Foodies Delight - Costa Rican Cuisine Made Fun and Easy

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I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I have to say, I make a mean batch of (refried) beans!
And the best part is that they are so healthy, inexpensive and flavorful. Kids and adults alike will love them!!!

Ingredients

1 pound of black beans
2 onions
4 garlic cloves
1 tomato
canola oil
salt to taste

Supplies

pressure cooker
frying pan
blender (optional)

Cook It Up!

Place the beans in the pressure cooker with one liter of water covering them completely. (Inside fact: the more water you have the better)
Put an onion head, 2 garlic cloves, and a tomato with salt in with the beans. Cover and cook for one and a half hours. (Insider Fact: Salt will prevent the beans from spoiling fast and the longer you cook the softer they will get and the less gas you'll have)

Once it's done, let cool.
Chop up the other onion very fine, and the other 2 garlic cloves. Heat up the frying pan with the oil and then add the onion and garlic to it.
Uncover the beans and smash up the cook onion, garlic and tomato along with the beans so to blend it all together. Then ladle the cooked beans with the water into the frying pan.
Mix it up with the frying onion and garlic for 15 minutes on low heat.

Serve It Up!

They are fantastic with rice, tortillas, eggs, nachos and whatever else you can think of.

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This is the most traditional Costa Rican dish there is!
It is mainly served for breakfast, but if you enter any Costa Rican house at any given moment, there will always be Gallo Pinto to serve!

Plus, it is healthy, filling, super easy to make and everyone can eat it: kids, adults, vegetarians, and vegans.

Ingredients

3 cups cooked rice (day old for the true Tico way)
2 cups cooked black beans (day old for the true Tico way)
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, finely chopped (cilantro)
2 tablespoons oil
Salt to taste

Supplies

Frying pan
mixing spoon

Saute onion and bell pepper in oil on medium heat. Add beans and cook two minutes longer. Add rice and mix, cook three minutes more. Add coriander, mix well.

Serve. Most Costa Ricans eat it with lots of sour cream.

What is Gallo Pinto?

Wikipedia gives a great definition for this dish - literal translation: Spotted Rooster.

Did you know...

Facts, history and other interesting stuff about Gallo Pinto

National Gallo Pinto day. Really? Find out more about it here

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

Latina Magazine adds some bacon to their mix.
Find the Joy in Each Moment uses butter as the base for cooking.
The REAL Costa Rico Blog gives you the recipe in English and Spanish.
The BackPacker uses chicken broth rather than the juice of the beans.
Global Destinations throws in a bunch of veggies to shake it up a bit.

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Even though guacamole is a Latin dish, mainly from Mexico, the rest of Central America, Costa Rica included, has made it like their own. It's a yummy and healthy salad or spread, and super easy to make.

Plus, I've added a few of my own touches that always have people coming back for more.

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados, peeled
1 ripe tomato
1 cucumber
1 lemon
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt to taste

Supplies

Knife
Cutting board
mixing bowl
spoon
fork

Cook It Up!

Take the tomato, onion, garlic, and cucumber chop them up really fine and place them in the bowl. Take the avocados and with a fork, mash them up in the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Next add the coriander, olive oil, and salt to the mix. Blend them together. Last, but not the least, squeeze all the juice out of the lemon, give it one more mix and enjoy!

Serve It Up!

Serve with nachos, tortillas, and on quesadillas.

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

This is the fun part. I have discovered a great variation to traditional guac. Instead of fresh coriander, how up Basil! Yes, basil. You'll be surprised how delicious it is. Plus, I've started adding chopped up almonds. Anyone who has tasted my guac are most impressed with this ingredient. Try it and you'll be amazed how tasty it is!

What is Guacamole? Wikipedia's take on it

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

Simply Recipes adds serrano chiles to take it up a notch!
Group Recipes adds Tabasco sauce and a bit of Worchester Sauce - that's definitely different!
Recipe Zaar they like jalapenos!
It looks like I've been outnumbered in the spicy department:)

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Is there a more typical Latino dish out there, I don't think so! Practically every Latin and Hispanic country has their own version of this tasty plate. Here is the Tico version of it.



