Panama: Sancocho, Part II

I've successfully completed my first solo global cooking adventure, a sancocho from Panama. I did pretty well finding all of the ingredients (this was a fairly easy one). The only thing I didn't find was the plantains, but admittedly I didn't try very hard. Florida might as well be the 28th official Spanish-speaking country, and my local grocer usually has plantains (and an assortment of other ingredients common in traditional Latino cooking) on hand. Not today! And I was too lazy to look elsewhere. I also used a yam instead of a sweet potato, since they're pretty much the same thing anyway.

As I scoured the veggie section for my root veggies, I came upon a yucca. I've never cooked with one before, but remembered seeing it in one of the recipe variations I looked at. What the heck? I decided to live on the wild side and toss one in for good measure. The yucca is a white, potato-like root vegetable that has a thick brown skin on it. It was surprisingly easy to peel, and not that difficult to slice. About the same thickness as a sweet potato. I thought it had a texture and taste similar to a mild coconut.

So here's how I did it. As always, I'm not big on measurements. I'll give rough estimates, but use your best judgment and flavor to taste! The end product is a rich tasty stew that highlights the earthy taste of the root vegetables. You can taste the sweetness of the carrots and the sweet potatoes, balanced by the chiles, onions and garlic that give a kick to this dish. A fun and hearty take on chicken soup. I ate mine with a carmenere from Chile.

P.S. - My friend Emily thinks I need to get back to making the blog more personal. What can I say, it's been a tough week getting back from traveling and my ultra exciting trip to NY (recall, the Bobby Flay situation). And believe it or not, preparing that German feast was pretty exhausting. Plus, there were several post-birthday celebrations this week. But seeing as Emily is trapped in Senegal in the Peace Corps and relies on quasi-lame and unexciting stories from my life for entertainment, I will try harder to be more exciting in the future.

Ingredients:

Canola oil
3 yellow onions

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Oregano

Salt

Pepper

1 quart chicken broth

1 sweet potato (or yam)

1 potato

1 yucca

3 carrots

About six cloves of garlic

About 4 tbsps. chopped cilantro

1 cup of green onions

Dried chiles

1 can of diced tomatoes

2 ears of corn

What I did:

I start by heating some canola oil in a large soup pot. I slice one of the onions into thin half circles and then throw those in and let them start cooking. Then I add the chicken, season with some oregano, salt and pepper and cook until the meat is done. Scoop out the chicken and onions and put in a bowl for later. (I use one of the onions so the chicken can absorb the flavor as it cooks). Save the juices in the pot to cook the root vegetables.

I cut the root veggies into cubes about an inch each way and add them to the pot in the order I think they will take longest to cook: sweet potato, yucca, potato, carrot As they cook and get tender, I gradually add chicken broth to the pot so they always have a little bit of liquid to cook in. I slice the rest of the onions into half rounds and throw those in, then season the mix with some more (maybe two tablespoons) of oregano, salt, pepper and chiles (I like things spicy) and let cook for a few minutes. As they're cooking, I add the cilantro, green onions and tomatoes.

After the root veggies are pretty soft, I add the rest of the chicken broth and the corn (broken into half ears). I cut the chicken from the first step into chunks and add it (with the cooked onions) to the pot. Bring to a boil and then let simmer. The longer the better because the flavors will meld more. I always like my soups thicker, closer to a stew so I let mine go quite a while to thicken.

Panama: Sancocho

So the first country out of the bag was Panama, and a check of the Wiki list of national dishes reveals that natives of this country have one they call sancocho.

I consider this a real score for me because I love making one pot dishes, especially soups and stews. There's just something about the ease of cooking and how the flavors get all melded together that I find appealing.

Sancocho is just that - a soup or thick stew made of meats, various root vegetables and spices native to the region. Some more Internet research shows that sancocho is actually a popular dish in many Central and South American countries. The recipes vary from place to place, with some using chicken or beef and others using ingredients as unique as a cow's stomach lining. One other country - Columbia - also claims sancocho as its national dish. That's not surprising since until 1903, Panama was part of Columbia.

The Panamanian version is commonly made with chicken, yams and an herb called culantro - apparently similar in taste the the more common cilantro.

