Honduran Ponche De Pina (Hot Pineapple Punch)

8-12 servings 15 min 10 min prep
3 pineapples
3 cups water
3 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons whole cloves
2 teaspoons whole allspice
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1 quart light rum

Peel pineapples; chop or shred.
Add water and let stand overnight.
Put in large saucepan with spices, sugar, and coconut milk.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Strain liquid into large pitcher.
Add rum and serve hot.
NOTE: If fresh coconut milk is not available, pour sweet milk over shredded coconut.
Let stand for several hours.
Squeeze through a cloth.

Ceiba Conch Ceviche

▪ 29 oz. can of conch - [usually can be found at a good fish market or an Italian or Greek deli.] Drain and rinse in cool water until the ‘soapiness’ disappears.
▪ 2 Mexican or Key limes [use your standard supermarket “Persian” limes if not available]
▪ 1 small serrano pepper [jalapeno if you like more heat]
▪ 4 cloves of garlic
▪ ½ walla walla, vadalia or another sweet onion
▪ 1 celery rib
▪ ½ red bell pepper
▪ ½ green bell pepper
▪ fresh cilantro (parsley if cilantro isn't available)
▪ 1 T. first press, extra virgin olive oil
▪ sea salt
▪ freshly ground pepper

Chop conch pieces into ¼ inch chunks. Squeeze the limes and place the conch in the juice. [The juice breaks the protein down just as if it were heated – try this with fresh fish and just lather the fish on top of freshly made tortillas].
Meanwhile, dice the vegetables into 1/8-1/4 inch pieces. My taste runs to smaller dicing. Press the garlic. Chop the parsley (or cilantro) and add the olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss the vegetables and add to the conch and lime juice.

Chill at least 4 hours. Just before serving, toss again, pouring off excess liquid. Pour back liquid to your own preference.

Serve with fresh gourmet crackers, dipping corn chips, or fresh tortillas.

[Note: We also like this recipe with any mild fish, using the lime to ‘cook it.’ This is very Caribbean, Latin American style].

Sopa De Caracol

Ingredients:

¾-1 lb conch cut into large chunks (substitute large clams, scallops, any sweet shellfish)
6-8 cups chicken bullion
3 cups coconut milk
3 cloves minced garlic
2 chiles minced (use your own judgement here)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1\2 tsp minced ginger
½ tsp cumin
1 diced carrot
1 diced medium sized onion
1 diced medium sized tomato
salt to taste
Preparation:

Put bullion in stock pot on high heat, turn down to simmer once it boils, add diced veggies, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. In a pan, saute the garlic, chiles and ginger in a little oil on medium heat until garlic turns translucent (30 secs.) add conch meat and saute for 2 minutes and turn off heat. Add meat to stock pot along with the coconut milk and cumin. When liquid begins to simmer, turn off heat, add the cilantro and serve.

San Pedro Sula Simmered Beef

Use this as a decilious taco or tortilla filling. I have worked and worked with this recipe until I am satisfied. My guests seem to be as well.

(6) Servings

1 lb. bottom round of beef (any good cut will work). Trim any excess fat
2 T. olive oil
1 small chopped onion
4 cloves minced garlic – (we are heavy on garlic; you can back off)
1/8 C white flour
1 can (14-15 oz.) stewed tomatoes (preferably with green chilis)
1 can (7 oz.) diced green chilis (fresh is even better – poblanos are mild and work well)
1 jalapeño – diced (carefully washing hands after dicing)
¼ C water
1/4 C red wine (increase water amount above if you as a 'purist' choose not to use wine)
½ t. oregano
1/2 t cumin
Salt to taste. Don't overdo. If you are using canned vegetables, often the salt from them is sufficient.

Cut meat into 1 inch pieces. Brown meat in olive oil. Add onion and garlic, cooking until soft.

Sprinkle the flour over the browned meat; cook 2 minutes. Then, add remaining ingredients. Stir. Cover and simmer on very low for 1 to 1.5 hours, checking and adding water/wine as needed. Stir occasionally (every time you yell at the kids seems to work well).

To serve, garnish with sour cream (or plain, unsweetened yogurt) on tortillas/tacos with cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, your favorite finishings.

Fried Plantains (Platanos)

First thing to do is look at the differences in ripening stages or maturity.

Green - Called verdes
Yellow
Brown/Black - Called maduros (mature)

The green 'stage' is used in making tostones. When traveling in Honduras, you will see all stages of ripeness served. Whatever is in the kitchen gets presented to you. When we were traveling on Roatan, I saw kids walking around eating whole verdes that had been boiled.