INGREDIENTS

2 large chicken breasts
3 cups rice
1 onion,finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small can of peas
3 carrots, diced
1/2 pound of string beans, sliced
1/4 teaspoon of achiote (paprika)
2 tablespoons oil
salt to taste

SUPPLIES

Large cooking pot
strainer
frying pan
bowl

Cook It Up!

Fill the cooking pot with 4 cups of water and place the chicken, half of the onion and half of the bell pepper and salt. Cook until chicken is tender.
Let cool.
Strain the juice into the bowl and add another 2 cups of water.
Discard the bones of the chicken and shred it up.
In a frying pan heat up the oil with achiote and saute the rest of the onion and bell pepper.
Place the juice with the extra water into the soup pot again, add rice, the shredded chicken, and the sauteed onion and pepper. Cook until rice is done.

Serve it Up!

This dish, like all other Tico creations, is served with the cabbage salad and tortillas.

What is Arroz Con Pollo? Wikipedia will tell you!

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

Simply Recipes has a completely different take on it then mine. They fry their chicken. I don't know about you, but I love fried chicken!
Vacation City and I almost see eye to eye on the recipes. They have a bit more color and veggies added to the mix.
Group Recipe's Tconstantin gives away her family's recipe of this traditional Tico meal!

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This is one of my favs. Since I'm Russian by birth, my mom has cooked stuffed peppers for me since I was a young girl. Granted, these are completely different then my mom's cooking, but the same sense of taste resonates through and through.

INGREDIENTS

4 bell peppers
1/2 pound of ground beef or chicken
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped finely
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
oil

SUPPLIES

baking sheet
cooking pot
frying pan
bowl

Cook It Up!

Anoint the peppers with oil and place them on the baking sheet and into the oven to broil on all sides until skin curls. If you don't have a broiler option, you can bake the peppers for about one hour with the same results. Let cool and then peel and remove seeds. In a pot cook the oil, beef/chicken, onion, garlic powder, coriander and salt and pepper until the meat is done. In the bowl beat the eggs. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture and dip into the egg batter before frying them in oil on all sides.

Serve it Up!

Serve immediately. And again, this dish is great with the cabbage salad on the side.

Don't forget to check out more fun foods and recipes at Wanderfood Wednesday.

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Costa Ricans love this salad. They use it as a side dish to almost everything. And, instead of putting good ole fashion sour kraut on their hot dogs, they put this salad with ketchup and mayo.

INGREDIENTS

half a head of shredded cabbage
2 shredded carrots
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 lemon
salt to taste
black pepper to taste

SUPPLIES

knife
cutting board
mixing bowl

Cook It Up!

Place the shredded cabbage and carrots in the bowl, add the salt, pepper and olive oil. Before mixing it all together, squeeze all the juice out of the lemon. And viola! You've got yourself a tasty side salad.

Serve it Up!

Like I said, Ticos serve this with almost everything. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. You decide with what you'd like to eat a little bit of cabbage with!

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Here's a riddle for you?

What is made of corn dough, stuffed with meat or beans or veggies and is found at EVERY SINGLE COSTA RICAN'S HOUSE during Christmas?
If you guessed Tamales, then you are correct!

It is practically against the law to enter a house and NOT be offered a tamal Xmas eve and day.

So see what the big hype is all about and add this dish to your Christmas meal. However, what makes this dish extra special is the ceremonial tradition it represents and brings families close together in not only the eating, but the making of them. So invite your mother, sisters, aunts, cousins and girlfriends over for a day of socializing and cooking.

Tamales are made in steps:

All tamales are wrapped in banana leave for a rich flavor. If you are unable to get banana leaves, grape leaves will be a good substitute.

Step One: Masa de Tamal (The Dough)

Ingredients

5 pounds of Masa (corn dough)
1 cup concentrated pork broth
1 cup concentrated chicken broth
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon Worcester Sauce
6 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbed, including fat
2 cups potatoes, cooked and mashed
salt and pepper to taste

Supplies

Cooking pot

Cook It Up!