I spent some time exploring the Internet and found that recipes for the Panamanian version are more difficult to come by than those from other places (like Columbia and Puerto Rico). I found a few decent ones, but like the potato pancakes was not entirely happy with any of them. I think I'll have to develop my own based on the best from all of them.

I used the other recipes to come up with a list of ingredients. Right now I'm looking at chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots, onions, plantains, yams (if I can find some), corn on the cob, garlic cloves, oregano, cilantro, green onions, salt, pepper and chicken broth. I'll look for the culantro, but am skeptical I'll find it in any of the local groceries. I'll update with a recipe this weekend after I have some time to experiment.

As far as beverage pairings go, it seems Panama is another big beer country. It appears most of the wine drunk in Panama actually comes from Chile, my favorite wine producing country (Yeah!) So I'll probably pick a few from there to pair with my stew. I may be in the market for a crisp sauvignon blanc. Although it's always hard for me to resist a good red, especially one from Chile.

One down, 202 to go...

So that concludes my first culinary adventure. In all, we spent about 10 hours cooking (not including getting the brine ready) over the course of two days. Pretty labor intensive. But hey, it was the kick off. And I had helpers.

I was moderately worried when I returned to Sarasota today to pick two countries for next weekend that I would end up with obscure places that would pose difficulty tracking down recipes, not to mention ingredients.

I think I lucked out. The two I picked: Panama and Myanmar.

A quick review of the Internet showed that this should not only be pretty easy to come up with recipes, but ones that look pretty tasty. So I'll be spending some time this week exploring options and will hopefully post some recipes when I am ready. I may pick a few other neighboring countries to round out the meal.

Oh and by the way, my mom filled out the application for me to get my passport renewed. So I guess all I need to do at this point is write a check and drop it in the mail. Here I come Canada!

In case anyone was wondering about beverage pairings ...

We did have some German beer to go with all of this, but my brother was in charge of that. I'm really not a beer person. I'll see if he can send me the names of what he got so I can include them.

I was on wine duty, and this posed quite the challenge. One's gut tells them to go red with a heavy, meaty meal, but Germany is not known for its red wines. Along with that, I had my own personal bias against a) white wines and b) sweet ones. I like a big, smoky, spicy red, especially with a good meal.

My initial thought on the reds was to pick something bold and rich to match the meat, either a Shiraz or a Zin. My sister, on the other hand, thought a traditional Riesling would be a decent complement because the sweeter wine would help balance out the sour flavors of our dishes.

I did some Internet research and found an article from the New York Times that also suggested Shiraz and Zin. But many of the people commenting on the story suggested pairing sauerbretan with Riesling, particularly one from the Alsace region (which is actually now part of France).

So armed with all of this seemingly conflicting information, we headed to Premier and decided to consult one of their wine "experts." I went up and explained we were looking for a German wine to go with sauerbraten, and the guy immediately got this pensive look on his face and muttered something along the lines of "ahhh ... yes. I believe I can help you." I thought he was full of BS.

But the guy confidently led us along the aisles of German wines and those from Alsace and helped us pick four that were pretty reasonably priced. Of course it was after we put these in our basket and were ready to check out when he made some comment about how the Rieslings were good with any kind of spicy sausage. This is about when we realized he didn't know what sauerbraten is (Deal breaker?)

I was starting to get a little overwhelmed at this point so we just went with what he picked. I threw an Australian Shiraz in for good measure. We were all actually pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the selections and how well they went with the German feasting (although in all fairness, much of it we drank before we sat down at the table).

Our wines were also all pretty dry and crisp, which I think helped cut the acidity in all of the vinegar. Heather was right. It was a nice balance.

Here were three of the four we ended up with. The fourth bottle of white remains unopened in my mom's refrigerator (I'll see if I can get little bro to track down what it is).

HUGEL GENTIL 2005

This was a dry, white blend from Alsace that was made of Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Sylvaner. This was my favorite because it was extremely crisp and refreshing. A winner!

SCHUMANN NAGLER CHRISPTOPHER PHILLIP RIESLING, 2005

This was a nice, light Riseling that was on the drier side. It was fruity and pleasant to drink.

BOULARD EIFEL RIESLING 2005

This one was the sweetest of the three we drank. Also nice and fruity.

Germany: Gingersnap gravy and sauerbraten

You make this gravy with the leftover brine from cooking the sauerbraten (see recipe below). The gingersnaps give it a sweet flavor to balance out the sour flavor of the beef.

