A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
Published by nika on Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:45 AM.
A Colombian breakfast is not just one thing like you might think a proper English fry up would be.
I think that a Colombian breakfast can actually have many different possibilities limited only by the appetite, types of leftovers, and guided by the region of Colombia you are in/from.
This post discusses a breakfast that includes changua, arepas, pan de bono, and patacones. (I will talk about how to make each of those items below.) What you dont see is what you might have to drink with this meal. That could include aqua de panela, strong Colombian coffee, or even steaming hot chocolate.
It could easily have been beans, rice, chicharrones, and fried eggs with a side of hogao.
This breakfast is an amalgam of breakfasts I had as a kid at home and while on vacation in Bogota, Colombia.
This set of food may LOOK simple but it can take a while and lots of energy.
I would suggest starting with the Pan De Bono and I will cover that first.
Pan De Bono
Note: The translated ingredients and directions on the mix I show below are incorrect! I will give you the correct directions here in English.
Ingredients:
1 box of Pan De Bono mix
3 cups grated fresh queso blanco (farmer's cheese - do not try to substitute this. Go to a latino market and get it fresh)
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk
Directions:
Grate the queso blanco with a fine grater. It is fragile and will crumble/grate easily. Do enough to equal 3 cups. Try to buy enough so that you can eat some slices of it later.
Pour the mix, grated cheese, milk, and butter and knead until it comes together into a smooth dough.
Pinch off small balls and then knead a bit more and then roll out into little snakes about 3.5 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Gently pinch the snake into a little circle and bake at 450 F on parchment for about 15 minutes.
While baking these circles will puff up and then brown. Remove and cool. Enjoy!
Next you might want to fry up your patacones. I have covered that in a previous post called How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones).
Next you might want to make you arepas.
Colombian Arepas
Ingredients:
2 cups Masa Harina (very finely ground corn meal. Do NOT use regular corn meal. I talk more about what to use below)
3 cups BOILING water (MUST be boiling)
2 teaspoons salt
Directions:
I suggest this brand of Masa Harina
In a large bowl pour in 2 cups of harina, 2 teaspoons of salt and mix well. Add the 3 cups of boiling water and mix with a spoon. Before it cools much knead it with your hands. My grandmother starts kneading almost right away with her heat-tolerant asbestos hands! I cant do that so I let it cool a bit.
Knead into a rubber not overly sticky ball. If its very sticky add more harina. I had to do that and feel that I need to work more on my technique!
Form the dough into little patties and then either grill or cook in a well seasoned cast iron pan. Its ok ifthe interior is a bit moist. These can burn easily and dry out easily. I like them toasty, adds nice flavor.
You can serve them with butter, slices of queso blanco, or even guava paste.
Here is a shot of a package of Guava Paste (super sweet).
Ok, now you have all the sides to the main part of the breakfast, Changua!
This is a very rich concoction of milk and eggs that is quite filling and very welcome in the morning.
My father ADORED changua and this dish reminds me so much of him that I actually feel sad when I think of it, make it, and eat it. I can still see him bending over a fresh bowl of changua, beaming with joy, inhaling the scent and blissing out on the flavor and the memories from Colombia. We lost my father in 1999 to brutal early onset Alzheimers Disease.
Colombian Changua
Ingredients:
4 cups milk
4 or 6 eggs
1/4 cup diced onions (I used vidalias)
2 tablespoons butter
Dash of cominos
diced green onions, to taste
diced cilantro, to taste
Directions:
Melt butter in a large milk-boiling-friendly pot, add onions and cominos. Saute on low heat until golden brown.
Add 4 cups of milk and bring to a rolling simmer (do not boil so hard that it boils over, that only puts you in a bad mood).
Once up to the boiling simmer add eggs Allow to simmer for between 5 and 10 minutes (some people like the egg well cooked, others like it barely cooked at all).
Add diced green onions and cilantro to serving bowls and then ladle out servings that include eggs and plenty of broth.
Enjoy with all the sides you made all morning long and then collapse on the couch for a leisurely nap.
Related Posts:
- How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
- Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
- Empanadas - The Recipe
- Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
- Chicharron - Deep fried pork belly - How To
- How to make Colombian Empanadas - directions
- Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
- Last year's Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
- A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
- Colombian Frescos
- Lechona preparation
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