More Food

For those to whom food is important, I am posting another recipe. For those for whom it is not, I am procrastinating the task of uploading photos. Take your pick.

Ecuadorian food has proven a little odd, in the starchy, fried sort of way. Today for breakfast, for example, we ate banana chips (fried) that had be squashed. The were served with queso de la mesa (table cheese) which is realy just cream cheese in a butter dish.
Today, Hanne and I did discover a Panaria for lunch, which is a delicious bread store where none of the food is labled, and you walk in, point to somthing you don´t know what is (if you happen to be a clueless gringo) and say ¨uno de esos, porfavor.¨ Then they hand you the item (which turns out to be some sort of delicious bread product, for example a cadomen role (imagen a cinnimon role with cardomon and candied fruit)) and charge you some ludicrisly small amount for it. As there are almost as many panarias as people here, I think we will try anotherone tomorrow...

Anyway: I got to help with dinner again today, and so here is a recipe for yuka pancakes with cheese (if you happen to be a member of my dads side of the family, you will remeber these as being the yummy ¨potato¨ pancakes we ate last time we were here. Boy were we wronge...

1) Cook a bunch of yuka, then mash it. Go for a mixing bowl full, if you are planning to feed several people. If you happen to be in the US, make a bunch of mashed potatos. If you happen to be in Ecuador, do not even think of comparing the yuka to a potato. Even though I think they tast the same, I have been informed that this is sacralige.
2) Melt some butter, and pour it in your mashed yuka/potatos. (thats what they did, though since we will later fry this stuff, I don´t quite see the point of this step.
3) Grate some special type of Ecudorian cheese. I think it tasts like feta and that feta would work just fine (in fact I sugest you use it, since the majority of people reading this are not in Ecuador). Grate some onion(s), too, and put it in with the cheese.
4) Make the potato (opps, I mean yuka) mixture into balls (1-2 inch diametro, creo) and then flaten the balls so that they form things that look like small pancakes. Take a bit of the cheese onion mixture, and put in in the middle. Now role it into a ball again, so that the cheese in the middle, completly, then flaten the thing into a patty.
5) Pan fry the pattys, like pancakes. They should be lightly browned on both sides.
6) Eat, and say ¨que rico¨(rember that this is very important).

I think I managed to explane to my family that I like to cook, so maybe they will let me help more, and thus learn more. Hope you enjoy,

Yoni