Colombian cooking

A new continent seemed a good opportunity to learn more about local food. So today I (Helen) took a cooking class in Cartagena. Colombian food doesn’t have the same profile as Mexican or Peruvian food does so I was interested to learn more.

The menu today was:

Arepas - these are common in Colombia (as well as neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador) and are made from corn dough, often stuffed. We had two fillings, one with avocado, similar to guacamole (but no chilli) the other a chicken mix. Apparently chilli is not commonly added when cooking in Colombia but would be added at the table as part of a salsa/sauce.

Patacones - these are double fried plantains (green plantains so not very sweet) which were served with garlic shrimp. We had a similar dish in Costa Rica called Tostones.

Fish cooked on a barbecue in Bijao leaves served with a pepper and tomato sauce and yuca purée and yuca crisps.

Dessert - ripe plantains (yellow) this time, cooked in picaro. This is a sugar product which is dark like muscovado sugar or treacle. To balance the sweetness it was served with lulo sorbet. Lulo is a fruit which I had never heard of. It has a sharp, citrusy flavour a bit like a mix of passion fruit and lime but is a member of the tomato family.Read more