You're quite welcome, Maggie; I aim to please! Of course, you could always come visit us....
Sylvia - brickle is the term that's been used in my family for roca or brittle for as long as I can remember - I wasn't aware it was a trademark until you pointed it out! We likely had the ice cream as well, or at least Grandpa would have made something similar.
--
Today's project ties in with the weeklong celebration of Dia de Los Difuntos in Ecuador. The Day of the Dead here as a Catholic festival also has very strong pre-conquest roots; it coincides with the old Incan festival of fertility and the celebration of the harvest of black corn and of the Mortiños, a small Andean blueberry that grows in the páramos (high altitude areas) of the country. The tradition here is to eat and drink with your dearly deceased during the festival, hold conversations, and update them on the year. All of this, of course, takes place in the cemeteries.
There are two traditional dishes for Los Finados (the entire festival week), those being Colada Morada and Guaguas de Pan. I'll talk a bit more about the Guaguas later on, but the main project for this afternoon was the elaboration of the Colada Morada. This is a thickish multiple fruit, herb, and spice drink given its signature colour by black cornmeal and mortiños. The roots go back to the Incan festival, where the drink was made to celebrate the harvest and to offer to Inti (the sun) in hopes of a fruitful harvest in the next year. The Catholics have taken it as a sort of sacramental wine, and in the current theology it represents the blood of Christ. However most Ecuadorians are also aware of the prior meaning, and the festival serves dual purpose.
Colada Morada is a multiple-ingredient undertaking.
From left to right, beginning in the top left corner, the ingredients are: The Herb Bundle. Sanguarachi (
Amaranthus cruentus), Hierba Luisa (lemongrass), Toronjil (Lemon Balm), Orange Leaves, Arrayan (an aromatic Myrtle). Whole Cloves, Star Anise, Ishpingo-bark Cinnamon (Ishpingo being the native cinnamon tree - not true cinnamon in the Ceylon sense, but actually much stronger in flavour), Ishpingos (the flower bracts of the same tree - think of a flavour like strong cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, and add something undefineably Ishpingo). Black panela (the darkest possible). Maracuya (passionfruit), White Pineapple, Naranjilla (a tomato relative with a bitter citrus flavour), White and Pink Guavas, Babaco (papaya relative), Zarzamora (wild Andean blackberry), Mortiño, and finally Frutilla (wild strawberries. My original lessons came from Fidelina, my adopted grannie, who insists that Fresas, or large strawberries, have no soul and therefore no place in Colada.)
The herb bundle is separated, washed, and placed in you second-largest stockpot with enough water to cover well, and then set on to boil. I wish at this point that I could attach smells to these posts - the herb bundle fills the house with a most wonderful odour. Once the water is a pale pink to red colour, the herbs are removed from the heat.
The fruits, in the meantime, are cut up and skinned (where necessary). Each one is placed in the blender with a bit of the herb water (and in the case of pineapple, guava, and mora, a whole lot of herb water. This is blendered until smooth. I should point out that no matter where you are in the country and completely regardless of social status, every single Ecuadorian household has at least one blender. I've been in kitchens that had no fridge but still had the blender. This is because it's the household's juicer, and that's how important fresh juice is to this culture.
Once it's nice and smooth, the fruit juice and pulp are poured into a strainer and strained to remove seeds and coarse pulp.
Rinse, lather, repeat, until all you've got left are the Frutillas. These are reserved whole (well, cut into halves).
The juices are stirred, the spices added (whole), and the whole pot goes onto the burner. It's heated until it boils, and then the panela is added, all in a lump. This is stirred until it completely dissolves. At this point, I also add an extra branch of Arrayan, because I love the flavour.
Then the spices are strained out. Half of the mixture (roughly) is reserved in the smaller of the stockpots, and black corn flour is added and blended (I use an immersion blender) until thick and no longer lumpy. Then the thickened portion is reintroduced to the thinner, and stirred well.
The Frutillas are added then, and the mixture is allowed to cool slowly. This hydrates the black corn and thickens the drink.
Colada is normally served warm accompanied by bread.
This topic is locked