Throw in all the ingredients, mix well. Keep on low heat, stir constantly so it doesn't stick, and remove from heat as soon as it starts to boil.

Step two: The Tamal (Filling)

Get the banana leaves ready!

Ingredients (per tamale)

1 small piece cooked pork
1 small piece cooked chicken
5 green beans
1 green olive
5 raisins
1 small cooked carrot
5 capers
1 strip bell pepper
5 garbanzo beans
1 teaspoon cooked rice with achiote (paprika)

Supplies

Cooking Pot with boiling water

Cook It Up!

Lay out 2 pieces of banana leaf, about a foot square each. Place 3 tablespoons of dough in the center. Into the dough press all of the above ingredients.
Wrap up the leaves, forming a brick like shape. place 2 tamales, seams facing inward, together and tie with string or twine. (This is called a Pina).
Place the tied up tamales into the hot water and cook for 30 minutes.

Serve it Up!

They are best eaten warm, right after the cooking process. However, to re-heat up is about 10 minutes in hot water.

What exactly is a Tamale? Wikipedia explains it best

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

For a much more in depth understanding how to make the tamale, with stories and pictures check out Costa Rica Guide's article.

April H. at Gather.com truly gets to the heart and soul of the Christmas tradition and tamales in Costa Rica.

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Photo by Fimb

This side dish, also called Patacones, is my husband's favorite and an extremely typical Latino fix. Plus, it's super easy to
make.

INGREDIENTS

3 large, very ripe plantains
Oil
Margarine

SUPPLIES

frying pan
wooden spoon

Cook It Up!

Your goal is to get the plantains as soft as possible. If they're aren't super soft on their own, hit all over them with a wooden spoon to soften them up.
Peel and slice the plantains in 1/2 inch rounds. Fry them in half oil half margarine at medium heat until golden.

Serve it Up!

Serve right away!

Tell me more about the Fried Plantain. Here's the Wikipedia's Take on it
About.com gives a better look of the plantain throughout Central America

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)
Recipe Zaar prefers the green plantain versus the mature one. It's all a matter of taste. I find that the mature ones are sweeter.

This is the typical tico recipe from Tico Foods!

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Along with the cabbage salad and gallo pinto, this dish is served always with lunch and dinner. To be honest with you, I enjoy it all on its own, it's filling and tasty.



INGREDIENTS

1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 pound pork sausage, peeled
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon achiote (paprika)
1 teaspoon Worcester sauce
1/4 cup water
oil
salt to taste

SUPPLIES

deep frying pan

Cook It Up!

Saute sausage for 10 minutes over medium heat, then crumble it up. Now add the remaining ingredients, stir, cover and cook until potatoes are done.

Serve it Up!

Serve hot and with tortillas.

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

Veggie eaters, don't despair you can have a taste too. Simply take out the pork sausage and add a few colorful vegetables like red pepper, green beans, and any other veggie you love.

And for meat eaters, mix it up a bit, instead of pork sausage use chicken sausage, and I've even had Picadillo with Tuna. That's the beauty of this dish, you can add whatever you want to it.

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Basically, an empanada is a stuffed tortilla. You can stuff it with any ingredients. The most basic is with cheese but scroll down for some other fun ideas. Also, these snacks are great fillers, and can be added to your kids lunch for a little variety!

Ingredients

2 cups corn flour (Masa)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (or any kind of cheese that melts well)
salt to taste
oil

Supplies

Mixing bowl
2 plastic sheets
Small frying pan

Cook It Up!

In a bowl mix up the corn flour with the salt. Next form small balls and place them in between the two plastic sheets. Take the frying pan and squeeze down so that the ball turns into a thin pancake (tortilla). Now put the cheese in the center, fold it and seal it with your fingers. Last step, fry it up. Place the tortilla in the frying pan with oil and fry until golden on both sides.

Serve It Up!

You can serve these great treats with sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole or just plain. They taste best when warm.

