We’d like to welcome on board the guys at 2sporks1cup, who travelled to Colombia this year. This Aussie and Colombian couple kept their blog diligently updated through their travels and continue to update now they’re back in the land of Oz. We’ll be re-posting some of our top picks in the coming months to give you a taste of their Colombian experience.
Read their last post here. Enjoy!
Traditional bread of the Amazon is not at all like bread in other parts of the world, but it’s a staple that is as much a part of the indigenous community as carrying a machete. It’s also quite a process that we watch being made regularly in our home.
It’s called casabe and it’s made labouriosly with tapioca and a lot of patience. Tapioca is a root vegetable that’s as regularly used as plantain here. It’s super starchy, has a very mild flavour and is extremely malleable. The perfect expansive filler for staving off hunger.
Peeled tapioca are grated by hand into a fine pulp and then left to soften for an hour or two. Then over a large sieve the tapioca is washed with water to bind the vegetable in to a gummy consistency. The water is collected below the sieve and then left to sit over night so that all the sediment gathers at the bottom of a large container.
The next day the pulpy tapioca is mixed with the soft sediment and hand kneaded into a spongy mixture. It’s then rolled out flat into a large circle and roasted on a thin pan over a wood fire.
Most often it’s served with soupy fish, a chilli paste made from local fruits or eaten at breakfast with a sweet local jam. It’s an acquired taste that we’re growing to like.
After the last cassabe was made we ate a meal of fish, chilli and fresh juice from our garden. Like most cultures, sharing the final result is as important as the process of cooking and it’s usually eaten outside under the open kitchen hut.
Our favourite desert is a rock in the hammock for an afternoon siesta.
Kris (2sporks1cup)
