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Ask any Costa Rican (or Tico, as they call themselves) how they are, and the standard reply is "pura vida." It translates into the Jesuit-sounding "pure life" and it represents the summation of a culture so laid-back that they’re fazed by nothing. I, on the other hand, am fazed by plenty: hair-straightening tropical humidity, missed airline connections and long waits on scorching tarmacs, for example-all three occurring shortly after landing in a tiny airport on the outskirts of the capital, San José.
So the first three pura vidas I hear inspire downright anger, the next three something like indifference. But, by number seven, I soften, and allow that these perma-smile people might be on to something. I relax, my shoulders slacken and I take deep breaths of air so rich with nutrients it seems like a tropical amuse bouche. I’m even smiling by the time my hotel shuttle finally deigns to show up.
I’ve come to this country, largely known for its burgeoning eco-tourism, to try to tap into the culture the only way I know how: through its cuisine. I’ve spent countless days immersing myself in the food of Southern Mexico-I can spot a good mole from bad without even tasting it-but the cuisine of the rest of Central America is something of a mystery. While others will be ensconced up in tree houses or planted on pristine white beaches, I intend to have my sleeves rolled up mashing plantains in a bowl-or whatever else my instructors tell me to do. Any gourmet meals I enjoy will be the fruit of my own labours.
My first stop is the cooking class at Arenas Del Mar, a Five Leaves-certified (the Michelin stars of sustainability) beach resort near Quepos on the Pacific Coast. The resort is swank but when I’m whisked off to the "test kitchen" I’m slightly concerned-it also doubles as the staff quarters. My concerns are allayed when my instructor, sous chef Gerardo Zuñiga, a serious but laid-back 30-something in starched chef’s whites, starts the first dish with the simple act of picking a verdant green papaya from one of the resort’s many trees. He demonstrates the preparation of a picadillo, grating the papaya and sautéing it with onions, cilantro, red pepper and ham. He finishes with Lizano, a popular store-bought tamarind sauce that provides a sweet note, and some annatto paste, which gives the dish a bright orange hue and an earthy-floral flavour and aroma. Soon he and I are fiendishly digging into the dish with hot tortillas and going mano a mano over hot sauce consumption.
The "snack" segues deliciously into some patacones, flattened and double-fried discs of green plantain that are a staple in these parts. I fry some plantains, flatten them with a plastic-wrapped cutting board and fry them again, all the while heartened by my knowledge that deep-frying equals tasty the world over. The crisp, slightly sweet crust of the patacones gives way to a satisfying starchy core, sprinkled with enough salt (harvested just up the coast) not only to make each bite sing, but to replenish my own salts in this humid tropical heat.
I continue the plantation-to-plate adventure by moving to the Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation & Inn, another Five Leaves establishment located in the lush central valley perched above San José. My education begins with chef Rodrigo Nuñez Corrales, who skips the kitchen in favour of a heady trip to the vast, open-air
Mercado Central so I can meet some of his favourite ingredients. There’s the stocky guineo banana and camote, a gnarly arracache tuber with a flavour reminiscent of celery and roasted chestnuts. Then there’s the pejibaye, a palm fruit taken with coffee and used in sauces, the sour guava, and something called a water apple.
Corrales, upbeat and charming, is clearly in his element, trading quips and the local slang greeting of "Hola, papi!" with many vendors. Inside the market’s core, we enter into a series of fluorescent-lit cafés known as sodas-ground zero for home cooking, helmed by robust women in cramped quarters. Here my education ramps into overdrive as I sample dishes such as chorreada, an enormous and dense sweet corn pancake topped with sour cream and banana-leaf wrapped tamales stuffed with pork and carrots with the most velvety textured corn masa (dough) imaginable. I begin to understand how the cuisine differs from the fiery salsas and complex moles of Mexico. Costa
Rican cooking tends to be simpler, using minimal ingredients, and more mildly spiced. Any added heat comes courtesy of chilero, a pickled chili condiment, which can range from mild to five-alarm, but is always served on the side.
Back at the Corrales’s kitchen, we get to work transforming our market bounty into culinary magic. First the guineo bananas are used for soup-once cut they must be soaked in water to avoid turning black. Then the arracache is peeled and blanched, much like a potato, before using it for a picadillo.
On the days following, Corrales takes me to Ark Herb Farm, an organic wonderland where he sources arugula, tatsoi and edible flowers for his new series of greens cooking classes. I visit a spice farm dripping with orchids that’s home to some of the world’s largest vanilla beans, along with cinnamon, peppercorns, turmeric, cardamom, allspice and cacao. I daydream that this could be my permanent hub from which to live a 100-mile diet.
The cooking continues apace and more than once I lose my way with the combination of fractured Spanglish, unknown ingredients and the ever-
present heat. But my brow hasn’t furrowed since that first day on the tarmac. And even if, in the past few days, I’ve gorged myself on fried bananas, fried papaya and twice-fried plantains-I’m chalking it up to the pure life. |
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RECIPES
Picadillo of Papaya
Verde (Green Papaya)
Recipe from Arenas del Mar
(with liberties taken)
 3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
¼ white onion, sliced
½ medium red pepper, diced
½ cup cooked ham, chopped
2 ½ tbsp powdered chicken
stock (optional)
½ tbsp annatto paste
(without spices)
1 tbsp Lizano sauce (avail-
able at Latin foods stores)
1 cup green papaya, peeled
and grated
½ cup cilantro leaves,
coarsely chopped
8 small corn tortillas
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and red pepper until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the ham and stir into the onion mixture until heated through. Add the powdered chicken stock, annatto paste, Lizano sauce, papaya and cilantro. Stir frequently until mixture is slightly caramelized and turns a lovely orange hue from the annatto paste.
