Bolivia

This weekend we enjoyed our meal from Bolivia. To be honest, I had no idea where Bolivia was and should likely look for each country on the map! But I know now that Bolivia is in South America near Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, and Argentina.

Our meal was Majadito, a Bolivian fried rice with beef. To begin, I fried red onion, garlic, and peppers in oil until translucent. Then I added diced beef to brown. At this point I was supposed to also add the tomatoes but missed that until later on.

Once browned I took everything out of the pan and gave the pan a quick rinse. Next I added some more oil and fried uncooked rice and a bit of salt. I was looking forward to how this would taste, frying it beforehand, but I’m not fully sure I browned it enough. In frying this you must keep it moving so not to burn.

For the next step I poured everything into a larger pot and added the oregano, cumin, annato, and pepper, peas and carrots, adding enough water to cook the rice.

While this simmered away we cooked some eggs, cut some avocado, and fried some plantain bananas. Once finished this dish was served in a bowl and topped with the egg, plantain, and avocado.

The main of the dish was enjoyed by all, but the sides were not so much by some. Josh actually quite enjoyed the combination of the egg with the plantain. My favourite part of the toppings was the egg, the others were definitely different. We’ll make this dish again I’m sure, though I will try and fry the rice a bit more before adding the rest of the ingredients.

https://chipabythedozen.com/en/fried-rice-with-beef/

We ended up making two desserts as the first was started the night before. This was Helado de Canela, a cinnamon sorbet. To do this we boiled water with sugar and a cinnamon stick. Once it reduced slightly and the water turned darker I added corn starch that was dissolved in cold water. After boiling a bit longer it was finally taken off to cool and I added lemon juice.

Finally this was put in the freezer where we would mix it every once in a while to ensure it wasn’t going to freeze solid. Eventually it became a slush and was ready to eat.

I enjoyed this with its light cinnamon flavour but not everyone did. Some didn’t not like it, they were just quite uncertain with the flavour. I would definitely eat this again, and if I have the time to stay up to keep mixing it, I’ll likely make it again sometime.

https://ww.internationalcuisine.com/cinnamon-sorbet/

The second dessert was Espuma de Mango, or mango mousse. This one sounded so good, but I was a bit uncertain after reading the recipe. This was made by blending sweetened condensed milk with egg yolks one at a time before adding the mango pulp. We dissolved gelatin in water over low heat before adding to the pulp and blending well.

I then took the egg whites and beat them with the rum extract and vanilla until stiff peaks formed. This was folded into the mango mix, placed into individual dishes, and put in the fridge for three hours to set.

This mousse was pretty good, though sweet. I liked it, but some were weirded out by the fact that there were fairly raw eggs in it. I’m not sure that we’ll make this one again, but I’m glad I tried it. I think I would like to look for different mouse recipes to try with the rest of the mango to compare.

https://www.boliviabella.com/espuma-de-mango.html

Did you know that Bolivia has more than one capitol city- the real and the legislative capitol? Evo Morales was the first indigenous person to be elected president in 2005. They have the highest de facto capitol city in the world and the highest navigable body of water in the world.

Bolivia is one of the few places to get Ametrine (along with Canada), guinea pigs are a delicacy and dead meat is commonly sold in the streets. Cal Orko contains 5,055 footprints of 8 dinosaur species. There is a bus station what was designed by Gustav Eiffel, and Bolivia and Paraguay are the only two land locked countries in South America.

Finally, one can vote at 18 if married but must wait until 21 if single. When getting married the wife takes the husband’s last name with a prefix of “de”.