Gringa vs. Comal: Cooking Tales

Words of the Day

regalar- to gift
bochornoso/a- embarrasing OR stifling hot "un calor bochornoso"
el comal- clay surface for tortilla making
triturar- mash up, mush up, or the verb for squeezing jocote seeds out of the cooked fruit with your hands
aprovechar- take advantage of
desbaratar- fall apart, aka what happens to all of my tortilla attempts

I've finally started cooking for myself! More than anything else, this has made me feel finally settled in and infinitely happier here. My host mom is a really good cook, and I didn't want to offend her, but I really wanted more variety, spice, and less oil, rice, sugar and salt in my diet. And I wanted to swap out the meat for some veggies. I finally worked up the courage to ask her if I could cook and she was surprisingly fine with it. It really makes my days fabulous: cooking up things from home (very improvised variations) while jamming out with some salsa tunes on my iPod has improved my quality of life tremendously. It really is true that the fastest way to the heart is through the stomach.

So far, kitchen projects have included trying to perfect my tortilla making, which is a bit more of an art form, although not impossible. With two plastic sheets and a plate to squish, you can make uniform tortillas really easily without doing it by hand the old school way, but tortillas can fall apart on the comal if the water to flour ratio isn't just right.

Other things I've made: Squash and Platano Stew (life-changing recipe from the Nicaraguan Peace Corps volunteer "magazine"), a recipe my mom makes called Squash with Egg and Cheese (exactly what it sounds like), pasta with mango and tomato sauce (gotta go with local options), Mexican Guacamole (not quite in season yet, but once starts, I will probably eat guac daily), and  repochetas, which are fried tortillas with bean dip, tomato, cheese and cabbage salad on top. Also known as the best things EVER.

There are lots of other benefits to cooking for myself. It's a great way to build relationships in the community, since finding ingredients can be a bit of a treasure hunt, and as such I have the excuse to talk to many people and practice Spanish, which has become a problem of late, since I spend so much time teaching in English. It's also a way to make conversation with my host family, because they're interested in what I'm making. They're also always interested in what it's called, which is entertaining, because very few of the things I cook have real names. I also get gifted random food sometimes, because people are so generous.  Sometimes, it's a really nice thing, like when a friend invited the gringas over to cook cusnaca, a jocote, cinnamon and milk desert and gifted me almibar (a sweet and sour jam sort of thing with seasonal fruits). Or when my counterpart gave me sweetbread. Or when the fruit lady who thinks an extra mango in my bolsa of purchases. Other times, it's convenient gifting to avoid waste: mangos, overripe platains, and possibly soon, avocados. So it's good that I'm cooking to be able to aprovechar everyone's generosity.