Creative Culinary

July
From New Zealand
Our friends from New Zealand were treated to a Lomo al Trapo, my style this week after a visit to the Panama Canal and a swim on a very sunny and hot day. We had a great time and a family style dinner.

Grillled Octopus-Pulpo al Carbón
Grilled Octupus is this summers greatest thing. Find the recipe to pre cook the octopus in my web page, this week´s recipe, www.creativeculinary.net and serve it with fresh baguette and dijon mustard. It´s all it takes for a great saturday light lunch.

Jorge Jurado at VISO
Chef Jorge Jurado takes charge of the kitchen at VISO restaurant in Panama City Panama. A great chef with delicious food for all of us to enjoy. We had different amuse bouche that included a salad with julienne of mango, and spiced zapallo or pumpkin soup and then for lunch we tried the black risotto, a corvina fish and the specialty of the day beef filled with blue cheese... they were all fantastic.

Peter´s Steak House- Jensen Beach
Peter´s Steak House in Jensen Beach, FLorida prepared beef as it should be. I could eat the whole 12 oz steak and that is a lot to say as I eat small portions. In season they make great lobster tails and prepare a real Cesar salad.

Secrets of Colombian Cooking at Border´s in Jensen Beach, Florida...
As I visited Jensen beach I found my book at the Border´s bookstore at the mall.. Just a memoir to keep.

Nature Way Cafe-Stuart
Nature´s Way Café in downtown Stuart is a nice place to go for lunch. They serve burgers and sandwiches in all types of bread from pita to sourdough. It is a nice place to take a stroll and look around the stores and eateries. If you get there by boat you might stop for a Hot Dog on your way without setting foot of your vessel.

Kilwin´s Stuart
Kilwin´s Chocolates and Ice Cream are the place to go on a hot summer afternoon. My favorite were New Orleans Praline and Cookies and Cream!!! They are divine.

Shrimper's- Stuart Florida
The past week we´ve been attending a boating course at Chapman School of Seamanship in Stuart Florida. We went for lunch three times to Shrimper´s It has delicious food, a great cocktail sauce for shrimp, tuna a my favorite light battered lobster. This restaurant is right on the water so the last time we went on our boats and had a great time meeting there. I suggest you go there in shorts or very comfortable attire as it is outside, although you are kept fresh with huge fans and sprinkled water.

Monica cooks
Titi Sales Bday was celebrated with the best of Middle Eastern food prepared by her mom Mónica. We had a whole banquet full of food, music and friends.

Tita´s 21st birthday
With a home made vanilla cake and white frosting and delicious passion fruit margaritas. To make the margaritas take three passion fruit and cut in half, transfer the pulp with seeds and all to a blender and blend for 10 seconds. Pass through a fine sieve and return to the blender. Add 3 cups of ice, 2 cups of water, 3 ounces of tequila, 1/4 cup of honey and blend to a fabulous drink. Check out the gift we had for her, a vintage coke we bought in a street market in Buenos Aires.

Paixão pelo Café goes into the 55,000 book print.
Paixão pelo Café the portuguese version of Gourmand and Independent Publisher´s Award winner now goes into its third printing for a total of 55,000 books. Great job for Random House´s CIRCULO DE LEITORES in Portugal Thank you

June
Grilled Miniature Squid
The best squid you can eat are the tiny ones called Chipirones in Argentina at OVIEDO Restaurant. Here we had them grilled and they were so tender you felt like having the king of seafood. This was our good bye restaurant in Argentina.

HACIENDA LOS AROLDOS
The northermost parrillada or meat restaurant we went to was HACIENDA LOS AROLDOS just great as most of the other ones too. Here they had an all cuts for two dish that included the famous roasted tomato. We also had the very best PANQUEQUE a thin crepe that is filled with dulce de leche and then caramelized with sugar in a pan. This is just divine, you can try it at home by filling the crepes and then placing some sugar in a nonstick pan and then placing the rolled and filled crepes over the lightly golden sugar and turning them so they become crisp on all sides...

IGUAZU FALLS, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
I GUAZU in Argentina and Brazil, very close to Paraguay. Three countries one river and one of the worlds largest waterfall the IGUAZU Falls a candidate for the 7 New Wonders od the World Foundation. In the street markets you can find homeprepared olives of all kinds and cheeses of the Bralizian and Argentinean regions

VOLTA Ice Cream
VOLTA ice creams! Try them...

