E is for Ecuador

Since coming to DC a year ago, I have gotten back in touch with Alan Edelman, a housemate from my graduate school days in Boston, and his wife Erica.  We were quite friendly in Boston, even attending each other’s weddings, but we had lost touch over the years.  The way we got back in touch was very coincidental – Davida met Erica at Israeli dancing, and somehow figured out the connection with me.  Even more coincidental is that Erica’s cousin Alana is a dear friend and previous housemate of Hannah, Davida’s daughter.  We decided to bring everyone together – Alan, Erica, Hannah, Alana, and their other previous housemate, Dan.  Being President’s Day (February 20), Davida decreed that everyone needed to bring bits of presidential trivia to share.  I’ll intersperse some of them throughout this blog, so keep reading!

For this meal, I was inspired by one of my graduate students, Juan Pablo Mendoza, who is from Ecuador.  I also wanted to get into the mood for traveling to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, hopefully next year.  Juan Pablo was very helpful with suggestions, and pointed me to Laylita’s Recipes, a fabulous site for Ecuadoran cuisine.  Usually, I surf around for good recipes from a particular country, but this time I found everything that I wanted to make on this one site.  In addition to great recipes, it also has extensive pictures and some videos with step-by-step instructions.  It’s a really great site!

The Appetizer:

I decided to make this a fish (dairy) dinner, due to the abundance of great fish recipes from Ecuador.  Ceviche is a dish that I just love, but have never made before.  Laylita’s site had a wonderful ceviche recipe, recommended by Juan Pablo (no better expert!).  I went with his suggestion to use mahi-mahi as the fish base, and the mahi-mahi that I found was from Ecuador – a good sign.  I went light on the hot peppers, using two serrano chilies with most of the seeds removed, and replaced the Ecuadoran red onions with shallots, a suggested alternative.  Rather than squeezing 20 limes by hand, I splurged for a lime squeezer.  After struggling with the first half-dozen limes, I found that if I cut off the bottoms of the limes (after cutting them in half) that the squeezer worked much better.  Maybe this is a well-known trick, but it was my first time with a squeezer, and it took me a while to figure out a good way to squeeze the limes.  Eventually, though, I produced enough juice to cover the fish and spices.

The result was well worth the effort.  The ceviche was outstanding – crisp, acidic, with a very fresh fish taste and a nice tang from the shallots and chilies.  We served the ceviche with gluten-free corn chips and found that the salty chips were a great complement to the lime and cilantro in the ceviche.  Most of the guests rated it a 7 (out of 7), with one lone 5 rating.  A really good start to the meal.

Did you know: John Tyler, who was born in 1790, has two grandsons who are still alive today

The Soup:

Usually, I make either a soup or an appetizer, but not both.  However, the soup that Juan Pablo suggested Locro o sopa de quinua con queso (quinoa and cheese soup, with potatoes) was just too tempting.  Since this was a dairy meal, I could follow the recipe exactly using whole milk (we had to go out and buy it special – we are typically a fat-free milk household) and queso fresco (which was available at the neighborhood Hispanic grocery store).  We were also able to find achiote powder there, which the soup recipe (and several other recipes in the meal) called for.  I was hoping to find some special potatoes (e.g., purple) to put in the soup, but ending up with red-skinned potatoes.  Rather than serving the soup with aji hot sauce, as indicated in the recipe, I added a generous pinch of red pepper flakes.  This gave the soup a hint of heat, which I thought it really benefited from.

The soup was quite delicious.  The potatoes and quinoa, as they cooked down, gave the soup a wonderful richness.  The queso fresco did not melt, but became a bit rubbery and chewy – in a good way!  So, every other spoon, or so, of soup one would get into this bursting flavor of the cheese.  Everyone rated the soup a 7, which is the first dish I’ve made that has gotten 7’s across the board.  A definite keeper, especially since it is relatively easy to make and really improves with age, as the flavors continue to meld.

