It's been awhile since I've posted. I have to be honest, I have been feeling overwhelmed with my promise to post pictures with my recipes more often! While I generally take plenty of pics, I am reallllly lazy about uploading them, for some reason. Anyhoo, what better way to start off than with a recipe that I will be making until I run out of Lizano sauce.
At the beginning of January, Ryan and I whisked ourselves off for our long overdue Costa Rican adventure. I'd been promising myself a trip sine I first graduated with my Bachelor's way back in 2005. At the time, I was single (and much more financially unstable). The thought of traveling alone royally freaked me out! When I received my Master's in 2010, I was in a long term relationship and made the decision (for us both) to take that trip! Look how pretty:
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| Waterfall near Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica |
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| Me and the boy climbing around the lava rocks at the Arenal Volcano |
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| Waterfall near Monteverde Cloud Reserve |
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| Sunset in Manuel Antonio |
See? I told you! Anyhow... about 2 weeks after we got back, I decided to make Gallo Pinto from scratch. Gallo Pinto is what Costa Ricans typically eat for breakfast, often with eggs, and it is really simply beans & rice sauteed together with onions, cilantro, and spices/sauce. I bought a bag of black beans and made a whole batch of it in my new 7 qt crock pot:
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| My new crock pot in action! |
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| Steamy black beans, finished product |
Now I have a few ziplocs full of plain black beans just waiting for me in the freezer! No salt added! Anyways, here's the recipe I used, from a random website I found by searching google... I think you could potentially use worcestershire sauce in place of the Lizano, though their flavors are a bit different.
Gallo Pinto (4 servings, 165 Cal per serving)
Ingredients
1 cup of rice, cooked in chicken stock instead of water (we stuck with good ol' white, since that's what they used in CR)
1 cup of cooked beans with a bit of the bean liquid for color and flavor (it was ALWAYS black beans in CR)
1 chopped onion (small)
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 bunch chopped cilantro
4 Tbsp Salsa Lizano (can useWorcestershire sauce but don’t expect the same taste!)
Pinch of black pepper
How to prepare
1. Fry onion, garlic, and cilantro in the oil for about 3 minutes.
2. Pour in the beans and add the Lizano sauce and black pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes, but don’t let it dry out.
3. Pour in the cooked rice and mix it with the beans.
We served ours alongside scrambled eggs and a sliced papaya (I know, I know... it was from Chile, but it really added to the Costa Rican ambiance!):
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| My version at home in Cali |
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| Gallo Pinto and scrambled egg breakfast in Monteverde |
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| It was served with coffee, juice, pineapple, watermelon, and papaya |
2 comments:
We absolutely love CR!!! We miss the food as much as the beautiful scenery...you don't happen to know or have a recipe for arroz con pollo. BTW: Lizano tabasco sauce is the best thing ever... you can order and have it delivered but you pay about 4 dollars a bottle.
Thanks for your comment! I have yet to try and make Arroz con Pollo, but I definitely ate my share of it on our trip! I found this recipe, which also uses the Lizano sauce and sounds pretty tasty. I'll try and make it soon, but here's the link (I'll need to find "annatto" or achiote and "petit pois" or canned samll peas):
http://www.billbeardcostarica.com/php/note_detail.php?id_home=14&id_edicion=132
If you try it, let me know how it turns out! This recipe is for 20 servings, it will be a challenge to get it down to a smaller size.
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