eggs hard boiled and out of the way, Cooked the potatoes until they were ready to mash (meaning a fork enters them easily). We've always cooked them peeled to get them as soft as possible without having them fall apart. The trick here is to peel them quickly while they're HOT which sucks. It's great to have a helper to work on those, but I was riding solo so my cook time was drastically increased. My mom brought a mashed from Peru with her, and it's been working like a dream for more than 15 years.

Of course 5 pounds of potatoes is a whole bunch, so once they're all mashed and ready to go they go straight into a large bowl.

Mashing them about a bit more and TADA

Pretty much ready to cook...

So everything was nice and ready to go! We had the onions, finely diced. Potatoes, properly mashed, Raisins soaked and DRAINED, Meat ready to cook, Garlic properly and even the hard boiled eggs are chopped and set aside. This is just the PREP! Ugh Ugh I was already tiiired.

Oil heated, ready to fry some garlic (about 2/3 tablespoons).

My mom always tells me - once the garlic is nice and golden, you're ready to toss in everything else! I began by browning the ground beef, and then adding the onion.

I added some other spices at this time, including salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika to taste. A perfect level of salt was not too important right now, considering:

• more ingredients (the aji paste from above, raisins, and eggs were still to be added)
• Other elements of the meal (the potato, rice, etc) will also be salted.

At this point in the cooking, the flavor and texture was starting to come together, but the focus now was the color.

This is where the aji paste came to action, as it does in various of our meals.

Big difference! And of course it's pepper paste, so it adds its own flavor to the dish. After the meat and onions were properly cooked, I added the grapes, which were mixed in and allowed to cook for a few minutes.

The filling was starting to look soooo familiar! It was heavily complemented once I added the eggs, which brought out the color contrasted to the whites.

Filling complete! Now that this was done, I quickly set up the potatoes for the next step. The large bowl of mashed was put center stage, and here I brought out a plate with flour, a-la-picture-below

The cutting table was out to get my molded potatoes to a resting spot before the last step (frying). I sprinkled this with flour to avoid sticking or falling apart.

The next step was to stuff and mold the potatoes. It's difficult to explain, and VERY hands on, so I had my sister take shots, fortunately!

I start by taking a nice handful of potato in one hand. A larger scoop of ice cream would be a good size reference (none of my mom's recipes have measurements, yet both of our dishes almost always taste the same :D).

Flattening it out like a pancake...about the size of your whole hand (this one is in the process of being flattened) and without being too thick - once these are done, I wouldn't want to take a whole bite of potato! Then, taking a spoonful of stuffing/filling and placing it in the center of the pancake....

And using both hands to close it together.

Then adjusting it so that there are no cracks of food coming out, and assuring an even shape. (Rebuilding the potatoes!)

The end result you can see on the cutting board up there, but a perfect little potato!

Repeat. This is where the going got tough, but the tough got going! (i.e. where I usually helped my mother with the dish - riding solo? DIFFERENT STORY)

30 minutes laterrrrrr... But then I got the hang of it and finished up quick - even took a break to make some rice to have ready for meal serving time. This is where I got the ONLY OUNCE OF HELP. my brother came home from school and I asked him to get started on the egg beating - the remaining 4 eggs of the original ten were used here (I actually threw some of it out, so I'll probably use 3 next time). My mom emphasize and overemphasized how well the eggs had to be beaten before being used. She said they had to have a watery texture (NO SIGN OF ANYTHING ELSE)

See? I have prettier hands than that...The eggs were then move to a better bowl and properly beaten, I took a video to show the consistency. (Note the ABBA in the background yeahhh)

The eggs are the final step before frying the potatoes.

Soon after, all the potatoes were ready to go, slightly floured and all laid out!

The next step after that was to begin the frying. A small, old frying pan was used, with generous amounts of oil (about 1/1.5 inches deep!) This was left to heat up for a few minutes, until it started to sizzzzzzzle! Then, I was ready to drop the Po-tay-toes in the frying pan. My mom was very strict on the rules to do beforehand.