AMICI MIEI
Miei Amici is a two floor restaurante in the middle of San Telmo, the place where most of the Antique shops hae their Sunday fair. It is bursitng with energy and people walking up and down the road. The food is great, the place is very interesting and great to buy silver antique pieces.

MARCELO en Puerto Madero
This large Italian Restaurant, with its ower reaching every single table to help take the order is really fun and you must make reservations. We were late four our 9 30 one and had to wait till 11 at night! We had a great time with friends from Cali, Colombia whom we met in Buenos Aires. We had all sorts of food from pizza to taglatelle made with calamari ink. The shrimp had this fantastic taste we all tasted them at the table.

Bar 6
Is a restaurant that opens from breakfast to evening drinks. A very interesting place with sofa seats between dining tables, also small dining tables for two in a second floor hallway. Lemonade was served with a sugared rim and lemon rind over the frapéd juice. Food was very good and they even have an ANTI PANIC MENU for those in a diet. I recomend it.

TUTTO PANE
Is another must go to place in Buenos Aires. Smack in the Recoletta Barrio you must stop here for yuca quickbreads, pan de queso and empanadas as well as for all you heart wishes as you get there.

LA EXPOSICIÓN
Is the pastry shop in La Recoleta neighborhood with the best alfajores in all Argentina!!! They prepare the flour ones as well as the cornstarch ones and both are to die for. They also sell a puff pastry cake filled with dulce de leche that they call ROJEL.

Cabaña las Lilas
Is a fantastic restaurant in Puerto Madero. The service is great, they offer a large variety of home made breads, the best empanadas and of course wonderful beef. They are the winners of my heart in the Pandebono and Pandeyuca which they call pan de queso, the variety of yucca quickbreads I am an expert in.

Café Tortoni
The oldest café in Buenos Aires is still a place where many people stop for coffee and pastry. Sitting in the popular Avenida de Mayo still after more than 150 years this café was usually visited by writers, singers, painters as well as the elite of the XIXth century.

Almendra y Maní Garrapiñado
All around the streets of Buenos Aires you will find vendor sugar coating all sorts of nuts. They are a great snack that can keep you nourished while walking the beautiful city and its historical sites.

Swearing to the Panamanian Flag
Isa and I are now officially Panamanian citizens.

La Brigada Argentina
Delicious beef and salad at La Brigada in Buenos Aires. We has great Asado de Tira and Entraña, vuelta vuelta, that is rare with a great tomato and arugula salad. This is a restaurant for locals with great ambience. They will cut your beef with spoons right there at the table.

May
New Visitor at Home...
A couple of nights ago as I was closing up my kitchen doors that face the garden I found this beautiful creature, a red frog, on my pane. So I had to take a picture to show you all. It was beautiful. And this is one of the reasons I love living in Panama.

Our husbands surprised us with MOTHERS DAY PARTY, on Saturday evening.
Something unheard of, nine men getting organized in secret to give us a dinner and dancing party. They bought the food, decorated the house, cooked, served and cleaned... WOW this was the best gift ever. We just sat and enjoyed the evening and then danced to the best music. The menu was a variety of chorizo cooked in coals, Beef in Hamock, Paella, and Jumbo Prawn in garlic butter sauce...... It could be better!

Argentina comes home
A little Argentina come home... Las night we had a delicious baked seasoned chicken with chimichurris, tomato salsa and grilled tomatoes. I also prepared the filling for the best empanadas which an argentinean friend gave me which I will make with my mother´s pastry recipe. The filling tasted divine and it is seasoning more in the fridge today.

Dads Cook for Moms
Sunday at the pool was a wonderful idea, but it got better when dads did the buying, cooking and cleaning!!! Chorizo with french bread, beef filet, and hot dogs were offered to us along with a variety of salsas and tostitos. We were offered drinks and a fun afternoon. We should do this more often.

Colombian Brunch
The past Saturday we were invited to Glenda´s house for a Colombian brunch fillled with our favorite foods. Empanadas, pork fritters, arepas, green plantain fritters, ají and avocado salsa, white farmer´s cheese, chorizo, coffee and soursop juice. As we sat around the table of goodies we celebrated Joseph´s birthday.

