Street Food of the World: Peru's super street food - Chocho

Food: Chocho
Country: Peru
Region: Huaraz
Flavor: Savory
Spice level: 4/10

I am so very excited to start this segment of my blog, street food of the world. If I am going to spend my 20s eating my way across as much of the world as I can, I may as well write about it.

Here is my very first, super special presentation: the Peruvian super food secret: Chocho!

What is chocho?

Chocho is probably the healthiest a street food is ever going to get. Basically it is a salad made up mostly of the tarwi bean (we'll get to that), mixed with tomato, onion, lime juice, cilantro, cancha (Peruvian popcorn), and maybe a spicy sayce and some MSG. Yeah, peruvians still loooove MSG. Either someone forgot to tell them how hidious that stuff is for you, or they just don't care. Give me flavor or give me death, dicen.

Mix all the ingredients up and you get a super simple, super tasty salad. The street vendors here come out early, and sell it till its gone, usually by lunchtime.

Though I had seen the white bean, tarwi, while living near Cusco, the first time I ever tried this snack was when I met a Peruvian family while hiking a little off the tourist trail in the Cordillera Blanca. One of the daughters gave me a big bag of the stuff and I could not stop eating it.

Photo credit for this one goes to the excellent Steve Freeman ;)

Now, what makes this street food so special? Its main ingredien: tarwi. Tarwi, scientific name Lupinus Mutabilis, is a white bean that grows all across the high Andes. The plant itself is a beauty.

In fact, as I researched this post I pretty much fell over.

Here I am haplessly googling tarwi thinking "hmmm I wonder what the plant looks like?"

It looks like the beautiful purple flowers that have seen on literally every hike I have been on in Peru, ever. They are ubiquitous throughout the Peruvian Andes.

Now of course I can't find a picture of it. But I promise I see it all the time.

The plant itself is great. It grows well in soil with low acidity and helps replace nitrogen in the soil, well and good.

The plant then produces little white beans that are remarkable! They are 40% protein (whaaaaat) and 20% fat. That is richer in proteins than either quinoa or soy.

The bean is inedible raw, as it has a high alkaloid content resulting in a bitter taste. Easily fixed, soak the little guys in water for a few days and you are good to go.

I used to see the mamitas doing this in the markets in Urubamba, and I thought it was a bit gross, but it is totally logical.

In Cusco, they mostly grind the tarwi into a paste and eat it like a stew. Nutritious, but I find the Huaraz region's Chocho a much more delicious way to ingest the magical tarwi.

Today I bought a bag of Chocho (2 soles) and a bag of pre-shredded lettuce in the market (1 sole). Total cost of my (very filling) lunch today? 3 soles, or about $1.

So if you find yourself wandering through a market in the Andes, seriously don't miss out on this one, get yourself a big bag of Chocho and start snacking.

Tropical Mango Strawberry Smoothie Bowl

Fall is just arriving in New England. Actually, this is my first autumn here since 2006 and it is bringing on such intense nostalgia for long gone angsty high school days. But still, autumn was always my favorite time of year when I was young.

I basked in the autumnal glory during my morning yoga practice. Feeling extremely sore from a heavy lifting session yesterday, I spent the entire 90 minutes working in sitting and laying postures. Yoga is all about listening to your body and I'm so glad I did. Instead of feeling tired, I feel rejuvenated and healed.

View from my yoga mat this morning. Made "auto awesome" by google. Whatever that means.

So to celebrate the beginning of autumn and my post-yoga bliss, I decided to make a fruity, delicious breakfast.

However, this breakfast bowl has little or nothing to do with fall. It is instead a tropical wonderland of delectable flavors and healthy green additions that make it a nutrition packed filling breakfast that will freak out your parents and wow your health nut friends. Except the cereal. But I love cereal.

My favorite way to eat a smoothie is in a bowl. Basically you make the smoothie. Pour it in a bowl, and put whatever you want on top of it. Then mix it all up and voila! Amazebowl breakfast.


People get all weird about cereal these days because the "health" community decided to fear carbs. Just like they used to fear fat. Next they will probably decide to fear protein.

Anyway, if you fear carbs I'm sorry for you. It will be okay. But if you love cereal, try putting it on top of a smoothie instead of milk! Hint: It's delicious.


Aside from the fact they are really really ridiculously good tasting, why should you use any of these ingredients?

