Country 36: Colombia
I think what my original problem was, is that I tried to do too many meals all at once. I burnt out too quickly, but not because of the actually cooking, but because of the blogging. And I know that I have mentioned that before but I genuinely do think that this is the case. I know I attempted to not actually write anything and only include the recipes, but what’s the point of that? (Although I could argue that I would have the recipes saved somewhere at least, rather than just deleting them off my phone as I go, and never seeing them again).
Obviously Colombia is the country that has taken me the most time. I have actually been meaning to cook it for the last few months. I did all my research, I even bought plantains which I ended up not using, I spoke to Nick’s mum who grew up in Peru and loves Colombian food… So I had a basic understanding of what I was planning to cook. I just never got around to actually cooking it.
And then I pulled myself together and got on with it. I actually invited friends around for dinner with the intention of cooking for them – I’ve never given anyone else any of my Cook The World food in case it turned out terrible (except for Nick who doesn’t have a choice). So I gave my friends a fair warning: “I’ve never cooked this before, so it might be terrible.”
It wasn’t, though! I was really pleased with how well everything turned out. I think it’s because it all took so damn long to make – the coconut rice was prepared a way that I’ve never done before (and never will do again on account of it taking forever), and the black bean stew was able to simmer away getting softer and nicer while we waited for the rice to cook. I think that, ultimately, was the winner. Even Nick went back for more of the stew, which is surprising considering it was vegan.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the salmon, this entire meal would be vegan! So it’s pretty easy to just remove the salmon completely. The black bean stew is actually an entire meal on its own, which is supposed to be served with coconut rice so I just used the rice that went along with the salmon. It worked out fabulously.
I think this one is a winner, for sure. Enjoy!
On the menu today we have:
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