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

This is where the fun begins. Why not throw in some herbs and spices for flavor. And how about a little bit of meat and veggies too. You can make the tortillas any size, so have fun. You can come up with a Latino style calzone with many different ingredients all cooked up together.

Note: If you're cooking with meat, make sure the meat is cooked before folding it up inside the uncooked tortilla. It will not cook enough in the frying pan.

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Beans are the essence of Central American cooking. So you can understand that whatever Ticos cook with beans is going to be good, because many years and generations have been perfecting it.



INGREDIENTS

2 cups black beans
6 cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped
4 hard boiled eggs, minced
salt to taste

SUPPLIES

Pressure cooker
strainer
Bowl
Blender

Cook It Up!

In a pressure cooker put water, beans, coriander, onion, garlic and salt and cook for 45 minutes.
After it's done, strain the broth into the bowl, and take one cup of cooked beans and blend them up in the blender.
Add the liquefied beans to the rest of the beans, add the broth and bring to a boil.

Serve it Up!

The soup is best served if it sits for one day. Then garnish each bowl with the minced eggs.

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I'm not the biggest fan of tortillas. I find them a bit bland and too ordinary. However! When I add a bit of cheese to the mix, it makes all the difference.

Ingredients

2 cups corn flour (Masa)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or any kind of cheese that melts and mixes well)
salt to taste
oil

Supplies

Mixing bowl
2 plastic sheets
Small frying pan

Cook It Up!

In a bowl mix up the corn flour and cheese with the salt. Next form small balls and place them in between the two plastic sheets. Take the frying pan and squeeze down so that the ball turns into a thin pancake (tortilla). Now take the tortilla and place it into the pan with oil and fry until golden on both sides.

Serve It Up!

In the Latino culture tortillas go with EVERYTHING!!! Eggs, meat, beans, salsa, salad, plain or a number of other food concoctions. It's totally up to you.

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

Tortilla fusions are yet to be discovered, so I say live a little. Add herbs and spices to the mix. Give them flavor and life!

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Rice & Beans is to the Caribbean locals as Gallo Pinto is to the rest of Costa Rica. No dish on this side of the country is served without it.

Instead of cooking rice with water, you would substitute coconut water and milk.

Read Gallo Pinto Recipe for how to make this dish.

Don't forget to check out some other great foodie delights on WanderFood.

Check out these other fun Foodie Delight Recipes. Do try these at home!

Costa Rican cuisine is a mix and match of many Latino dishes. Arroz con Leche has joined the ranks of popular sweet Costa Rican dishes ages ago.

This particular desert dish is yummy, super easy to make and your kids can join in the fun without you stressing that they might cut off a finger or stain the kitchen counters.

Ingredients

2 cups rice
1 can condensed sweetened milk
1 can evaporated milk
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
Dash of salt
3 cups water

Supplies

pan
bowl
fork

Cook It Up!

Cook rice in salted water until tender. Add remaining ingredients and mix with a fork, simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve It Up!

Serve warm in a bowl.

Add a Pinch of Imagination and a Sprinkle of Creativity! (variations)

½ cup canned pineapple
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup raisins
Sprinkle with cinnamon

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Costa Rica is a blessed tropical paradise of fresh fruits. And with all my years of living here, I have to contest it is cheaper to buy fresh fruit and make your own fresh fruit juice then to buy the manufactured kind. No joke! I can never get enough of this treat and here are a few ideas of juices you can do anywhere in the world.

We know this style of drinks as smoothies, in Costa Rica they are called batidos. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

Fruit, Fruit and more fruit:
pineapple, blackberry, mango, papaya, strawberry, cantaloupe, watermelon, guanabana, passion fruit, star fruit
ice
water or milk
sugar

SUPPLIES

blender

Cook It Up!

You can use one fruit or mix a dozen fruits you decide. Throw your choices into a blender with the ice, sugar and water or milk. (Many people like it with milk, you can do whichever you like, they all taste amazing). Give it a whirl and viola.

Serve it Up!

Pour it into a tall glass or simply stick a straw directly into the blender (if it's just you) and sip away.

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