jueves, 11 de noviembre de 2010

Cooking Classes

For the past month, I have been going to my Cocina and Reposteria class at Fe y Alegria. The school is offering different types of classes for eight-weeks, such as classes for jewelry making, learning how to use computers, guitar, speech therapy, knitting and crocheting, art and my class, cooking and desserts. I missed the very first class, so the second week where I attended, I only observed being as though I didn’t have a group who had brought the ingredients for the dishes. An ex-alum of Fe y Alegria is teaching the class. She is 17 and studying to be a cocinera at an institute in Lima. For the first class we made Frito Novoandino en Salsa de Maracuya (in this case, Fried Chicken in Passion Fruit Sauce). It turned out yummy (though I can only vouch for the passion fruit sauce). We also made Pollo a la Griega con Cebollitas Griegas (Greek Chicken with Greek Baby Onions). Hmmm… Again, I can vouch for the onions. Yummy! I soon realized that probably the only non-meat dishes we will be making will be the desserts in this class. Haha. Peruvians love their meat; especially chicken. Pollerias in Lima are probably like Starbucks in Seattle; on every corner.
The third class, taught by Efrair, who runs the kiosk at the school, taught us how to make a Pye de Manzana (apple pie) and Tequenos (fried wontons filled with cheese or hot dog) with an avocado salsa. The Tequenos were nice and light, the perfect appetizer when you’re short on time. The pie was delicious. I finally found a great recipe for pie crust! The trick must be to knead the dough, and knead it some more. Everyone was laughing at me because I was the one elected to knead the dough (my fingernails being the shortest) and I kept being like “Really? With my hands?” especially after they threw an egg into the batter. Even was I was a little kid, I would cry when my hands would get dirty and want to wash them right away. But, soon enough, I started to enjoy the feeling of delving my hands into the gooey-ness.
















The next class, we made the Causa Tricolor which is a popular dish in Peru. It is basically a mashed potato sandwich, the filling can be tuna fish, onions, tomatoes, peas, carrots, avocado, red peppers or any other combination you’d like. Since this one is tricolor we used the juice of spinach, beets and yellow potatoes to make beautiful colors of green, pink and yellow, all different layers and filled with avocado, mayonnaise and shredded chicken (I substituted chicken for tuna fish when I prepared later). It is a very attractive plate but takes a long time because you have to separately blend the spinach and beet in the blender and then extract the juices with a colander. On this day, we also made the famous Arroz Con Leche, a popular dessert that’s more or less like a rice pudding. Both were delicioso!






My taller is giving me a different taste of Peru, in more ways than one. Las salsas are riquisimas here; papa a la huancaina (potato, cheese, milk and aji amarillo), salsa verde (spinach, basil, cheese, and milk). In this class, we are learning foods that are a little more untraditional, a bit more specialty. The passion fruit sauce was a lovely surprise- a mix of citrusy sour and sweet tingle on your taste buds.


In the classes, everyone takes a small spoonful, tasting. When we make desserts, the cans of condensed milk are cleaned with spoons, with fingers. Mixing bowls are licked clean. It’s like kids in the kitchen when mom or dad cooks a cake or cookies and leaves quite a bit of batter in the bowl just for you. When their kids stroll in after their tallers they get passed a taste of the goodies. It’s part of what makes these neighborhoods special, the feeling of community.


Since I’ve met some of the mothers in this class, they invited me to play volleyball with them last Friday. They are greatly amused by the way I play and how I always seem to let the ball bounce once before I hit it back. Many times, I see them in the school or walking with their kids back to their houses and we strike up conversations. My favorite thing is seeing the parents with their kids; especially seeing the parents who are really involved in their child’s life, always talking with the teacher about how they did or reviewing their notebooks and seeing what they did in their classes. And it gives me even greater joy to see one of my students with both of their parents, going off to do something together on the weekend, even just going on walks together in the market.


In the places that we serve, there are a lot of single mothers, women who have gone through so much and yet are still resilient. Many of these women are in the parish, the ones who are the pillars of this community, visiting the sick, offering Healing Touch therapies twice a week in the library, and giving so much compassion and help to those who need it. I am continually impressed by the generous hearts of people who have so little themselves. This is what makes my service here stand out so much to me; to see the whole community working together to give a helping hand whenever one is in need, be it a pollada to raise funds for someone or simply paying a visit to one's house.