Cook with me!

I love cooking! I definitely did a LOT more eating than cooking in Cartagena, but now that I’m back home I’ve been preparing different foods and drinks to share some of the flavors that I had been enjoying in Cartagena with my family. Today I prepared pollo guisado, arroz de fideo, ensalada, y tajadas con jugo de guava = stewed chicken, rice with noodles (a common dish throughout a couple Latin American countries thanks to Lebanese immigration and influences), salad, fried plantain slices, and guava juice. This is a typical lunch that I would eat at an almuerzo corriente restaurant in Cartagena or at home. One interesting cultural difference to note is that in Colombia the largest and most important meal of the day is lunch rather than dinner, so I’m not kidding when I say I had to fight off food comas in the middle of the day when I was there! In the States it's the opposite, so I’m making this for my family for dinner, but regardless of when you eat it, this dish is delicious. Without further ado, let's get started!

I already had rice, chicken, and some spices at home, but needed to buy a few vegetables. First thing I did in the kitchen was wash and season the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, paprika, adobo with salt and a little bit of olive oil.

Browning the *fideos,* onion, and garlic

I set the chicken aside and started on the rice, by chopping up ½ an onion and grating 5 cloves of garlic. I heated up a pot with oil while I measured out 2 cups of rice and ¼ cup of fideos. I put the fideos in the pot and stirred them as they browned, I washed the rice, and then added the garlic and onion to the pot as well. When the fideos, garlic and onion became fragrant, I added the rice, a little bit of oil, and then sautéed the mixture for a little while. This step is something I learned from my host mom Mary, and I think it really is the key to flavorful rice. I also googled it, and apparently this also helps with improving the texture of the rice and preventing it from clumping together or sticking to the pan too much, so it's an extra step worth doing!

Another thing that Mary taught me is that you know you put the correct amount of water if you can stick a spoon in it and leave it standing. I added 1 and ½ cups of water (I always just add a little bit because my issue is that my rice sometimes turns out a little soggy) and tested to see if my spoon would stand and it did! I turned up the heat then lowered it down to a simmer, covered the rice, and hoped for the best.

Next, I moved onto the chicken. I started by cutting up vegetables to make a sofrito; white onion, green onion, tomato, red pepper, cilantro, and garlic. Sofrito Colombiano is also called hogao, and it's a sauce used to season meats or as a condiment on finished dishes.

I cut up the white onion, green onion, and tomatoes when I remembered about the rice (!!!) and checked up on it and this is how it looked.

I tasted some grains, and they were a little too hard, so I added a splash of water and replaced the lid for it to continue steaming. I cut up the rest of the ingredients for the sofrito and then used a blender to liquify them. Next, I heated up a large pan with oil, and cooked the veggie mixture for a little bit (it smelled delicious) before stirring in cumin, adobo with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Next, I continued with the pollo guisado by cutting up 2 carrots and half an onion. In a pot I browned the seasoned chicken a little bit in some oil, removed it to cook the carrot and onion for a little bit, then added the chicken back in and added about a cup of the sofrito too. I mixed everything up a then added 3 cups of water, a packet of sazón, put the lid on and left the chicken to stew on medium-low heat.

frying the chicken, vegetables, and *sofrito*

After that I moved onto the salad, and washed and cut up lettuce, tomato, and onion. I put the salad together, uncovered the chicken to help the sauce thicken. Next I heated up a pan with oil, cut the plantain into slices, and fried them.

This meal would not be legit without juice, so I finished up by washing, peeling, and blending 5 guavas with 3 cups of water and a little bit of sugar. Like I said before, guavas have a ton of seeds, so I strained the juice before storing it in the fridge to chill.

*Guavas* (these ones are white, but there is also a variety with pink flesh)

Lastly, I turned off the fire under the chicken, I cut up a little bit of avocado and sprinkled it with salt (thats how a lot of people eat avocado in Cartagena) and served a plate to photograph!

The food was delicious. My family loooooved it, and so did I! I’m so grateful to have been in a region with such delicious, flavorful food and for all my friends in Cartagena who gave me tips and pointers so that I would be able to prepare and share these foods with my family as well! ALSO, If you’re interested in seeing more recipes from Cartagena/the Caribbean coast of Colombia, I would recommend checking out accounts like @eddcabarcas and @said.eats on instagram!

DISCLAIMER: This site (octaviachristopher.com) is not an official Fulbright Program site. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations.

U de C

Almuerzo Corriente