August 08, 2008

[ Nobody says it like Mafalda ]

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posted by {imaginativa} @ 9:31 AM 1 comments

May 17, 2008

[ Random Thinking ]

Knowledge is power.

In my life there has been a fair amount of blog reading lately, from the adventures of a little patechucho in El Salvador to the Venezuelan political tribulations to cars, marketing, food and everything in between.
This blog has always been out of focus and it is meant to be a collection of whatever I am interested at the time or a record of what I have found interesting. So, you could say that by being unfocused I have focused the blog into something of a mess (much like the inside of my head).

unifinished thought...

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posted by {imaginativa} @ 12:06 AM 0 comments

March 31, 2008

[ Shopping, eating and visiting friends ]


Cuba Libre. At my return from a happy trip of shopping, eating and visiting family and friends, there were news of Castro, the new Cuban President Raul Castro lifting the shopping ban from his country´s citizens. I was overjoyed by the news, imagine all these poor Cuban people having the exreme pleasure of buying stuff. Stuff they could do without for so many years, stuff they couldn´t afford, yet they lined up at the stores to look at the stuff. The stuff means so much more than participating in the global sport of shopping, being able to buy whatever you want means freedom. But you are only free to buy when stuff is affordable and you are able to work to afford stuff.

I am watching out for less fluffy news from Cuba about the government allowing people to work with proper wages.


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posted by {imaginativa} @ 9:56 AM 0 comments

January 04, 2008

[ Tamales Vs. Hallacas ]

After going hunting for a few ingredients and following a recipe, I got ready to make tamales. Back home in El Salvador people eat tamales all year through, but in Venezuela hallacas (the tamal equivalent) is only eaten during Christmas. Because it is a holiday tradition I decided to try and make them myself. (Brave I know) I asked my mother-in-law if she wanted to help and she happily agreed.

Friday morning 8 a.m.

After boiling a whole chicken with the typical onions, tomatoes, celery, garlic and salt, I moved on to take the meat off the bones and prepare the stuffing for the tamales. I took my time and made sure it was well seasoned.

A couple hours later I took some harina pan and started to mix it with a wodden spoon with the chicken broth and some corn oil, after it was done I left it sitting there covered until it is completely cool.

The day progressed and the time to wrap them came, that´s when my mother-in-law came in the picture. I wanted to do a traditional tamal. Stuffed with chicken, potatoes, olives, chickpeas and peas, but no, I was informed I was not wrapping my tamal properly, that hallacas are wrapped with banana leaves and then tied with a string, I was also not stuffing them properly, because tamales are to be like hallacas with capers, raisins, and right before you are ready to wrap you ad a slice of red peppers and a bit of onion, oh take off the peas as well. Trying to be gracious I let her do as she wished and stuffed, wrapped and tied the tamales as hallacas.

We put them in water to boil for an hour or so. We let them sit for a couple hours and when we served them, they were amazing. (Well for my first time ever making tamales/hallacas they were absolutely marvelous)

And so, we created a new tamal/hallaca tradition at home.

 Interesting fact: the word tamal comes from nahuatl and it means wrapped (envuelto)

This is the tamal recipe, translated from spanish:

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes 85 tamales)

-4 bags of harina pan or maseca
-4 chickens
-2 lbs. potatoes
-2 can of petit pois
-2 lbs. tomatoes
-3 large onions
-5 green peppers
- 3 Celery branches
-2 bottles of corn oil
- 8 oz chicken broth
- 2 garlics
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 1 can of green olives
- Paprika
- Salt

- 24 banana leaves

A. CHICKEN STUFFING
Put the chickens in water, salt, onion, tomatoes, celery and garlic and boil until meat is tender.
Let everything cool off and separate the chicken from the broth. Remove the meat from the bones.

B. SALSA
In the blender put all the cooked veggies, from the ckicken, salt and paprika, some chicken broth and extra tomatoes to make the salsa.
In a hot pan with a bit of oil put some finely chopped onions, drop the chicken cut into little pieces and the salsa. Move it constantly until it is fully cooked.

C. MASA or DOUGH
Put the harina pan or maseca in a large pot, add the chicken broth. In a separate dish, mix some oil with paprika and add as needed. Do not stop stirring the dough while it cooks and make sure you stir it with a flat wodden pallette. Once it is cooked, put aside and cover with plastic, let it cool completely.

D. VEGETABLE STUFFING
Peel the potatoes and boil until tender, once they are fully cooked, cut into small cubes
Drain olives, chickpeas and peas.

E. WRAPPING
In a large pot, boil some water. Take the banana leaves and put them in for about 10 minutes, so that they become flexible. Take them out and dry them properly.

F. TAMALES DESIGN
Take a large banana leaf of 30 x 40 cms (appr.) put about half a cup of dough in it, making in to a bowl shape. In the middle add some chicken and salsa, potatoe, chickpea, olive, peas and firmly wrap it. (some people like to tie them with string)

Once you are finished wrapping all the dough, you are ready to cook them. Take a large pot and put a couple banana leaves at the bottom, add the wrapped tamales and cover them with fresh water. Boil for about an hour.

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but they are delicious!

TIP: Tamales taste better after a few hours of having made them.

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posted by {imaginativa} @ 10:06 AM 1 comments

September 13, 2007

[ 54. Coffee ]


Things I love continued...

The irony of my life is that, I love Canadian coffee. I live in South America and I can't find a nicely brewed cup of coffee that does not come from a little machine that says Nescafe. It is a well known fact that latinamerica produces cacao beans, coffee beans and sugar, only for these products to be exported processed and sold back to at much much higher prices. And so Canada does get great arabica beans, and so I can't find a nice cup of coffee here. And I am in desperate need for some...
(written during a tragic moment of insomnia)

And funny enough I am waiting to travel to Colombia in hopes to satisfy my vice... more to come.

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posted by {imaginativa} @ 12:01 AM 2 comments

May 29, 2007

[ Venezuela: the new adventures! ]

Two weeks after arriving to Valencia from Toronto and I am slowly getting used to the city. The traffic, the population, the trees, the mountains, the walking around, and the culture adjustment are just some of the things that differ this city from Toronto. It is hard not to compare countries, city and people, since what I know is the starting point to come to understand my new home. I have stopped asking WHY? as I did on my previous trip, but saying, -Ah, I get it. Whereas on the previous trip it was a chance to relax, this time around it is a chance to discover a whole new world.

A world where gas is less than $0.25 a litre, but a used car from the 70´s is still running and worth more than $6000, a world where everyone loves mayo, pork and sweets, but looks amazingly fit. Food is so beautifully imperfect and delicious, and 1% milk here, tastes so rich and sweet.

In a world tragically beautiful and full of paradoxes, I am pretty sure I will discover so much more, but in the meantime I am just absorbing in it all in and taking in what I want and continuing to do certain things the Canadian way. After all, this is the same I did when I first arrived to Toronto.

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posted by {imaginativa} @ 8:33 AM 0 comments