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Okay, I can’t help myself.  It was just an AMAZING game, with only 10 Ticos on the field, the last second Greek score to tie, the 30 minute overtime, then the fierce penalty kick off before Costa Rica secured the victory.  Just rush me to the cardiac clinic and be done with it. Instead, I celebrated with the undisputed national soup of Costa Rica:  Olla de Carne, from Guanacasta in the northwest, heartland of comida criolla.  Sandy, whose cookbook you see pictured, calls it “the feast dish for the Tico yokels.”  What better way to celebrate this unexpected advancement in World Cup 2014?  Every Costa Rican family has its own special recipe, often passed down from generation to generation–since I don’t have that luck, I have adapted Sandy’s recipe.  You can see the corn in it–which was introduced to Costa Rica in pre-Columbian times.  And note that it is often served with native beans and rice, the latter (along with the beef) brought to Costa Rica by the Spanish.

And speaking of the Spanish, it’s said this dish can be traced back to Cervantes’ mention of olla p0drida in Don Quixote back in 1615:  poor Sancho Panza is so upset when, in Part 2, chapter 47, he is successively denied a parade of hearty, lip-smacking dishes by a health-nut doctor, that he finally exclaims, “That big dish that is smoking farther off,” said Sancho, “seems to me to be an olla podrida, and out of the diversity of things in such ollas, I can’t fail to light upon something tasty and good for me.”  To which the good doctor replies, “Absit…far from us be any such base thought! There is nothing in the world less nourishing than an olla podrida; to canons, or rectors of colleges, or peasants’ weddings with your ollas podridas, but let us have none of them on the tables of governors, where everything that is present should be delicate and refined; and the reason is, that always, everywhere and by everybody, simple medicines are more esteemed than compound ones, for we cannot go wrong in those that are simple, while in the compound we may, by merely altering the quantity of the things composing them. But what I am of opinion the governor should cat now in order to preserve and fortify his health is a hundred or so of wafer cakes and a few thin slices of conserve of quinces, which will settle his stomach and help his digestion.”

OLLA DE CARNE (for 8)

• 2 pounds beef short ribs (or other combination of beef and bones), with fat removed
• 8 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 sweet red pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro (or cilantro)
• 1/4 cup celery leaves, chopped
• 1 branch thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried, rubbed between your palms)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 2 green plaintains, cut into big pieces
• 2 ears of corn, cut into big pieces
• 2 unripe chayotes, peeled, seeded, and cut into big pieces
• 1 big carrot, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 pound of white potatoes, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 pound calabeza or other winter squash, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1/2 pound malanga (or tisique), peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1/2 pound brown taro (or nampi), peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 pinch ground achiote
• salt to taste

Bring the meat, garlic, cilantro, celery leaves, pepper, onion, thyme, and tomato to a boil in the 8 cups of water in a big pot.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and boil for an hour.  Check to see that the meat is becoming tender, then add the following pieces of prepared vegetables:  plaintains, chayotes, corn and malanga.  Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover, and boil for 20-30 more minutes.  Finally, add the remaining prepared ingredients: carrots, potatoes, squash, malanga, taro, sweet potato, achiote, and salt.  Return to a boil, reduce heat again, cover and boil for 20 more minutes.  Check to see that the vegetables are tender and taste for seasoning, then turn off the heat until ready to serve to a hungry and joyous crowd.

 

How excited are Costa Ricans about the World Cup?  So excited that after the first grudge-match victory against Uruguay, a little Pino grocery in remote Northern Zone bedecked its entrance with balloon enthusiasm worthy of a stadium entrance.  Imagine what it’s done today, defeating Italy.  Wahoo!

I am just back from visiting family in San Jose and confess I have caught FIFA fever.  What better way to celebrate than with Sopa de Pollo, a soup so traditional and so revered that a local cookbook, Meals a la tica by “Sandy,” calls it “Old Hen Soup–It revives even the dead!”  I had a bowl (pictured) at La Choza de Laurel in La Fortuna, at the foot of Arenal volcano, and I can testify to the fact that it revived me, at least half dead from a long, dizzying drive through the Cordillera de Tilarán.  Just look at that scrumptious chicken soup, stuffed with corn, potato, yucca, chayote, carrot, peppers, onion, garlic, herbs and spices–and served with rice and hot corn tortillas on a banana leaf with homemade chilero (piquant, pickled veggies) and salsa lizano on the side.  The restaurant is also charming:  open-air, farmhouse style, chicken on the rotisserie, grandkids so happy after that long drive to be running out to the back barn to play with the kittens.  I recommend it if you are planning a trip (and you should!) to Arenal volcano.  Check it out at http://www.lachozadelaurel.com/.