While the picadillo finishes cooking, heat corn tortillas in a warm oven or in a dry frying pan over medium heat.
Serve picadillo with warm tortillas and hot sauce. Makes 4 servings.
Options: Grated or small-diced potato is an easy stand-in for green papaya, as is arracache (a Costa Rican root vegetable). Meat, firm white fish, shellfish or even scrambled eggs on the side are all welcome additions to this recipe.
Pork loin Served with a Purée of Boniato and a Savoury Rum-Spiked
Coffee Sauce
From El Tigre Vestido Restaurant at Finca Rosa Blanca
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb pork loin
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tbsp roasted garlic purée
Salt and freshly ground black
pepper, to taste
1 ¼ cups panko crumbs
Heat oil in a medium-size frying pan over medium heat. Sear pork well on all sides and remove from pan. Mix together mustard, roasted garlic purée and a good pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Coat the pork in the mustard mixture, cover and marinate in the refrigerator. Chill for 2 to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Spread panko crumbs on a plate and roll marinated pork in crumbs to coat. Place pork on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake until pork is cooked through (about 15 minutes). To serve, slice pork loin, drizzle with coffee sauce and serve alongside purée of boniato (recipes to follow). Serves 2.
Savoury Coffee Sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil
½ ripe plantain, peeled and
chopped
1 tbsp dark rum
½ cup espresso coffee
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 tsp ground fresh coffee
2 tbsp raw sugar
Salt, to taste
Heat oil over medium heat in a medium-size frying pan. Add the chopped plantain and sauté until it is lightly browned. Take the pan off the heat, add the rum and, being very careful, light the rum to flambé. Once the flames die down, return the frying pan to the heat and add the espresso, coffee grounds, cream, sugar and salt to taste. Cook another two minutes, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Let cool and then blend until smooth. Reheat sauce just before serving.
Boniato Purée
1 lb camotes or boniatos (sweet
potato), peeled
1 large ripe plantain
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp heavy cream, or as much as
needed to create a soft purée
2 tbsp butter
1⁄8 tsp fresh nutmeg, grated
Salt, to taste
Cut ends off plantain, leaving peel on. Place with boniatos in a large pot with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are soft. Peel plantain and mash with the cooked boniatos. Add the syrup, cream, butter, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and mash until smooth. If purée is too thick, adjust consistency by adding more cream.
Agua del Sapo
(Toad Water and Rum)
Recipe from Finca Rosa Blanca
1 6-inch piece of ginger root
2 oz tapa de dulce (dark cane
sugar syrup)
2 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz dark rum
Ice
Lime wedge, for garnish
Grate ginger and strain it to extract the juice. Discard the pulp. Combine the ½ oz of ginger juice with Tapa de Dulce, lime juice and rum in a shaker with ice. Shake well. Serve strained or over ice. Garnish with a slice of lime. Makes one drink.
Patacones (Fried Plantains)
Recipe from Arenas del Mar (with liberties taken)
3 or 4 green plantains
1 ½ cups vegetable oil or palm oil
Sea salt
Salsa, for garnish
Cut the ends off each plantain and cut into three or four lengths. Make a shallow cut down one side of each piece of plantain and remove the peel, either with your hands or a sharp knife. Cut each length into smaller rounds about 1.5-inches thick.
Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Place the plantain pieces in the hot oil, turning once to cook both sides. You don’t want the plantains to have too much colour on them after this first frying. Transfer to a paper towel to absorb some oil, then, while still hot, transfer to a cutting board and flatten gently with the back of a spatula. Return the flattened plantains to the oil and fry, turning once, until golden. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to drain, and sprinkle with salt. Serve with your favourite salsa. Makes 3 to 5 servings.
Cocadas (Coconut Tarts)
Recipe from Finca Rosa Blanca
Tart Crusts
2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter,
room temperature
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Cut butter into small pieces and work into flour mixture with your hands until the butter is in tiny pieces and the mixture holds together. Combine the water and vanilla and work it into the flour and butter mixture until the pastry is just blended and will hold together. Gather dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Divide chilled dough into 12 balls. Working with one ball of dough at a time on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to ¼-inch thickness and press the pastry into 4-inch tart pans. Repeat until you have 12 lined tart shells. Freeze tart shells for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Bake tart shells until golden brown and baked all the way through (approximately 20 minutes).
Coconut Filling
½ cup water
2 ½ cups tapa de dulce panela,
grated, or dark brown sugar
3-4 cups fresh coconut, grated
1 cinnamon stick
In a large sauce pan, melt the sugar with the water over medium heat until mixture is syrupy. Remove from heat. Add the grated coconut and cinnamon and combine until it forms a dense mass. Divide among the prepared tart shells and refrigerate until set. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream.
Thanks to Whole Foods Market for supplying recipe ingredients (510 8th Ave., Vancouver, 778-370-4210, wholefoodsmarket.com) and to Cookworks Test Kitchen for recipe testing (1548 W. Broadway, Vancouver, 604-731-1148, cookworks.ca).
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