<B>Allano's Travels in Chile and Argentina</B>

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Allano's Travels in Chile and Argentina

The latest of Allano's Travel eBooks are now available for viewing and purchase as follows: Allano's Travels in Chile and ArgentinaThis book recounts Allano's first fishing ventures in the Chilean and Argentine Lake Districts, and in Tierra del Fuego. Cheers, Allano

Smoking trout Chilean style, at Hornopiren, near Pto. Montt.

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Recipe

The blue agave plant is trimmed of leaves and the lumpy white core is sent to the factory. It is roasted to convert the starch content to sugar, then leached with water which with some cane sugar, is fermented to an alcoholic liquor. The liquor goes to the distillery and a pot still is used to make tequila, like making whiskey. The tequila is aged in oak barrels for various lengths of time.

Blanco: not aged, no additives

Dorado: not aged, yellowish, often colored by caramel

Reposado: (rested) aged at least 2 months in oak barrels with coloring and flavoring agents added

Anejo: (aged) at least a year in oak barrels, with added coloring and flavor.

Cook Books

I am addicted to cook books. I borrow plenty from the local library but also I am addicted to buying them for 50 cents to a dollar from Opp shops, church fairs and Lion's book marts.

My apartment is bursting at the seams with cook books, fishing rods, minerals and crystals. Today I bought another book for a dollar,The Complete Book of Spirits and Liqueurs which will keep me amused for several days. The day before at the Lion's book mart I found How to Cook with Wine which I referred to today and put a slug of sherry in the vegetable soup I'm having for dinner tonight.

Last week it was the Sporting Cook Book which inspired me to buy some salmon fillets on discount which I smoked in my chiminea smoker on the patio, and now are waiting to be used as tapas at the next party with my neighbours. Then at the library I found The Joys of Cheesemaking which was very interesting. I tried the beginners recipe and made a pottle of "queso blanco" from a liter of milk and some cream. I added some chopped parsley and cracked pepper to spice it up. Tastes good on my breakfast toast with marmalade.

Then on Thursday at the Lions (Brighton suburb of Adelaide, South Australia) I was browsing around the knick knack section of the mart and spotted a box of junk that had just come it. A box of sea shells, clams, curly gasterpods, colorful abalones and an impressive lump (7 inches) of a cluster of large barnacles that had an attractive purplish hue to them. This caught my attention because I had seen them before but alive in the fish market at Angelmo near Puerto Montt, Chile. They are considered a delicacy along with sea cucumbers, or echinoderms. But what is their name? Anyway, I bargained with the nice lady in charge and bought it for two dollars. Now the problem is where to display my barnacle specimen after washing all the dust off it?

What has this to do with cooking? Lots! That evening I consulted my books and finally Wikipedia and identified my large barnacles as Austromegabalanus psittacus or in Spanish picoroco which are a native of the coasts of Chile and Peru. The picoroco barnacle is used as one of the ingredients of curanto, a Chilean seafood stew.

I remember seeing them, picoroco, on sale in the Chilean fish markets and was off-put by them waving at me their alive feelers from their barnacle shell, not that I knew what to do with them if I bought some. However, my search in Wikipedia about them turned up a wonderful section on Chilean Cuisine which is going to keep me very busy in the future.

So cook books keep me happy with many new and old recipes to try out.

Trout and Kitchen :

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Allano's Travels in Chile and Argentina

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