As for the soup, well!  You don’t have to wait for a Costa Rican vacation to try it.  Here is Sandy’s recipe:

SOPA DE POLLO (for 6)

• 1 stewing hen, plucked and cleaned
• 9 cups water
• 1/2 pound yuca, cut in pieces
• 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces
• 1 green chayote, peeled and cut in pieces
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut in pieces
• 1 sweet red pepper, seeded and cut in pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• chopped cilantro, celery leaves, and thyme
• 1 nest of angel hair pasta
• pinch of achiote
• salt to taste

Boil the chicken for an hour or more, until tender.  Remove chicken from pot and let cool while you skim the broth.  Add all the vegetables together, return to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 25 minutes.  Shred the chicken and add it back into the pot with the herbs, pasta, achiote, and season to taste.  Cook 5-10 more minutes, until the pasta is cooked and the chicken heated, then ladle into large bowls with rice, corn tortillas, chileros, and hot sauce on the side.

Pura vida!

 

 

 

Boy, nothing as American as baseball…and tortilla soup?

It was the prettiest afternoon of the year yesterday when friend Mitch and I strolled over to National Park at the Navy Yard to watch my home team, with Natitude, thrash my old hometown team, the Philadelphia Phillies.  So hilarious in the 4th inning watching the bobblehead US Presidents Race from centerfield around first base to the Nats’ dugout.  Thomas Jefferson beat out George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Taft by a mile.  Even so, tough to see the Phils go down.

All that cheering and rooting on a hot day, no wonder we were hungry and thirsty after the game–and wanting to let the crowd thin.  Mitch came up with Agua 301, a  pretty new and upscale traditional Mexican restaurant/café right on the riverfront. And oh la la, the Chicken Tortilla Soup (pictured) was exquisite:  spiced shredded chicken arriving in the bowl…a side plate of avocado, pico de gallo, tortilla strips, and chile rajas…and a handsome waiter to swirl a beaker of guajillo tomato broth into the chicken.  Excellent presentation and complex layers of flavor, texture, and bite.  All the food was good, but it’s worth going to Agua 301 for this soup alone.  Read all about this place at www.agua301.com.

If you’re not in the area, though, and want to try your hand at making Sopa de Tortilla, you need to know that there are as many different variations of this classic Mexican soup as there are Mexican cooks and Mexican food enthusiasts.  The following recipe–admittedly simple–will give you a good start:

SOPA DE TORTILLA

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (lard, if you want to be traditional)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, left whole
• 4 canned tomatoes (about half a 15-ounce can), drained
• 6 cups stock–chicken is traditional, but vegetable is fine
• 1 dried ancho chile

Garnishes: fried corn tortillas; small cubes of fresh cheese (queso fresco or farmer’s cheese) or Monterey Jack; fine chopped avocado; fine chopped red pepper, wedges of lime; and crumbled ancho.

First cut off the stem of the ancho, cut it in half, and throw out the seeds. Reserve 1/4 of the dried chile to use as garnish, then soak the rest of it in hot water.

In a large saucepan, saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until they are golden brown–as much as 12 minutes. Puree with the tomatoes and soaked ancho, then pour back into the saucepan with the stock. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

While broth is simmering, prepare tortillas. Traditionally, you cut day-old or dried-out corn tortillas in half, then slice the halves into thin strips–fry them on both sides in 1/3 cup of hot oil, until crisp–then drain. If time is of the essence, you can cheat with store bought.

When ready to serve, arrange cubed cheese and chopped pepper and chopped avocado in 4 flat soup bowls, then ladle over the broth, sprinkle each with the crumbled ancho, top with a mound of fried tortillas and serve with a lime wedge. The lime is important.

You’ll notice that this recipe uses the ancho chile of Michoacán. You want even hotter? Use hotter chiles. Also, I’ve selected a “pretty” combination of garnishes–but, traditionally, you can just use whatever cheese, vegetables, even chicken that you’ve got around. It’s the presentation of all these garnishes that makes it such a showstopper, as Agua 301 demonstrated. Serve hot to 4 as a substantial first course or as lunch.