In Texas they have a bowl of red, in Tucson I preferred a bowl of green, chili that is, Chili Verde. Chili Verde is what I make here in Boquete Panama. It takes a little work to find all the ingredients in Chiriqui, but for me it is comfort food and worth the effort.

My Chili Verde  does not win any prizes but I like it and it can be done with almost entirely local ingredients. This is not exactly the same as what I prepared for the Buenos Vecinos event, nor is it traditional, but it is my preferred method using what we have available here way south of Arizona.

Boquete Chili Verde con Puerco, the recipe, not the picture, I forgot to take a picture.

Scaled for 8 servings mas o menos

1.o kilo of Carne Lisa, boneless pork, usually from the leg, they say. Cubed in 1 cm cubes. I ground it for the cook off, but cubed is much better.

8 poblano chiles, fresh, usually at Super Baru or Romero, San Mateo in David. You can substitute canned green chiles if you can find them. I buy these when they have them, roast, skin and freeze for when I want them. The level of heat varies a great deal with the local Poblanos but they tend toward mild.  You can kick it up with a couple of chopped Jalapeños which you can usually find in the same places.

1 -2 Tbs lard or if you insist vegetable oil

1 large onion chopped

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1tsp of cumin

4 chopped Culantro leaves (Cilantro is good too)

1 can 15oz of cubed tomatoes, drained or better some blanched, skinned roma tomatoes, remove the seeds and cube.

200 grams mas o menos of tomatillos, chopped fine or pureed, hard to find here, in a pinch use a can of green mexican salsa, I do.

A six pack of Balboa or other lager, don’t waste the dark beer on this, drink it instead.

salt

some flour as needed

some corn meal, I like the Arepas corn meal because I have it in the house.

Ok the fun starts now

You need to fire roast the chilies, here are a few techniques.

1. Using insulated thongs hold them over a gas flame, rotating until charred evenly and then put them into a covered heatproof ceramic or glass container and cover adding them until all are done.

or

2. Put them on a tray under a broiler, turning as needed to char and them,  then put them into a covered heatproof ceramic or glass container and cover adding them until all are done.

Let them sit until cold and the skin will come off easily. Wash and removed stems and seeds.

Chop the chilies and if you have a food processor turn half into a pulp, leave half chopped.

Cookery

Next heat up a heavy dutch oven or a big heavy frying pan with a lid on the stove, add the lard and then the pork chunks. You want to brown the pork so if necessary do it in batches. Remove the pork and add the onions and garlic. Sauté until translucent but not brown. Then add enough flour to absorb the lard and cook a little more to cook the flour.

Return the pork and any juices from the pork. Add the tomatillos, cumin, culantro, the chile both the puree and chopped and one can of beer, less the can of course. Open a second beer for consumption because this is hard work.

Cover and simmer until the pork is falling apart. I like to use a pressure cooker because I hate waiting, usually about 30 minutes of pressure works vs. hours of simmering on a stove and that way I still have some beer left for dinner. Or you can use a crock pot and lament the long term delay in eating.

Add salt to taste and enough corn meal to thicken the sauce. The corn meal adds a pleasing texture. The beer adds flavor and drinking it makes the entire experience worth doing, over and over.

Break out the tortillas or serve over rice and enjoy with any remaining beer.

Dorado is a great firm fish, also known up north as Mahi Mahi it is splendid to see fresh out of the ocean. the photo below is of Mayra’s daughter Karina on a fishing trip we made some time ago. This Dorado was assimilated a long time in the past, but memories still stir desires to find more like it.

Todays recipe is made from a Dorado I bought whole from the back of a pickup in Bajo Boquete, it was $2 a pound, whole. I asked the vendor to fillet it and he had broke out the knife and board.

If you do not know how to pick a fresh fish from a vendor this old post has some hints. LINK

I took the filets and the skeleton and head too. They made for a great fish soup, but that is another story.

Thai Curried Dorado with Langostinos in a clam and curry sauce

Ingredients

Dorado filetes

Cleaned langosintos

cleaned, rewashed almejas, clams

Red and green bell peppers, Julianne

Thai yellow curry

cooking oil and butter

flour

Coconut milk

cooked rice as a side is perfect

I found the curry in Panama City at Foodie in Bar Harbor center, Patilla

I like to dust the fillet with some flour to give it a crisp exterior

In a heavy frying pan melt some butter and add some olive oil. The butter helps browning, and pan fry the fish until it is done.

At the same time mas o menos, put 1 tbs of cooking oil into a heavy saucepan. Heat at medium and add some of the chili paste. How much is a guess base upon your heat level lust. I like a bit less than one tablespoon. Stir fry the chili until it is aromatic, not too long.

Add about half a cup of the coconut milk and stir until it boils. Add the langostinos and the clams. Then cook about five minutes or until the langostinos are turning pink. Add the vegetables and and the rest of the coconut milk. Bring back to a boil and give them about another five to seven minutes at a simmer. You want them cooked through but not rubber.

Plate the fish and rice, put the langostinos on the fish and pour the clam curry sauce over the fillet. Then savor the aroma. Sake is a great accompaniment and you can now get in at Romero.