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. butter

3 tbsps. flour

2 tbsps. sugar

lemon juice

8 crumbled gingernsnaps

1/2 cup white raisins, soaked in water

What we did:

When meat is done cooking (tender enough to easily stick a fork into it) remove it from the brine. Strain the brine and reserve the liquid. Return to pot.

Melt butter in a saucepan and when hot stir in the flour and sugar. Cook the roux until the mixture becomes a caramel brown color. Be careful doing this because the sugar will cook very fast and can burn easily.

When the sugar/flour mix is done, add it to the reserved brine liquids and stir briskly until combined. Add lemon juice to taste and stir in the crushed gingersnaps and raisins.

Return meat to pot with gravy and simmer 10 minutes.

For sauerbraten:

You saw a few days ago we started brining the sauerbraten so it could sit for three days. After this is done, you can prepare the meat.

When it's time to do this, you remove the meat from the marinade and strain, reserving the liquid. Dry the meat off, getting off as much liquid as you can. Heat some bacon fat in a dutch oven and when hot sear the meat on all sides. When the searing is done, add about 2 large, sliced onions to the pot and the reserved juice from the marinade. Add 1 bay leaf and six cloves and bring to a boil. After it boils let simmer for about three hours. Remove meat and use the liquid for the gravy recipe.

Germany: Dumplings

Ingredients:

10 white rolls
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup crumbled bacon
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
3 eggs
salt and pepper
nutmeg

What we did:

Rip the rolls into pieces and put into a bowl. Gradually add the milk. This whole gradual instruction is pretty important. We put in the full amount and ended up with bread that was too moist and had to add more bread. So put it in a bit at a time. You can always add more later when you've put in all the ingredients. You're going to want to mold them into little balls.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and saute the bacon. Add the onions and parlsey.

Add the eggs and spices to the bread misture, then combine with the hot mixture.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Shape the bread mixture into little balls and drop them in the water. Cook for 20 minutes. Serve with ginger snap gravy (recipe to follow).

Germany: Potato pancakes

The potato pancakes really ended up being our own invention, largely because we couldn't find a recipe we were entirely happy with. They all had some good elements, so we just took the best of several of them and came up with our own. The difficulty making potato pancakes is getting a nice, firm little cake - as opposed to a crumbly mess of potato that falls apart when you cook it. The potatoes can't be too watery (you should drain them), and you need to make sure you have enough stuff in the mixture to bind it all together. You'll probably want to gradually add the ingredients in gradually to make sure you get the right consistency.

So this is what we came up with ...

(And yes, we did make 10 pounds of potato pancakes. My family is a big fan of these. Feel free to adjust the recipe for smaller quantities).

Ingredients:

10 pounds white potatoes (boil four of them)

3 yellow cooking onions

1 1/2 cups chives

lemon juice

10 eggs

4 tbsps. milk

3 tbsps. flour

4 tbsps. salt

applesauce

sour cream

What we did:

The first, and most laborious thing, we did was finely shred all of these potatoes. Luckily for me my sister's boyfriend Amit is a self-proclaimed awesome shredder and volunteered for this activity. So we peeled all of the potatoes and then using a fine grate shredded them into a strainer (Heather and Amit later pointed out after about two hours of this that you could probably achieve the same affect in a food processor).

As they were shredding we started to notice this, like, foamy stuff oozing out the bottom of the colander. The two of them are scientists, so they figured out pretty quickly is was starch from the potatoes (I'm not sure I would have picked up on that one). So after we shredded them all we took the colander to the sink and rinsed them to get the starchy stuff out. Then we let them sit and drain for a long while (Probably at least an hour. We did then let them sit on a towel for a bit as well. It's important to acknowledge, Heather and Amit did most of this).

We grated the onions to the same texture, and then drained them (no rinse). When this was all fairly dry we mixed it all together and threw some chopped, fresh chives in. We did all of this the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight with some lemon juice to keep from browning.

The next morning we made the batter by adding in the eggs, milk and flour. We mixed it all together. We cooked them on two cast iron skillets outside on the grill (as to heat the house up and get it smelling like fried potato pancakes). You could, however, do this in a typical frying pan.

We like to eat them with sour cream and apple sauce.