Obviously mango and strawberries are fruit. So they are fiber packed and nutrient dense, full of anti-oxidents and energy providing, slow digesting carbs. Spinach has loads of nutrients, most importantly calcium and iron, which becomes easier to absorb when you combine it with vitamin C. Vitamin C can be found in what? Fruit. Bam! Healthy and delicious.

Cinnamon has boatloads of health benefits, including helping to control blood sugar, it's anti-microbial, and the list goes on. This website I found has a list of 20 benefits. Seriously. 20. http://cinnamonvogue.com/cinnamoncommonuses.html

Walnuts? Also great for you. They are a nut though so just remember not to go too overboard if you are trying to lose weight, because they are high in fat. HOWEVER fat is good for you so eat them. They are good for your brain! Omega-3's for days.

Hemp seeds. Protein. Filling. Crunchy. Yummy.



Alright, recipe time!

Ingredients

For the Smoothie

1. 1/2 Mango
2. Strawberries
3. 1/4 package silken tofu
4. Handful of spinach
5. spoonful of Greens Superfood Blend (totally optional, but I like it)
6. tsp vanilla extract
7. dash of cinnamon
8. water

For the Toppings

1. More Strawberries
2. 2 Figs
3. Crushed walnuts
4. tbsp hemp seeds
5. Grape Nuts Cereal (or cereal of your choice)
6. Lots of cinnamon!

To begin: It's simple. Take all smoothie ingredients. Stick them in a blender. Blend until smooth.

But if you need more directions, see below:

Get your blender cup and put in the handful of spinach. Top that with some silken tofu.

Next, cup up your mango. Cut the top off the mango, then slice horizontal and vertical so you create a checkerboard effect. Put the bottoms so it all pops up all pretty like this. And peel off or cut off those nice little cubes and throw it in with the spinach and tofu.

Tip: I like to cup up the whole mango in one go, and stick the rest in the freezer for later. Frozen mango makes great fake ice cream.

Cut up your strawberries and add them to the mix. Top it off with the green powder blend, cinnamon, and vanilla. Now add as much water as you like, depending on your desired consistency.

Blend until smooth.

Pour this lovely mixture into a bowl.

Now for toppings!

Cut up the figs by cutting them in half, half again, and half again. Add to bowl.

Cut up strawberries. Add to bowl.

Crush walnuts. Add to bowl. Are we seeing a theme here?

Add the hemp seeds and cereal. Stir it all up! 

Add a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.

Devour.

I hope you love it. If you want more sweetness may I suggest adding dates, honey, or maple syrup. I prefer a more subtle sweetness but that is just me. If you have any suggestions or ideas for improving or changing this up, please leave a comment and let me know!

Delicious Falafel Pancakes!

Hey everyone! Here is another recipe from deep within the recesses of my crazy mind. And yes, it is as delicious as it sounds, falafel pancakes.

Everyone loves falafel right? Those deep fried balls of chickpea wonder from the Mediterranean. It has been one of my favorite meals of all time since I first had it in London when I was 12.

For this culinary experiment, I used garbanzo bean flour, cumin, lemon, onion, garlic, and sea salt to get that falafel taste, and conveniently, garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, are gluten free! So for those of you whose bodies hate on wheat, these pancakes are for you.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of coriander or cilantro, but you could add those to get an even more falafelly flavor into these pancakes.

What I DID add which is probably pretty weird, is ground up flax seeds, gives some healthy omega 3’s and replaces egg in the pancake batter. I also blended onion and garlic right into the batter, AND because I love to include green things in every meal, I blended some broccoli into the batter as well. I really wanted to blend zucchini in, but I didn’t have any in the fridge. Oh yeah, also sliced up some mushrooms and threw those in with the pancakes as well.

Who invited broccoli to the party?

Garden fresh onion

To top it all off, literally hehe, I chopped up cucumber, tomato, avocado, and drizzled some lemony tahini dressing all over it. So creamy. So omfg delicious. And vegan. WHAT?

To be clear, I did not use nearly that much cucumber...

Seriously, this was the most delicious and filling breakfast of ALL TIME. But let it be known, making it is a laborious act of love. This is not a quick, 5 minute breakfast, this is a lazy sunday morning let’s-get-super-hungry-while-we-cook-incredible-pancakes breakfast.

Or, if you’re between jobs like me, it’s a perfect let’s-procrastinate-sending-more-resumes-into-the-abyss-and-cook-amazing-pancakes breakfast.

And if you’re a calorie counter, it comes out to under 500 calories. Yeah. I’m awesome. You’re welcome.