Many of my friends here depend on the local restaurants for daily sustenance, I prefer preparing food at home. Using traditional recipes as a baseline and innovating with locally available ingredients is always fun and sometimes makes for a great meal or in this case appetizer. I am not a professional chef, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, I am just a hungry man.

Before Bob and Pon returned to Thailand I asked Pon for some advice on making some of her dishes. One I always enjoyed was the simple Thai summer roll, very similar to the Vietnamese summer roll. Today I made some Panamanian summer rolls, the only difference being what I put inside them were things I could buy locally and in David.

The Panama summer roll is fresh, not fried (which almost disqualifies it from bearing the name Panama) and can include what ever you can stuff into rice paper wraps. Here is what I did this morning.

Ingredients:

Rolls
Fresh Ginger, Shredded
Fresh Carrot grated
Fresh Bell pepper, Julianne
Fresh cucumber, Julianne
Fresh avocado, Julianne
Frozen Faux crab, precooked shrimp would be better but I didn’t have any.
Rice sticks
Rice paper wraps

These are the ingredients you will need to find in David in a Chinese market.

Rice Paper Wrapper

Rice Sticks

Dipping Sauce: This is Vietnamese
For the peanut sauce:
3/4 cup natural-style creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 1 1/2 medium limes)
4 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons chile-garlic paste
1 medium garlic clove, mashed to a paste
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Step one prep the sauce, I have a stick blender with a bowl so I just added all the pieces and made a puree. It is thick, spicy and habit forming. I think it will work well with grilled chicken and fish too. The sauce can be made in advance and kept refrigerated.

Then the rest. Clean, cut slice or grate the vegetables. Slice the faux crab or fut use small shrimp that are precooked and chilled.

Take the rice sticks and soak them for 3-4 minutes in cold water. Then add them to salted boil water and cook about three minutes until soft. Remove them and let them cool to room temperature.

Ingredients for Panama Roll

Next you will need a big bowl of warm, not hot water to hydrate the rice paper. This is the only part that requires a delicate touch. Put the rice paper into the bowl and as soon as it is pliable remove it to a clean cutting board or other work surface. If you wait too long it will fall apart so it might take a few sheets to get it right.

Ready to roll

Now for all you Mexican chefs comes the burrito roll. Layer you ingredients in the the lower 1/3 of the rice paper. then fold the end in to the center and roll as tight as you wish. When done it will look like this. You can refrigerate the rolls and serve them cold.

a Panama Roll

The nice thing is that there is no such thing as a Panama Summer roll, so you can add anything you like. Probably the most traditional might be shredded cooked chicken breast, rice, lentils, culantro and some mayo! Play, innovate and enjoy.

You can get the Rice paper, rice sticks, Hoisin and chili garlic in David at Casa Lisa or any other Chinese market.

This morning I decoded to make Arepas for breakfast and I thought about how many times people have asked me about them. Many people buy them at the Tuesday market and I make them at home. They are easy to make and tasty. I decided to reprint this simple guide to Arepas with some enhancements based upon my preperations.

The history of Panama and Colombia separated about one hundred years ago. Before the US decided to acquire the ill fated French attempt at building the Panama Canal, Panama existed as a provence of Colombia. It is therefore no surprise that many of the traditional foods in Panama came from Colombia. If you go to the Tuesday market you can try an Arepa or if you are willing to get your hands wet make some yourself in minutes.

One very traditional food here is the tortilla, if you are familiar with tortillas from Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador or Guatemala, these are not the same thing. The Panamanian  tortilla asado is a direct descendant of the Arepa of Colombia, it is the same thing thinner and dryer.

Arepas are simple to make, tasty, moist inside and have lots of cheesy calories and protein, no meat here, no vegans either.

The ingredients are:

Donarepa, which is a precooked, dried, corn flour and some grated queso fresco or mozzarella cheese

1 cup precooked corn flour  (A dry corn, maize, flour, precooked and dried. There are many brands in Latin American markets including Romero. Look for a fine corn flour that is precooked, the word is precocida. It will usually say for Arepas.) I prefer the white corn but white or yellow will work and both taste really good.

1 cup of grated fresh cheese, Queso Fresca in Panama, try mozzarella in the US, it might work, farmers cheese or a Mexican queso fresca would be better.

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs of cooking oil or melted butter, butter is better

1+ cup of warm water

Mix all the ingredients together continuing to add water until is a smooth paste that you can form into a ball. You can do golf balls, tennis balls but not basketball sizes.

Heat a flat oiled grill over low heat, and put the ball on the grill flattening it down to about 1/3″  thickness. The moister the batter and the thicker the Arepa the better the texture and flavor. You want them moist inside and crunchy outside when done.

Panamanians overcook tortillas asado until they are dry inside. The Colombian version is moist and cheesy, much better. So look for bubbling on the surface and golden brown against the grill. Flip them and when browned on both sides they are ready to eat hot from the grill.

golden brown and delicious.  Enjoy for breakfast, I do.

