Sep 25, 2007

Tuesday stuff

Not much going on here...I'm in the midst of the circular crocheted vest. It WAS on the way to being a sweater, but morphed while I was looking through other patterns, and now it's a vest. There's a lot of repetitive stitch work, and it's getting tedious, although I'm just about finished with it. Actually, that is why I'm writing now - I had to take a break from it. It's done in alpaca, the inside circle is a hand painted skein and the outside is the natural light fawn color of some alpacas. The whole piece is nice, but with the hand painted portion, it's beginning to look just a little too hippy, even for me.

Have you seen this? I can't remember how I came across her blog, but wow. It's done by Greenfingers. She does beautiful work! I really like the white doll.

I've been watching "The Last Mimsy". I love it. What a charming little story! I bought the cd. I only buy the movies that I'm sure I will watch more than once, since I tend to do that. I watch them several times, a habit I got into when my daughter was little, because inevitably I would be called away from the movie for something. So now I only buy the movies that I'm sure I will love. My next purchase will be "Stardust", if it ever comes to the theaters here. I've been waiting for it, but so far, only the posters have arrived here in Lima.

I finally got on Ravelry! Yey! But now I'm so busy surfing through it that I have not put up any of my own stuff - my stash, my FOs, my UFOs, etc. With time, I suppose. For now, I need to get a Flicker account, so I can add photos and, I guess, be seen.

And, lastly, I do try to be adventurous in food. But there is a limit to what I can handle. On Sunday afternoon, O and I went to eat at a place we'd never tried before. The food style was from northern Peru, specifically from Ferrañafe, which is quite close to Chiclayo. We tried tacu tacu. Everything I've read says it's made with beans, rice, bacon, and other basically harmless ingredients, so I was open to try it. And we ordered a cold dark malt beer to drink with it. When the food arrived, it was not as I was expecting, but hey, I'm not an expert here, so I ate.

Apparently, Ferrañafe style tacu tacu is different than the rest of the world's idea of what it should be. The meat was definitely NOT bacon. The flavor was quite good, and the sauce was wonderful. But the meat...well, let's say I suspected it was not something that I would be eating at any time. I thought it was the skin of a tongue, but later (O prudently refrained from telling me what it was while I was eating) I found out that it was the lining of a cow's stomach. But I had eaten it, and it was okay. Later that evening, though, the cow's stomach began to pitch a fit and fought with my own stomach, resulting in a HUGE case of heartburn. Luckily I do have quite a strong gut, and my stomach proved to be the stronger of the two. I hope I don't run into another cow stomach too soon.

TACU TACU

Ingredients :
3 cups canary beans
150 lb (300 g) pork fat or bacon, diced
2 cups of cooked rice
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 fresh yellow aji/chili (aji amarillo fresco), seeded and deveined

Preparation:

Soak beans overnight. Drain and cook in unsalted water together with pork fat or bacon until soft.

Remove from heat and let cool. Beat with a wooden spoon to form a coarse purée. Set aside and let cool.

Heat oil in a large skillet and add onion, garlic and aji. Saute onion and aji until soft and tender and correct seasoning. Add the beans and the cooked rice, mix well and correct seasoning. Cook stirring, until golden and remove from heat.

To make the tacu tacu:
Take one part of the mixture into your hands and form a small oblong tamale.

Cover with bread crumbs or crackers to maintain shape.

Heat oil in skillet, place one part of the bean mixture, and fry turning constantly to avoid sticking. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Serve with breaded fried tenderloin, fried banana, fried egg and Creole sauce.


6 servings

4 comments:

Westerwitch/Headmistress said...

Oooo dear the thought of you eating cows stomach had mine going a bit.

Hope we get a picture of the vest you are knitting - how hippy is too much hippy for you in the vest.

Will have a think about the recipe - although beans and I don't get on very well at the moment. Made a chilly with red kidney beans and oh dear . . .

wildtomato said...

I rarely enjoy tripe. I think it's a texture thing, for me - too chewy. Your skirts are lovely! You are just whipping out those finished objects! My Ravelry name is wildtomato, so let me know your name and I'll add you as a friend. Also, I'll send you an invite to Knitted Furmiliation. I'm so glad you got on!

Kathleen said...

Yeah, cow gut just isn't my thing. But, I found myself grateful that I hadn't eaten the nose or something...I have eaten cow uder and thought it was some kind of over-cooked fish - very white flesh...

Pondside said...

Even though I know that most of the world loves beans and rice in one form or another, it's a combination for which I haven't acquired a taste - and the thought of cow's stomach with it isn't to appealing. That said, when I was young my mother would sometimes cook tongue and it was considered by all of us to be quite a delicacy!