Fried Green Plantains
This is one of the few times where a packaged product is almost as good or better than the home made one... really they are very good. But you can make them at home too. Follow this recipe for tostones or patacones and press them really thin in the second step after the first frying. Serve them with Ají Valluno and Picadillo or Avocado Ají and give them to guests to enjoy. Congratulations to CHEVA product for this great Toston.

Lobster and Fresh Hearts of Palm
WOW... Summer is almost here... we celebrate being together with an evening grill of fresh lobster tails and fresh hearts of palm. Aunt Ilo dressed them with a drizzle of olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper. This was all that was needed to enjoy these very fresh foods and some good French Bread.

Colombian Panamanian Women´s Group
Colombian Panamanian Women, are a group of Colombian expatriates living in Panama who´ve been doing social work throughout town for the past 30 years. They meet monthly to organize themselves and this month´s meet included a cooking class at my place. I taught them a couple of recipes with coffee and had a great time together. Salmon with portobellos and coffee as well as capuccino brownies and passion fruit salad.

Breakfast in Subachoque
Hi everyone, These are some of the foods we had for breakfast at tios house in Subachoque. Eggs in caseroles, yellow corn arepas with white farmer's cheese, buñuelos, almojábanas and hot chocolate to warm up the cool morning. A big variety of bugs and birds hanging around to eat their breakfast too!

April
Best Waffles in the World
I had the best waffles I have ever tastes yesterday at the Swift House Inn in Middlebury Vermont. Breakfast is included in the room rate and it changes daily as we were able to experience. On the first day, we ordered french toast made on homemade brioche, eggs with cheddar and spinach and sausages. The three of us tried each other's dishes and they were delicious. Next day, yesterday we ordered, eggs again, belgian waffles and more belgian waffles . The waffles, though were something out of this world... light in the inside creamy and toasted on the outside. Served with Vermont pure Maple syrup this was an unforgettable breakfast experience. As we were told, sapping was just finished the past weekend. If you are ever around, go by the Inn and ask for the waffles, they are worth the ride. If your are in the area please stop by and enjoy this small Inn, that has wonderful service, beautiful rooms for you to choose the color and style and each with a fireplace to keep you warm.

IACP Closing Gala in Denver
Last night we attended the IACP award ceremony and the closing event to the 2009 conference in Denver. The evening opened with an artistic display of music and dance by a local group. They showed us all, the traditional form of expression (dance) of the locals, many years ago, before they were overpowered by what we might have thought to be development. Now in a conference whose theme was sustainability, it made us think and review each step we chose to take before we throw out the old, for a new that might not include our own roots and traditions. Especially now, that the world has gone global, it becomes more important to remember where we come from and to pass it along to our children, who one day, might need to grab what little there is and to create an identity of their own. As an expatriate of my country Colombia, I am glad to be able to express my culinary memory to all who want to learn and try, taking home some of what was once inherent and simply there. Pachi

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, MUGARITZ
One of the busiest chefs, working year round, looking t discover the marvels the world has to offer, came all the way to Denver to offer us a window into his art and life. It was magical to watch hime prepare potatoes that looked like rocks, reductions, infusions, extrations and other tecniques like sous vide and vacuuming to bring out the purest flavors in our food. We were taught that the mos exotic foods can be the ones we have around us every day. He prepared more than 12 dishes that kept us mesmerized during almost 3 hours. Thank you Andoni for coming all the way here to let us peak into the window of your cuisine and life. Pachi

IACP Inauguration
The IACP inauguration was last night at the Denver Museum of Art. It was a beautiful place, which had the west art wing open for us with many restauranteurs offering the best of their kitchens, all sustainable and delicious. We enjoyed the evening with music and art. Also the sight of a snowed Denver as we walked to and from the event.