I am very partial to tamales, the type I found in Tucson, Arizona, these are differnet.

Panama has a very distinctive way of preparing Tamales. Unlike the Mexican Tamales the wrapping is either a Biajo or Banana leaf. The fillings also vary. Tamales are always a lot of work so make them in quantity and freeze them for a rainy day.

Tamales Panamanian style

Ingredients:

1. Whole Chicken
2. 12 small sweet chili peppers
3. 2 cloves crushed garlic
4. 6 coriander leaves
5. 1 onion, chopped
6. ¼ teaspoon black pepper
7. 2 cubes chicken bullion
8. 1 can tomato paste (6oz-174g)
9. 2 boxes of raisins 1 ½ (600 grams)
10. 1 small jar of olives
11. 2 tablespoons capers
12. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
13. 1 can tomato sauce 170 gr (6 oz)
14. 1 can of 241g green peas (8 ½ oz)
15. 2 pounds new milled corn, fresh corn cut off the cob
16. 24 leaves of banana or Bijao
17. 1 ball of cooking twine
18. Salt to taste

How to prepare:

1. Cook the corn until smooth. Drain and then grind to a paste. Put aside for now.
2. Cut the chicken into pieces. Saute the chicken with peppers, onions, cilantro, garlic, pepper and salt. Then add the tomato paste, tomato sauce and bouillon cubes. Cook it 10 minutes, then add enough water to cover the chicken well. Cover and let cook over low heat until soft. Add raisins, olives and capers and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Finally Add in the peas. If you have too little liquid add a little more. This cooking liquid will be added to the corn to make a masa.
4. Separate the chicken from mix, remove from the bones, shread and mix it back in. This is part of your filling. Drain extra liquid and reserve for the masa.
5. The other part of the filling comes from adding some of the cooking liquid to the ground, cooked corn and making it into a paste, a masa.
6. Wash the banana leaves, then insert them into a pot of boiling water and drain immediately. Cut the twine, long enough that you can to tie up the tamale. On each sheet is poured a spoonful of the masa dough.  Then some chicken followed by more dough, then wrap and tie. Repeat this procedure until all the dough used.
7. In a large pot of boiling water add and cook tamales an hour. When you are ready to serve them out.

I would really like to write about the Monsanto Protection act, but I am too frustrated to bother. Instead how about a healthy repast, unless the mercury gets you.

Ceviche Panama Style

This is a dish made with Corvina, a sea bass common in Panama. Ceviche is found through out the region and is fish “cooked” in citrus.

2 pounds Corvina filets raw

3 cups fresh green lime juice

2 cups thinly sliced onion

4 cloves mashed garlic

1 fresh hot pepper (not sauce)

1 tablespoon salt

Cut the fish into very small pieces. Mix with salt, onion, garlic and place in a glass bowl. Add the green lime juice and fresh hot pepper. (Note: Cut the pepper in half. Remove the seeds. It can be chopped of left in bigger pieces that it can be easily removed before serving.) Mix well and make sure green lime juice covers fish. If more juice is needed it add it.

Cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Make sure to use only glass to marinate the fish as the liquid will react with metal or plastic. Remove the hot pepper.

Serve over lettuce leaves, accompanied by saltine crackers. As an appetizer this is 10-12 servings.

This is my favorite Guacho and although you can occasionally find it in a typico or seafood restaurant they tend to skimp on both seafood and heat.

Guacho de Mariscos or Camarones

guacho de Mariscos

Photo from Las Tinijas in Panama City

6-8 servings

Ingredients

2 cups long grain rice, soaked

Water

Extra virgin olive oil

About 8 cups seafood broth (see below)

2 cups frozen mixed seafood or cleaned shrimp, cut into mouth sized pieces (hold the shells for the broth)

salt

2 cups sofrito (below)

sofrito:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 cup yellow onions, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped fine

1 clove garlic, crushed

3 green onion sprigs, finely chopped

3 ripe tomatoes, finely diced

1 chopped habenero chili without seeds or other source of heat

salt and a pinch of sugar

Make the seafood broth: Use the skins from the shrimp or  a fish head.   Bringing to a simmer with plenty of water, 1 clove garlic, culantro (cilantro is a substitute), 1 carrot, salt & pepper. Strain and set aside. If necessary you can use packaged seafood or shrimp broth, be aware of the high salt content in the packaged broth.

Soak the Rice in water for 20 minutes to an hour.

Make the Sofrito:

In a medium pan heat the oil and add the onions and bell pepper, cook them until soft before adding the garlic and green onions. Then add the tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, rice and chile, lower the temperature and allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes.

Assembly

Add olive oil to a large large sauce pan and add the drained rice, mixing to cover the grains. Then add the sofrito and seafood broth. Mix and cook covered on a low flame until the rice is almost done. Check in 25 -20 minutes.

Then add the seafood stirring and continue to cook until done adding more broth as necessary. The goal is almost a porridge, thick and glutenous.

You want to rice to get more done than usual, overcooked.  Keep warm.

Thank you to Anamaris Cousins, for permission to use her recipe. She blogs on Latin American Cuisine at Chef it Yourself.