Chicken Chancao

                                                                               Receta en Español

Chicken chancao is a typical dish from Tarija, a region at the south of Bolivia, limiting south with Argentina and Paraguay.

Ingredients (2 people):

-  1 piece of chicken per person.
-  2 medium onions.
-  2 carrots cut into strips.
-  3 sprigs of parseley.
-  2 whole gloves of garlic.
-  Salt.
-  65 grams of Green peas.
-  1 potato per person.
-  ají paste to taste.
-  4 tomatos finely chopped.
-  1 lettuce leaf per person.
-  1 boiled egg per person.
-  Water.

Method:

1- Put in a big saucepan meat, onion cut in pieces, carrot cut in stripes, parsley, garlic and salt. Add water until meat is completly covered. Cook for 40 minutes or until meat is done.

2- Take a smaller saucepan, pour some spoonful of the chicken broth and add Green peas, cook for 10 or 15 minutes.

3- Put aside the Green peas and use the same saucepan to cook potatos and eggs. Cook them until potatos are soft.

4- Peel tomatos; the easiest way to do it is drawing a circumference on the surface of the tomato with the help of a knife. Boil water in a saucepan, once reached boiling point, bath tomatos in the boiling water during 20 seconds, use a skimmer to take them out of the water. Let tomatos get cold and you will see how easy they can be peeled!.

5- Cut the remaining onion in little pieces and saute it in a saucepan, until it gets brown.

6- Cut tomato into little pieces, add it to the onion, add salt.
Let it cook for half an hour at medium heat. It is not a tomato sauce, just the pieces of tomato well done will be the side dish.

7- Serve this putting in every dish the following: 1 lettuce leaf, 1 boiled egg cut into slices, 1 peeled whole potato, 1 piece of chicken. Pour a spoonfull of Green peas over the chicken, and he 'sauce' of tomato and onion. Add some aji paste to the chicken.

It will be spicy so be carefull!.

You can do this récipe with the remaining chicken broth: Con el caldo del pollo que te ha sobrado puedes hacer esta receta: Quinoa soup.

My comments to the Recipe

Tomato and aji paste are a good accompaniment to the chicken.
This is a healthy dish, you should be carefull with aji!!.

Where you can buy the ingredients

Aji can be bought at latin products stores.

I bought it in Madrid at Quintana underground: Hermanos Machado 24 , at the corner with Calle Collados.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

                                                                  By Caleb Moore (xrmap flag collection) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Quinoa soup

                                                                               Receta en Español

Quinoa is a seed from a weed native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, Chile and Peru.
It is a highly nutritious food , it has been eaten for 5000 years by people living in that area.
Incas named this seed 'God's food', it provides more minerals, and vitamins that any other cereal.
This seed is used as an important ingredient in many soups.

The recipe I present today is from 'La Paz' , Bolivia.

Ingredients:

-  1/2 Kg chicken or  beef.
-  100 grams Quinoa.
-  40 grams Green peas.
-  40 grams broad beans.
-  2 carrots.
-  1 potato.
-  Salt and grinded cumin to taste.
-  1 onion.
-  2 cloves of garlic.
-  2 spoons of chooped parsley.

Method:

1- First of all quinoa should be cleaned. Spread it on a dish and remove all the little stones, you can see in the picture what this stones look like (they are grey or black).

The coating of the seed conteins saponins, which are toxic and provide a bitter taste to the quinoa. So that quinoa should be well rinsed before being cooked.
Put quinoa in a strainer and pour wáter over it until you see water is clear, stir it from time to time to help the coating of the seeds go away.

2- Put in a saucepan meat, chopped onion, carrots cut in strips, garlic and salt.
Add water and boil for 40 minutes or until meat is cooked.
I cooked 1 Kg chicken because I used it later for another recipe.

3- Once meat is cooked, add broad beans, green peas and cumin.

Take out the meat and reserve what we are not using for this recipe, cut the rest of the meat into little pieces and add it again to the saucepan.

Now is time to add quinoa to the saucepan.

4- Wash potato , put it in another saucepan with water and salt, boil it until potato is soft when you prick it.

5- Once quinoa is open, add to the saucepan the cooked, peeled and cut in pieces potato .

6- Cook for a few minutes and it is ready!

Sprinkle parsley and serve!.

Comments to the Recipe

Quinoa has a good taste, this makes this a delicious soup, besides it provides a lot of minerals, and vitamins given by the quinoa.

Where you can buy quinoa

Quinoa is easy to find at latin products stores or  at biostores.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

                                                                  By Caleb Moore (xrmap flag collection) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons