November 2010 - Chile

No we didn't disappear :) Somehow I lost the "hat" with all the country names in it and until it mysteriously turned up next to my bed the other night (I suspect gremlins) we had to put our dinners on hold. In the meantime we were trying to decide on our next country and then we saw the most uplifting story in the news. I think that the whole world was amazed by the fortitude and bravery of those miners stuck down that Chilean mine for over two months. The thought of it alone makes me shiver with claustrophobia. Anyway their rescue was our inspiration for our Chilean feast and luckily since we have now found the hat, we can carry on as before, hopefully without too much interruptions.
So our meal for the night was :

Porotos Granados (Lentil Soup)

Pastel de Choclo (Corn and Meat Pie)

Chilean Salad

Dessert Empanadas

Firstly, wow what a soup! It was filled with dried lima beans (soaked over night) and a can of navy beans. It was very thick and could quite happily have been the meal on its own but it tasted delicious. The recipe was a combination of these two online recipes: http://www.food.com/recipe/porotos-granados-97309 and
http://www.food.com/recipe/porotos-granados-bean-stew-134188. 

The corn and meat pie was interesting as it includes both chicken and mince meat in the ingredients as well as olives, raisins and corn. All of which sounded like quite a weird combination on paper but in reality was very palatable (and I don't even like olives). It tasted somewhere halfway between a cottage pie and a South African bobotie. The recipe came from http://recipeland.com/recipe/v/Pastel-De-Choclo-Chilean-Corn-and-Meat-Pie-9589. There were slightly less olives added and more chicken than what the recipe suggests as it was made in one dish rather than as separate pies. 

The accompaniment to the pie was a basic Chilean salad which would be ideal at a barbeque or any summer meal. It is very light and refreshing and the basic flavours all stay very true. http://www.food.com/recipe/chilean-salad-167760

For dessert we had apple empanadas with vanilla ice-cream. Empanadas are little pastries and these were delicious with a crunchy cinnamon sugar coating and delicate cream cheese flavour. The recipe came from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/empanadas/Detail.aspx and the filling was canned apple blended with cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon juice. The pastries were rolled in a  mixture of white sugar and cinammon before baking.

All in all we really enjoyed our Chilean adventure and it has also been added to our list of possible holiday destinations. 

NEXT MONTH: FIJI