Did you know: James Monroe is the only president to have a foreign capital (Monrovia) named after him

The Main Dish:

Juan Pablo strongly recommended pescado encocado, or fish with coconut sauce, for the entrée.  The pictures of this recipe on Laylita’s site look absolutely mouth-watering – I could only hope that my efforts would look half as good.  We used halibut, as recommended by the recipe, along with a combination of red and yellow bell peppers (the recipe was not specific, but that’s what it looks like was used, from the pictures).  We needed nearly four pounds of halibut.  The store had that available as one large fillet – it was a beautiful piece of fish, and may have been the second most expensive single food item that I’ve bought, after the kosher goose (see “D is for Denmark”).  I skinned the fish, which was probably not necessary, but I think it looks nicer skinned and not everyone wants to deal with fish skin when they are eating. I did add some corn starch (about 2 Tbsp), as recommended by the recipe, to thicken things up, first removing some of the juice, stirring in the cornstarch, and then returning it to the pan.  I did not use fresh coconut, as the recipe suggested, which might have been a nice touch, but I was already stretched with everything else that needed to be done.

The result was brilliantly colorful and flavorful, and the fish was extremely moist and tender.  While the flavors were not particularly bold, they were definitely very satisfying.  Adding a bit of cilantro helped bring out the flavors – I just love cilantro.  It’s a shame two older children have that gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, so I get to use it only when they are not involved with the meal.  The guests agreed that the dish was both pleasing to look at and delicious – the average rating was 6.2.  And, like the soup, the sauce of the fish got better over time (although the same cannot be said of the fish itself – reheating overcooked it, and it became a bit too chewy for my taste). Another keeper!

Did you know: James Buchanan quietly but consistently bought slaves in Washington DC and then set them free in Pennsylvania

The Starch:

The recipe for pescado encocado suggested rice as a starch, to soak up all the wonderful juices.  The Ecuadoran rice recipe is fairly straightforward, but also different from what I usually do, as it includes onions (I did not add garlic, as suggested by the recipe, since I felt there was already more than enough garlic in the meal) and sautéing the rice in oil before adding water.  We decided (well, Davida decided) to go with the yellow rice, rather than white, which was obtained by adding some achiote powder.  Since this was a pretty standard dish, I did not ask for ratings for it.  Besides, people did not eat it on its own, preferring instead to douse it with the sauce from the fish, which was a very flavorful combination.

Did you know: Abraham Lincoln is the only US president who was also a licensed bartender; he co-owned a saloon in Springfield, IL

The Vegetable:

No question here – I wanted to make fried plantains.  The only question was: ripe or green?  I really could not decide, so I decided to make some of each.  Platanos maduos fritos were very easy to make.  It involved just frying sliced ripe plantains in oil.  Patacones were a bit more difficult, since they needed to be cooked, then lightly smashed (but not enough so they cracked) and then fried. 
Apparently, most recipes call for frying them twice, but Laylita suggests (well, her brother suggests) to boil them first, instead of frying, as they will be soft inside and crispy outside.  I used the bottom of a small bowl to smash them – pushing down until the slices filled the bowl’s bottom (2” in diameter).  Unfortunately, I was not able to prevent many of the slices from cracking, and there were quite a few small pieces.  I did not want the patacones to be too spicy, so I added just a trace of chipotle chili powder along with garlic powder and salt, as the recipe suggested.  The chipotle gave them a subtle smoky flavor, along with a little bit of a kick.

The platanos maduos fritos were sweet and delicious, averaging a 5.3 rating from the guests (mostly positive, but one guest gave them a 3).  They were much better warm and freshly made, becoming a bit tough as they cooled.  The patacones were very crisp (and not so soft inside – perhaps I fried them for too long) and stayed good even as they cooled.  The guest rating averaged 5.6, with none of the ratings in the negative territory.
Ever the science nerd, I asked Davida to run an analysis to determine if the ratings were statistically different.  Ever the science nerd, she agreed, running a Mann-Whitney U test and, for good measure, a t-test and producing box plots of the results.  It turns out that there is, in fact, no significant difference between the two ratings.  That was confirmed by the meal: in the end, we had no leftover patacones and just a few of the platanos maduos fritos.

Did you know: Every member of Teddy Roosevelt’s family owned a pair of stilts, including the first lady

I learned my lesson after two disastrous desserts, and left it to Davida to buy Nutella brownies from the local gluten-free bakery.  No one complained!

Finally, did you know: Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital

Up next: Fiji! (I considered doing France, but it was a bit too obvious; besides, how could I ever compare with my French mother-in-law’s cooking?)