1. Make sure the potatoes are properly floured (I didn't do this at first, ignoring my grandma's remarks from the distance. The eggs melted off and the potatoes soon fell apart.) See? ->
2. Take a properly floured egg and place it into the egg bowl, properly submerging all parts of potato under egg.

Considering I failed at properly flouring my egg the first time, I corrected the damage and compared them.

There's a difference in the outcomes of these potatoes.

So once the oil was heated, the floured and egged potatoes were ready to go! I placed each of them carefully in the oil, without squishing them or anything. These were flipped over and removed in a timely manner, less than 4 minutes. I put about 4 potatoes in the pan at a time, 20 total.

A larger spoon or whatever I was using proved to be sufficient for turning over the potatoes and removing them from the frying pan. Excellent! I also had to be very gentle, as two of the potatoes were fails when I was not. This one split open :(

Potatoes are removed into a final dish, which has paper towels or napkins at the bottom to absorb any of that obnoxious grease (yeah it's not the healthiest meal).

There was leftover stuffing, which I proceeded to serve with the Food. In the end the dish was made up of rice, potato, and the left over stuffing, and it was great! I was really happy with the outcome,a nd my parents were excited that I was able to make this difficult dish on my own. Yeah I started at around 11:30, and the dish was pretty much done a bit before 4. TOUGH COOKIES.

The finished product!

SRSLY GUISE

What else would I be watching?

reventando los sabados

oh you know, just Peru's idea of entertainment. What I enjoy when i'm home with my mommy. say hello to CHOLA CHABUCA, only the most impressive public figure in Peruvian entertainment. Basically the most beloved cross-dresser in Latin America, I've been watching Chola Chabuca's variety shows since I can remember. She's hilarious, and when not in costume, is actually a pretty good Salsa artist. Although loved, la Chola is actually controversial at times, yet perpetually influential. Recently diagnosed with AIDS, she's become a powerful advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness.

In a Catholic, traditional Latin American country, a succesful entertainer of this type seems almost an anomaly, but la Chola is most definitely an exception we've all come to know and love. Just check her out on TV one of these days, she gets pretty crazy and hilarious!

Well, SHEWT

It's been a few days, hasn't it? Well there hasn't been much to report, 'cause I've been doing NOTHING. At least until today. 

I took my little cousin out to the zoo this morning. No biggie, considering i've taken care of her since she was little and she, of course, loves me. Also, I've been to the zoo a thousand times, considering - YOU KNOW, 200 FEET FROM IT?

So yeah, I figured it'd be no biggie but the trip became IMPOSSIBLE! My little cousin did NOT want to walk the instant she saw the stroller I brought along for emergencies. I had a constant battle with her over that, and then she needed to pee, it got really hot, and the zoo was just sucky suck in general. For those who may know what i'm talking about (along with the chance of actually reading this blog simultaneously-1/5483927584902378590472389057492300), Valley Trail was closed which meant i had to walk up and down the same Olmsted Walk. Fun fact about the Zoo i've learned from 19 years of experience: the hills are worse on your walk back up Olmsted, that's what makes Valley Trail the exit flow.

UGHTOWN.

By the end of Olmsted on my way back, I got a pang of nausea, and next think you know, homegirl was sitting on a bench with HEAT EXHAUSTION - eff eff eff! I felt like I was about to pass out - every light got brighter, my vision blurred, and eve started going black. I hightailed it to what (fortunately) was a secluded patch of benches - sooo lucky the only ones there were anything-but-sympathetic teens sucking on their slurpees, probably ditching what would be a lammmmeeee field trip. I even vommed - YEAH GROSS LOGGED ON TO THE VOM.COM NETWORK (aptly labeled vom.com/nationalzoo...). Fortunately, grapes and my water bottle were there to save the day. Then i felt better and got Vace's. Then I found $5. AWESOME RITE RITE RITE. Boredom.