Colombia in Denver
As I am traveling around the Denver food community I run along a man that looks at us and asks where we are from. He had told his wife we were surely form Colombia. This was Pete Marczyk at MARCZYC a fine foods store we stopped for goodies. I bought a delicious hot chicken soup with olive oil, salt toasted bread to warm up my Caribbean body in this cold 38F weather. I loved the store with all the different kinds of salsas, the beautiful cuts of meat and the chips to smoke fish or pork. The owner of this place, though I missed his name, had lived in Colombia, putting together a brewery in Cali and in the outskirts of Bogota. Do not miss Argonaut Liquors if you come to Denver either, it is the most wonderful wine store I´ve seen around.

March
Chicken in its juices
Chicken in its Juices is a very good kind of free range hen, that is cooked with lots of onion and tomatoes creating a delicious and aromatic tomato soup after the cooking time is over. I estimate after about 4 hours or more the hens are tender and have created an extremely tasty soup with the flavor of our creole sauce. This particular one was at the house of a famous cook Mrs. Hilda Cuero, in the outskirts of Cali in a town called Rozo. You have to reserve at through some reference and then this marvelous dish along with patacones and ají will be waiting for you to give you some extreme satisfaction.

Colombian Junk Food
Raspao o Cholado or Shaved ice with fruit and condensed milkThere is nothing better than a shaved ice with fruit, be it banana or lulo, red gunk we cal KOLA and condensed milk!!!! Another one of the children´s favorites, fries with fried wieners... It had been more than seven years since Dani had them, so lets enjoy.

Vallunas Turnovers with beef and pork
Recent family visit to Cali brings back great memories of the snacks we had every weekend! Empanaditas Vallunas at Club Campestre were always a delicious bite after sunday Holy Mass, or during an afternoon at the pool or golfing. Visiting with childhood friend Lucy Mary and great friend Nohora we enjoyed our empanadas with lime, ají, and also some with ketchup mixed with both ají and lime juice. Enjoy some of these wonderful empanadas making them one weekend. You can preapare the filling one day ahead of time and then the masa the day you want to fry them.Enjoy! Pachi

Tita´s favorite cheese empanadas
Isa is here for spring break and we took her to the beach. We stopped for one of Tita´s favorite foods, cheese empanadas at Queso Chela, a small store that sells the cheeses it produces. They make the best mozarella in Panamá and fantastic empanadas. Some 45 minutes from the city on the Panamerican Highway going north you will find Queso Chela. Take a cooler and bring home some very good fresh cheeses.Pachi

Saint Patrick Dinner Cena de San Patricia
An evening at Mónicas brings us together on St. Patrick´s day to welcome home children back for spring break! Colombian food like torta de plátano or plantain pie served along with middle eastern tabbouleh, tajine, kibbe, marmahón made for a great night. We all sat to eat this food that has become almost like our own as we savour it and enjoy eating it with friends. The great influx of people from the Middle East has made northern Colombians very close to their food which is offered even frozen in many markets around towns.more Colombian recipes on Secrets of Colombian Cooking or www.creativeculinary.net Pachi

Breakfast goes light! Desayuno a la ligera!
I offered Balu and Nubia a belated birthday breakfast with 10 other friends. Being that most are on weight watch, I decided to offer pretty healthy alternatives. Here goes the menu...Coffee or home made Mint tea Fresh fruit Plain yogurt with non caloric sweetener Passionfruit, banana and papaya juice Ham baskets filled with eggs, mushroom and dried tomatoes Whole wheat cheese muffins Whole wheat spinach muffins Whole wheat mini carrot cakes with pecans and last but not least Pandebono...Soon I will have the other recipes placed in our web page...Pachi

Breakfast at Paula´s with Pandebono
Paula invited us over to pandebonos for breakfast, along with coffee and tea. We also recieved some delicious ACHIRAS, a toasty bread and achira flour bakery product very similar in process to pandebono yet totally different in flavor and shape. Basically a mixture of the flour extracted from the achira plant, a tuber from the Andes, said to be one of the foods of the Incas. My grandmother Carmen, a native of Tolima one of the achira regions, used to bake them daily to lure us into her home. It worked as we always wanted to go see her make and bake them. Memories...

