Cooking in the Campo

I would love to see an Iron Chef in the campo.  You'd have to run generators for the fog machines and microphones, but the results would be fantastic.  Bring in two top chefs to compete in creating culinary masterpieces.  The spin, and this is where the ratings come in, is that there's no refrigeration and most of the fresh food you have to work with is a starchy variation on a potato.  Replace Belgian endives with dachin, which is kind of like a tuber.  Replace Shanghai bok choy with ñampi, which is kind of like a big potato.  You get the idea.   While presentation flourishes could give a nod to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you're still pretty limited.  And there's no refrigeration, so dairy's out, along with all those sauces and pastes lining the doors of fridges back home.  I think it would be a pretty good show.  FoodTV meets Discovery Channel.

In spite of all of this, Peace Corps volunteers all over the world have been inventing some pretty great meals over the years.  For instance, we have our own Peace Corps Panama cookbook which walks a new chef through the basics and also highlights the culinary creativity of some volunteers.

Since blogging is somewhat narcissistic by nature, I'll skip right to highlighting some of my own favorite creations.  Everything can be made in a pressure cooker, does not require refrigeration, and is some combination of rice, lentils, green bananas, and the delectable root veggies listed above.

Green Bananas in Rosemary Cream Sauce
No need for making a rue when you are only dealing with powdered milk.  Add a touch of flour, a little cooking oil, water, and low heat and you've got your basic alfredo sauce.  Add rosemary, salt, garlic powder, and pepper to taste.  All can be thrown into pressure cooker as you're cooking bananas.  If you're cooking with just the pressure cooker, save adding flour until the end to make end result creamier as heat of cooker breaks down sauce while cooking.

Coconut Curry
Rice and lentils plus whatever else you want.  Add about a tablespoon of curry, a splash of cumin, a can of coconut milk, a half tablespoon of ginger, a tablespoon of garlic powder, a half tablespoon of sugar, and some dried basil for kicks.  If you don't have coconut milk, you can buy coconut extract, but only at the Rey in David.  A splash with powdered milk will get you there in a pinch.  Also it's cheaper than the canned coconut milk route.  I crunched the numbers.  It's true.

Pad Thai
Rice, lentils, whathaveyou.  One part soy sauce to two parts peanut butter and two parts sweet and sour sauce.  Salt, garlic powder, basil.  If you have trouble finding the agradulce sauce, substitute ketchup, splash of vinegar,  a bit of sugar and pineapple Tang if you have it.  I'm not making this up.

Chinese Stir Fry
Rice, lentils, whatever.  Soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic powder to taste.

Chili
Rice, lentils, the dried soy chunks that you can get at the Romero in David (soy chunks would be welcome addition to all recipes listed).  Can or bag of tomato paste depending on how they sell it.  Cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and chili powder to whatever alarm level you want your chili.

So yeah, a window into my world.  Breakfast is usually fried plantains, pancakes, or cereal.  Not bad.  Lunch and dinner is something listed above or a variation thereof.  Sometimes I make calzones by taking any of favorites listed above and stuffing into bread pocket and baking.  Yes, I also bake bread in site and brownies from local cacao.  See, and you were worried about me.  Don't worry, I'm fine.   Having fun prepping for the local airing of Iron Chef next fall.