So without further ado, the ingredients list:

For the pancakes:

• ½ cup garbanzo bean flour
• ¾ cup water
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch sea salt
• 1-3 tsp cumin
• ½ onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 mushrooms
• 1 spear broccoli
• juice of a nice sized wedge of lemon

For the topping

• ½ tomato
• cucumber
• ¼ avocado

For the Tahini Dressing

• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp water
• lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• sea salt
• drizzle of honey

ALRIGHT! The prep work. Learn to love it my friends.

I buy whole flax seed, because it keeps longer than ground flax seed. I also have a nutribullet which is AMAZING and turns flax seed into flaxseed meal in about .5 seconds. So do that first, if you need to.

Next, combine all DRY ingredients, flour, baking soda, flax seed meal, salt, and cumin and whisk them or blend them together. Set aside.

Take your onion, I was lucky enough to have a yummy onion grown in my own garden! Just harvested! Cut it in half, and cut that half up into little bits. 

Chop up the broccoli just for good measure.

Now, take half of that onion pile, so ¼ of the onion, and throw it in the blender/food processor with the dry ingredients. Also throw in 1 garlic clove, the lemon juice, the chopped up broccoli, and the water. Blend.

**If you do not have a blender or food processor, no worries, just use garlic and onion powder and forget about the broccoli, it's not necessary**

***In terms of water: I err on the side of too little, and whenever I make pancakes I always end up adjusting once I start cooking the batter and see how it actually cooks. Just remember, you can always add MORE water, but its much more difficult to make batter thicker***

OKAY. So our batter is all done. Give it a little taste test. Is it delicious? Good. It’s not? Add salt? Add cumin? Add lemon?

Now, your onion is already chopped. Next chop up a clove of garlic, and chop up those mushrooms into pieces. Mix them all together in a small bowl. Excellent.

Now take all of it and put it together in a bowl.

Before we start cooking lets just prepare everything yeah? Dice the cucumber, tomato, and avocado. In the end I ended up just mashing up the avocado and spreading it on the pancakes but you know your own tastes.

Combine all the tahini dressing ingredients in a (different) blender cup and blend until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Get out some olive oil and paprika and then….

Woooooo! The fun part! Cooking!!

Get out your favorite pancake griddle, and some olive oil to grease the pan. Product placement: if you live in the States, get your butt to Target and get one of these Misto things. It sprays olive oil and it is genius.

Seriously go buy one. Right now. You'll thank me.

Okay so heat up your pan and spray some olive oil. Then take a small handfull of the garlic, onion, and mushroom mixture and start to sauté, only for a little bit. The mushrooms should start to brown. If they start to burn, turn the heat down. Now gather them into a little group in the middle of the pan, maybe add another spritz of olive oil, and pour your first test pancake on top. I like to use a ¼ cup measuring cup to dole out smallish sized pancakes.

Time to add pancake batter!

This is a good time to see if your batter has enough water. Mine did not.

Pancake batter fail.

If you’re new to the pancake world, here is how to properly cook a pancake.

1. Pour the batter onto the pan.
2. Watch it bubble. When the bubbles don’t disappear back into wet batter but instead stay visible, then it is time to flip.
3. Flip pancake.
4. (optional): Forgive yourself for making a mess of a perfectly pretty pancake.
5. Let it cook longer than you think it needs.
6. Remove from heat, add next pancake.

Q: Should I flip this pancake? A: Yes.

I usually develop a system where I have 2 pancakes going at the same time, one has been flipped one is new, so when it is time to flip the new one, it is time to take the finished one off of the pan.

I also started sprinkling paprika on the pancakes. Yummmmm…

Once you’ve got your glorious stack of falafel pancakes stuffed with onion, garlic, and mushroom then all that left is to load that stack up with cucumber, tomato, and avocado, and drizzle some of that tahini dressing all over it.

Devour.

What do you think? Am I crazy? Crazy stupid? Crazy genius? If you tried this recipe, what changes did you make? I would love to hear some feedback!

Garlicky White Bean and Kale Fettuccini

What!? Megan, you’re supposed to be writing a travel blog. About Asia! What is this?

So I’ve decided to also write a food blog. Or to turn Seoulfully Megan into a “whatever I want” blog. I’m impulsive, so is my blog.

I love cooking. It is my favorite creative outlet. That said, my recipes are going to reflect my cooking style, which is very improvisational. If you need a recipe that looks like a math equation, look elsewhere.