This recipe calls for using the black, or ripened plantain. They are the sweetest stage as the sugars form within the fruit. But how do you pick out a good, ripe plantain? Easy.

You will be fine as long as the plantain isn't past its prime. Don't buy it if the skin is starting to dry, if it is hard, or squishy. If all the plantains are green, buy some and ripen them in a brown paper bag on your countertop. 5-6 days will do it. Don't worry, you will get the hang of it.

One plantains serves two people.

▪ Cut the banana in half. (Don't peel yet).
▪ Cut each 1/2 lengthwise. You now have quartered the plantain into four equal, narrow, relatively flat pieces.
▪ Now peel the plantain, more by pulling it off with your knife than peeling per se.

▪ Heat 1/4" corn or soybean oil in a pan (I like olive oil in the kitchen but you can't take the temperature too high)
▪ Put the plantain in the oil when the oil has reached a medium-high temperature. If oil smokes, turn it down.
▪ Turn the plantain when the natural sugars in the fruit begin to carmelize (just starting to turn brown) - about 6 minutes
▪ Fry the other side - about 5 minutes
▪ Place fried plantains on paper towels to remove extra oil
▪ Serve. Voilá - you are a Honduran.

Bay Island Mango Glazed Chicken

Utila Bay Island Honduras is the setting for this one. If you step back 300 years you would be rubbing elbows with the original Captain Morgan and his merry band of cutthroat pirates who holed out in Utila Bay. This island was the staging grounds for raids on Spanish forts and galleons up and down the coast of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Abundant rumors of buried or sunken treasure are surely apocryphal but there is a different variety of leftover Spanish loot that you should be able to get your hands on with ease, the golden flesh of mangos. People tell me that the mango is not indigenous to Central America, that it was brought by the Spaniards and proliferated. On the island of Utila alone you will find 15 different varieties, one of the broadest selections in the world, all are fabulous.

This recipe comes to from an ex-pat Idahoan and a former legend in the Bay Area named Dave Ayarra who stumbled onto the island some five years ago on a treasure hunt of his own. All good fusion chefs worth their salt know an opportunity when they see one and this recipe almost didn’t need to be discovered, it spoke to him. A puree of overripe mangos laced with thyme, ginger, sherry, garlic, a twist of lime and a touch of chile de arbol ladled over a whole chicken and baked to the color of the late afternoon sun. The chicken juices infuse the mango sauce pooled in the baking pan and is spooned over each serving. I imagine that Captain Morgan, with a ship’s hold full of salt-cod and moldy potatoes, would have traded a chest full of doubloons for a plate-full.

Ingredients:

one whole chicken
4 medium sized mangoes
1 to 2 tsp. dried thyme
3 to 4 tblsp. sherry
2 cloves minced or crushed garlic
salt and pepper to season chicken
Preparation:

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, place in roasting pan. Peel mangoes, slice off flesh and puree in blender with thyme, garlic and sherry. Ladle over chicken and bake at medium heat.

Yucca Pie

In the poorer regions of Honduras yucca root is one of their staple crops. It grows anywhere, leached out soil, muddy river banks even in sand. It’s a lifesaver to those living on land where nothing else will grow. As well, it need not be germinated from seed; merely plant a stalk or branch from another bush and roots will start to grow. Amazing plant.

Alas, yucca on its own fails to be a gustatory treat. In soups or boiled and served with a sauce of some sort it is OK, like a highly glutinous potato. It takes a bit of creativity and savvy to whip up anything special where the main ingredient is yucca. So, check out this desert recipe.

Our good friend Dona Elma Bodden hails from a Miskito Indian village Raista, on the inner shores of Laguna Ibans in the Mosquito Coast region. Her kitchen is locally renowned. The tourists who come to tour the Raista Butterfly Farm, the staff of the NGO Mopawi (internationally funded non-profit group that helps with local development projects in indigenous communities) and a few locals all dine there regularly. I asked what sort of “cuisine” could possibly be made with yucca and she delivered. This is a variation on pumpkin pie, dense, sweet, chewy and wonderfully flavored.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups grated yucca
2 sticks margarine or butter
2 cups coconut milk
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup of coffee
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Topping for pie:
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2--3/4 cup water

Combine flour, salt and baking power. Cream butter and sugar, add spices, coconut milk, coffee. Mix in dry ingredients. Pour into greased, floured baking pan and bake in a 375 degree oven until solidifies and turns golden brown on top.

For the topping, melt butter, add sugar, powdered milk and water. Hydrogenate by stirring while heating. Cook until thickens. Pour over top of pie.