Publisher´s Weekly and Secrets of Colombian Cooking
Publisher´s Weekly had an article on Hippocrene Books and our cookbooks. My Secrets of Colombian Cooking 2004 was named one of the 5 best sellers of 2008. Check out the link and see how these International books sell throughout the years without falling off the shelves or the favorite lists. I constantly get emails talking about my recipes and how easily they are enjoyed by both expatriates and their descendants, husbands and wives of Colombians as well as people interested in knowing about Latin American cuisine. I am so happy and thankful to all the people that find joy in my recipes! Pachi

Ready for Lent
Yesterday I recieved and email that talked about how delicious the CAZUELA DE MARISCOS is and how the cook was praised for it. She asked me to have recipes in my web page for lent. I prepared the LIGHT AND LATIN recipe of this month last night and it will be part of the web page. Shrimp with Blackberry Cocoa Sauce, which is so simple to make, you only blend all the sauce ingredients and season the shirmp, sauté them for 2 minutes and serve. You can serve them hot or cold!!! Watch the Cazuela de Mariscos video on YOU TUBE

Febrary
Carnaval de las Artes
Best Cultural event in Barranquilla, associates our Carnaval and our historic multiracial traditions.I flew from Panama City to be at the 3rd Carnaval de las Artes, an event produced by Heriberto Fiorillo, a writer and all around genius who started this event three years ago. This is my second time around, and this year the theater where it is held was packed full.It is a 4 day long event where writers, musicians, anthropologisits and historians get together to tell us about themselves, about their work and live the life of my hometown for a week. There were 100 guests this year coming from all over the world. The opening included the actress Sylvia Kristel and the famous writer Roberto Saviano who´s book Gomorra talks about the Italian Mafia, as well as many others. The events entrance was free if you had some kind of costume which made it totally unexpected and open. You could also buy tickets if you decided to come with no Carnival on yourself.There was a whole section of the outskirts of the theater organized for children to explore with our culture and the ones of some of the guests, as it included CUENTEROS, story tellers and arts and crafts there for the children to enjoy.We will be waiting to back next year! Pachi

Food at the ARTS Carnival in Barranquilla
Food was wonderful at the Arts Carnival in my hometown. We were served BOLLOS DE MAZORCA or corn cakes, our way, cooked in cornhusks to a wonderful, slightly sweet and yet savory taste and topped with smoked salmon, BUTIFARRA our own peppery sausage served with BOLLO LIMPIO another kind of white corn cake.More recipes in my book Secrets of Colombian Cooking.Outside there were all sorts of food being sold on carts but we chose to have OBLEAS, which are made of 8 inch round cookies made of the same light mix of the mass´communion cookie, and filled with DULCE DE LECHE and eaten immediately so the cookie remains crisp.Have a look and remember....Pachi

Carnival Lunch ends the holiday
Bandeja Paisa ended the four day holiday of Carnavales!As we got together in Glenda´s house we enjoyed a total feast of our Colombian food. This bandeja paisa had all the ingredients plus great company and a beautiful summer afternoon. In Panamá this is the summer season, when the sky is the bluest and the wind moved the palm trees to create a wonderful relaxing sound.The BANDEJA PAISA had white rice, beans, chorizo, crispy pork cracklings or chicharrón, fried sweet plantains, beautifully seasoned ground beef, avocado, arepas, and fried eggs made to order.Take a look and remember!Pachi

The magical city of Cartagena de Indias
The Magic of Cartagena begins with the walled city and its history.After getting to know its history you are ready to get out to the streets and enjoy both the street foods, which are mostly fruit or fried foods and its people.Travel around this small city and enjoy the view of boats, old and new, the people laying on the beach, women selling fruit and sweets on huge ¨palanganas¨ or platters set on their heads.If you are lucky you will be invited to someone´s home for lunch or dinner, or to the Islands. There you will have some of the best food the country has to offer!Pachi

Hotel Santa Clara Cartagena
Hotel Santa Clara in Cartagena de Indias.Great food and wonderful service are the key to a wonderful stay. Enjoy a peaceful stay at this beautiful architectural masterpiece from the 17thcentury which is kept up like a fine jewel. The view to the ocean through the thick walls of the old city take you back to a mystic and magical place, the service, quiet, elegant and very friendly makes it a place you want to stay and never leave. You are constantly pampered with fresh fruit, coconut cocada balls, strawberries dipped in chocolate... Order delicious ceviches as well as fresh fruit juices right on the pool side. Have the best arepa or empanada con huevo during breakfast and taste delicious pandebono along with excellent pastry and breads. Hope you get to there some time soon!Pachi

