~Sue
"Frisoles Antioquenos and Friends":
Colombian Red Beans - Frisoles Antioquenos
This is a regional specialty dish for those living in Antioquia Colombia, a region that spans from the mountainous regions around Medellin to the sea.
Map of Antioquia, Colombia
I first came across this dish hunting for recipes that include Roman/cranberry/red borlotti beans. I discovered it is almost a national dish, and that sometimes people also make it with pinto beans. It is also usually mad with ham hocks, but I chose to make it with a ham bone and extra ham chunks. I also made a few personal adjustments regarding the chiles used in the salsas.
It is usually served with rice, and tastes like a Colombian version of red beans and rice, and they also serve it with avocado, which once you taste the beans, you understand the connection, and they also serve it with tomatoes and a hot sauce (I chose to use some salsa ranchera since I was making some anyway). They say if you serve it along with grilled steak carne asada it is a feast, and you bet!
The beans themselves are a bit thin at first but if you keep them overnight, and reheat the next day, they thicken up like a charm.
I'd never had beans that quite tasted like this but you can bet your bottom dollar I will from now on.
http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/colomb ... uenos-8848
Colombian Carne Asada
http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/colomb ... asada-8867
Original recipe called for fresh orange juice but all I had around was a grapefruit and yes, it works!
It is made with skirt steak but you can use flank or whatever.
The peppers in that photo are ones Bill has tried at a local Mexican place and he likes them. I found a recipe and it is pretty straightforward and easy- you can do them on a comal (cast iron griddle) or if you worry about the smoke from roasting peppers, do it outdoors on the grill. They are simply roasted, drizzled with oil, and seasoned with coarse salt. Not as hot as you might think, but then Fresnos aren't quite as hot as their green jalapeno cousins for some reason. I think that goes back to about ten years ago when growers were *dumbing down* the heat of the fresh jalapenos for the American palate, and developed the Fresno strain for commercial use then also. Since then, I have noticed that the Scovilles on the store-bought jalapenos have gone up slightly, so it may be backlash on the part of chileheads. But the Fresno is the same as always. But like any chile, they are not all created equal- growing conditions and even peppers growing next to each other on the same plant can vary wildly in the heat amount. Peppers growing in the hottest months of summer are the spiciest. Those in winter, the least.
Chiles Toreados - Roasted Hot Peppers
http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/chiles ... ppers-8865
Here is another recipe that is very much *me* as I have been stuffing peppers with everything from cheese to the kitchen sink for years, and no. Chiles rellenos need not be breaded to taste wonderful. You can probably find the yuca in many stores near where they sell jicama. It will look like an oversized brown carrot and probably dipped in wax. The wax pares right off, and the yuca/cassava root is like a potato, cooks like one, tastes almost like one, so potato is a good sub. I used three fairly large poblanos in this recipe, you can probably use 4 average sized ones- if you use other peppers/green chiles they will likely be a bit smaller and you would probably need 6-8 of those.
Poblanos: use three big or four medium
anaheims: use about 6, maybe 8
You can use Italian red sweet peppers too, they are deep red and about the size of the anaheims. They won't be very spicy but they have a deep rich flavor.
You'll want to use peppers big enough to stuff and the bigger the better, as you can fill them faster and roast them easier. A good rule of thumb is to choose large, stuffable peppers, and the more the end looks like a claw, the hotter it is. If it looks like a cat's claw, it's pretty hot, and if it is more rounded, it is milder. There are few exceptions to that but the rounded squat habaneros/scotch bonnets are an exception as they are extremely hot. But you can compare jalapenos to serranos next time you see them both and notice that the serrano is a bit hotter but it is more pointy at the end.
serranos-
which are skinnier and more pointy than say
jalapenos-
Hope I didn't bore you with all that.
Chiles Rellenos Stuffed with Yuca or Potatoes
http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/chiles ... atoes-8868
(didn't get quite as good a view of the yuca as I wanted, but it looks white, like mashed potatoes)Those chiles are topped with-
Salsa Ranchera
http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/salsa-ranchera-8866
which has a good amount of heat with the serranos, but if you like milder, cut the serranos/jalapenos out, not the poblano. The poblano gives excellent depth of flavor. You don't have to roast the chiles for the salsa, but you could if you wanted to. I used muir glen fire roasted tomatoes in this, but they can be a bit pricey, so if you have tomatoes and want to roast them yourself, you could save quite a bit, and those do freeze well.
The salsa ranchera is also the classic salsa typically served over huevos rancheros, hence the "rancheros" part.
I won't say the ranchera sauce is the best you'll ever eat, but I was right proud of that recipe when I tasted it. If nothing else, give the salsa ranchera a try. You'll be glad you did.
And as always, my friends, thanks for looking and bon appetit!
Comments always welcome.