So without further ado, my first blog-worthy recipe:

Garlicky White Bean and Kale Fettuccini

I made this for lunch today and I’m still dreaming about it. The inspiration came from the leftover fettuccini from last night’s dinner, plus some veggies that were sitting in my fridge about to go off.

Handmade Fettuccini. Irresistible.

There is a big nutritional punch in this meal, though that isn’t the reason I put it together. Kale, of course, is the super famous superfood of the moment. It’s got loads of Vitamins A, C, and K, plus iron, calcium, and about a million other nutrients. Because of this it has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Don’t know what that means? It means you should probably eat more kale. Unless you don’t like it, then may I suggest spinach as a wonderful alternative?

To best get the benefit of the calcium in kale, it should be eaten with ample vitamin C, that’s where the lovely tomato comes in. Oh also, tomatoes and pasta go together.

Garlic. Aside from being absolutely incredible, is also incredibly good for you. For one, it has cardiovascular benefits. So if you have high blood pressure, or it runs in your family, start stuffing yourself with garlic. Also, it keeps away mosquitos and vampires. More garlic.

The protein in this meal comes from beans. Which are just delicious all the time.

I get all my nutrition info from www.whfoods.com

In all honesty, I hate the preliminary wordy bits of food blogs and always skip over them, so let’s get to the recipe, shall we?

Ingredients:

Fettuccini

1 Tomato

A few leaves of Kale

½ Onion

1-5 cloves Garlic

A few mushrooms

½ cup white beans (I used great northern because that is what was in the cabinet)

some fresh basil

a splash of olive oil (mine was basil infused and tastes AMAZING)

white wine vinegar

pinch of paprika

dash of sea salt

When beginning to cook I like to have EVERYTHING prepared before I ever turn on the stove. This way I never rush around getting stuff together and accidentally burn what is already in the pan.

First up, preparing the ingredients. If you’re using cloves of garlic, crush them or chop them up into little bits. Take the onion and chop it up into chunks, try to make them evenly sized.

What would this post be without this picture?

Next, I cut the tomato into 4 quarters. You could just throw entire tomatoes in the pan if it made you happy.

Slice up the mushrooms into thick slices, maybe ½ inch thick.

Fun fact: I sold cutco knives for about 1 month. Still use the knives.

Rip up the kale into large chunks. I like to remove the leaves from the stems because I think the stems can be a bit chewy, even after they are cooked.

If using canned beans, strain and rinse them. Portion out however many you want to eat, and put the rest in the fridge.

Rip up the basil leaves, or chop them, and leave a few for the garnish at the end if you’re into that kinda thing.

Alright all your ingredients are prepped and ready to go, now at this point please do yourself  a favor and make sure you have the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and paprika all sitting on the counter next to your stove. I know it may seem like overkill but it really makes life so much easier in the long run.

Now the really fun part! Cooking!

First, heat up a splash of oil on the stove. Once it moves around the pan easily like a thin, watery liquid, it means the pan is hot enough. Throw on the garlic, listen to it sizzle for a bit. Push it around so it doesn’t burn. Probably turn the heat down to medium at this point.

Add in the onions, toss them around a bit to coat them in garlicky oil. After a bit you should notice the onions starting to get soft, starting to maybe change color. Add the paprika. It doesn’t have so much spicy flavor, but it adds a tiny kick and more importantly, turns everything a really nice color.

Cook the onions for another minute, maybe two, until they really start to shrink up. You want to keep moving them around the pan constantly though so that they don’t burn. Throw in some basil, but not all of it.

Then add the tomato and kale. It should look like you added way too much kale. Don’t worry. It’ll shrink down. Also, you can save the tomato until later if you don’t want to completely cook away the tomato.

Once the kale has started to cook down a bit, add some vinegar, and maybe some more basil. I like to throw on basil and vinegar intermittently and according to my own personal taste preferences from this point on.

Throw on the mushrooms. They are going to release a bit of liquid as they cook down. Thats okay. Once they’ve gotten a bit smaller and nice and brown and yummy smelling you can add the salt and the beans.

The beans just need to heat up and then you are good to go! Dump all this yumminess on top of your fettuccini and add another splash of olive oil just for good measure. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and maybe some shredded cheese. May I suggest parmesan? Asiago? Pecorino Romano? All three?

The actual portion that I ate was way bigger than this, but dainty was more photogenic.

On your mark, get set, devour.

Have any suggestions for me? Did you try this recipe and love it? Hate it? Change it? Please let me know! I’m always learning new ways and trying new ideas in the kitchen!