First to have a child to wed!!!
Yesterday we had a party for a the first couple of our friends in Panamá to have a child married. We invited them to a Colombian feast with music and dancing. The couple to be wed, their parents and 10 couples had a night of fun and dance in a windy summery Panamanian night. We all wish the best to the couple and to our friends that begin a new stage of their lives. Tables were decorated with the fruit of the hearts of palm palm tree as well as green, gold and yellow coconuts. The wedding will take place next week! Congratulations and best wishes to them. Pachi
January
Classes start out the year
After an experience we all want to forget the dawn of January 2nd, that is the burning of our boat at sea, with all the family in it the year has returned to normal. We are all perfectly fine and healthy giving thanks to the Lord.
Coastal Colombian Cooking Classes at Elena's Academia de Artes Culinarias... I taught the students how to prepare our famous arepas filled with eggs, arepa con huevo also called empanada de huevo. The menu also included Coconut Rice, Blackened Beef and Plantain Pie.
They all enjoyed the class and I loved giving my students a piece of my country.

Light and latin classes
Another day of classes to teach aspiring chefs how to cook with tropical ingredients and keep a healthy outlook in their kitchens.
From local and green to fast and fresh we prepared and array of recipes that tasted very very good, with heightened flavor and lots of color.
I will be working on healthy cooking all year bringing you the recipes that will make you lick your fingers and stay fit.

New York City's South Gate Restaurant
Was last night's place for dinner. This beautiful restaurant with a swirling fireplace made the best scenery to a freezing New York City night. The temperature on the low 20's as we got there was quickly reduced with a deliciously dark and extremely tasty roasted onion consommé with miniature ravioli. The consommé was perfectly elaborated with a slight hint of the sweetness of the onions that enveloped the tiny cheese ravioli as I ate. Another appetizer we ordered was the Hamachi, perfectly served with a touch of lime and the wild mushroom soup with mustard greens served on a short martini cup. This was so good my daughter had it and loved it. As a dinner dish she ordered the smoked hot duck, medium rare of course and may I say this is the best duck I have ever had. The smoke was sublte and the taste was complete, the texture perfect. The amousse bouche were delicate cheese puffs made of the best choux and tiny cod cakes. Others ordered the salmon and the beef, very good too.
For dessert the favorite was the Litchi sorbet!!! Don't miss this place with a menu created by chef Kerry Heffernan.

Sushi Gari in New York City
Back to a place where we go every time we visit the city, not only because it sits across the street from my sister's house but because the sushi here is as authentic as it can be but if you want a twist on the Japanese art of food you can also get some of Gari's best ideas each day with the OMIKASE, the most Avatn Garde way of preparing sushi that tastes like the fish being served.
A cold night was warmed up this time with a special Miso Soup with spice and potatoes and also with traditional miso. Plates included tempura, duck with balsamic and pear, which was divine, and chef' Gari's selection of Eel and Tuna sushi.
For dessert we had tiny icecream herbal tea strawberry and red bean wrapped in rice flour dough, they were very very good.
Go to Gari Sushi with an open mind and let him explode your senses. Do order some cooked food it is outstanding too. The salads you can pass.

Dovetail Restaurant in NYC
A night at Dovetail, the new restaurant in NYC was fun and all the food was great but the COBIA. Being Panama is producing it and I know how it tastes fresh, I could tell it was old and overcooked.
The rest of the food beggining with the started foie gras, ceviche, crab and beet salad as well as the main dishes that were the beef and the scallops. Ice creams to end the meal were very good too.

Light arroz con pollo for a recuperating Tummy
Today I had to make food for my daughter who came up with a stomach problem. Now she´s getting ready go eat more food so I decided to make a lighter version of arroz con pollo which came out very good. I used a seasoning mix I keep in the fridge which is a mixture of 1 onion, 6 cloves of garlic, cilantro, parsley, salt and pepper all processed to a paste. I cooked 3 breasts with bones with 6 cups of water and 1 heaping tablespoon of the seasoning mix. Then bought a package of 12 oz frozen mixed veggies and sauted them slightly in the rice pot with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablsepoon of cilantro leaves. Then added 2 cups of rice, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 heaping tablespoon of seasoning mixture and cooked during 2 to 3 minutes. Next I added 4 cups of the stock from the cooked breasts and cooked the rice over medium high heat until the rice was close to the surface. In the meantime I cut the breast meat into pieces and placed it over the rice, covered the rice, lowered the heat to minimum and cooked everything for 20 minutes. Before serving I added 1 tablespoon of cilantro and served... Arroz con Pollo for a recuperating tummy.

SFA for Lunch in NYC
A place we love to go for lunch when we visit the city is the café at SFA. I like the fact that they have soup and salad plates as well as full lunches prepared with fresh foods that can be eaten in a sort of formal way. Lunch time is usually short and I like to sit and have it peacefully even if it means only a soup or a salad. We wanted the lobster risotto this time so we shared it along with some chinese style dumplings that were very good. The bread is one of my favorites here, and the butter too...

Simply delicious turkey breast
Today a turkey breast with bone was the perfect piece of protein for three dishes for 3 of us. First I deboned the half breast and placed the bones into a pot, covered with water, a tablespoon of my home seasoning mix, 2 peeled and halved potatoes, a grated carrot, 1 tablespoon of cilantro leaves, some kosher salt and pepper. Placed over medium heat I simmered this for about 1 hour and had a wonderful light soup. Next I took the breast and removed the breast of the breast and part of the meat to make some pieces (like chicken strips), to which I added some salt, pepper, the grated peel of a lime, some oregano and olive oil. Then I passed each piece over a mixture of parmessan and bread crumbs. Baked them for 25 minutes on a 400F oven... doned. Then I took the rest of the breast, added 2 tablespoons of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard, tied it with twine and refrigerated it until tonight. Baked it at 350F for 1 hour, removed it from the oven, allowed to rest 5 minutes covered and sliced it thin!!!!! fantastic.

Pandebono cheese and yucca quick breads
As we get together three friends decided to make the famous Pandebono de Pachi. The ones in my book Secrets of Colombian Cooking which are the best in the world. You can make them as we did in small 1 tablespoon full balls and bake them in sheetpans or in mini muffin pans.
Try the recipe by clicking here and make your own. Video on YOUTUBE
If you live near New York City you can get the yucca flour in La Risaralda Market, in Jackson Heights, Queens on 91st and 37th. Delight yourself with pandebono.

Bouchon Bakery for Lunch at Warner Center in NYC
A stop for lunch at Bouchon Bakery is perfect for a cold wintery day in New York. Not only does the weather look beautiful from the building but sitting in this small third floor bakery with a grand view of the city will relax you after a long cold walk. I had a delicious roasted veggie sandwich and my daughter a warm soup with of chicken with delicious dumplings. The dessert we took home to enjoy within the covers of a warm bed later on that night. We took a lime tart and a couple of chocolate mini cakes that were dark and perfectly chocolaty.

Alaska Salmon reaches the Panamanian Pacific
Our friend brought some smoked Alaska Salmon and we made a party for it!
This is what happens in Latin America, we find any reason to get together and enjoy the company of friends and family. The past weekend we took the smoked salmon and prepared some sandwiches to have by the pool, being this our summer season. We accompanied it with some chorizo and other goodies that made our day full of sun a delightful and delicious one.
We basically toasted some english muffins, added some whipped cream cheese, about 1/2 a tablespoon to each, some miniature capers, 3 fresh basil leaves and some smoked salmon. DIVINE!!!!

Chocolate Cake
Today is my Birthday and so here I give you the recipe of my delicious chocolate cake I learned from my mother many many years ago.
2 cups water 1 cup cocoa 2 sticks of butter or 1/2 pound 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup flour 4 eggs 2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350F Bring water to a boil, remove from the heat, add cocoa, mix and cool over ice to room temperature. Beat butter and sugar in a mixer over medium speed for 8 minutes. Add 1/4 cup four, then eggs one at a time, takes about 2 minutes. Stop machine, add all flour, mix in low for 30 seconds, add cocoa and mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Transfer to a buttered and floured or sprayed 10 inch baking pan and bake for 1 hour. Sprinkle top with powdered sugar and enjoy,, the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER!