A damn good Bandeja Paisa @ Restaurante Santafereno

I really cannot believe I have not put fingers to keyboard and bored you all to death about this wonderful place in the all new foodie heaven that is called Brixton Village.

Maybe I just didn’t want to let you know how good the food is there, so you wouldn’t go and make it more difficult for me to get a table when we do our quarterly Colombian blow out.

But let’s be realistic here though, Colombian food is not the best in the world, it is not the most refined either. On the other hand it is big, bold and full of homeliness.

There are several dishes that depending on where you live are considered to be the national dish of Colombia.

Rolos or Bogotanos, those folk from the Capital consider Ajiaco as the number one national dish. But what do they know.

Now Paisas or Antioquenos, those happy chubby folk form Medellin and the coffee zone of Colombia know that the Bandeja Paisa is the National Dish of Colombia.

As you can see I am slightly biased, well married to a Paisa, whose only contact with other Colombians are Paisas, and having visited there on numerous occasions and lived in Paisalandia for a while. Yes I’ve been brain washed. The same as little Adele got me into thinking that all that is good in this world is made by Apple.

The good thing about Colombian food is that it can be transported all over the world, unlike Mexican food, which seems to loose everything the moment it sets foot out of the motherland.

The reason for this is that a lot of food that is cooked in Colombia, whether it be in the home or in a home style restaurant, they all use a secret ingredient. Triguisar.

This powdered spice mix is prevalent in a lot of Colombian dishes, so much so that a lot of them all do taste the same.

This is why the food in Santafereno tastes so much like it does in Colombia. It certainly has that authentic taste to it. The restaurant is also full of Colombians, who like in every other Colombian restaurant, bar or café in London long for that taste of home.

As I was saying the food in Colombia is not Michelin starred quality and never will be. They are hardy mountain folk who prefer size over quality.

There is an expression in Colombia, “Bueno, Bonito y Barrato”. Literally meaning good, beautiful and cheap. Sums it all up.

The Bandeja Paisa in Restaurante Santafereno has all the likely culprits you would expect. Chorizo sausage, slow cooked beans, fried platano, steak or normally minced meat, rice, small arepas and chicharron.

It’s a plate not for the faint hearted, but somehow between the two of us we manage to eat the lot. Well mainly me really.

I love eating at Santafereno but not on a regular basis, otherwise I would end up like your typical large bellied paisa. 

What We Ate Last Night : Sopa de Guineo

Colombian cuisine is not very good in general. It has its low points, but it also has its high points, which are its soups. Sopa de Guineo is one of my favourite Colombian soups. I have only ever had it in Colombia, mainly because we’ve never seen Guineos in London before. Even with the amount of Colombians that live here in London, they were just never to be had.

Well until last week, when Lina was feeling a tad homesick, and she was in need of something Colombian, apart from her Arepas.

So whilst shopping in Pueblito Paisa in Seven Sisters she finds a few bunches of Guineos. I’m still amazed she only brought 3 and not all of them.

Sopa de Guineo brings back memories of cool Sunday afternoons up in the mountains on Lina’s uncles farm outside of Medellin. The crispness of the air, with the heat of the sun, somehow makes this soup a whole lot better.

You will need

3 Guineo’s

2 small potatoes, diced

1 onion, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 litre of chicken stock

1 tsp of cumin powder

1 bunch of coriander, chopped

Salt n pepper

1. Sweat onion and garlic.
2. Add potato and add the cumin powder. Stir
3. Peel and cut up the gunieo. Add to the pan. Do this at the alst minute, as they go brown very quickly.
4. Add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes.
5. Once the guineo and potatoes are cooked. Remove a few and keep to add back later.
6. Blitz the soup to how you like it. You can even pass it through a sieve if you like. Add the reserved pieces of guineo and potato.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Add most of the coriander and serve. Sprinkle over some more coriander and enjoy a taste of Colombia.

I did over blitz the soup, so it was crema de guineo, which since it was a cool evening it turned out pretty good. Again with most things in life, leave it for a day and it just gets better. 

Ajiaco Santafereño

Ajiaco Santafereño to give its full name is the national dish of Colombia, unless of course you are from Medellin, where it would be Bandeja Paisa. No question. Ajiaco is an odd soup. Then again most soups in Colombia are pretty bizarre, but they all taste pretty damn good. It really falls into being a light stew rather than a soup, as the broth and contents are pretty light, but in Colombia they call it a soup, and it is theirs to call what they wish.

In Medellin I have only ever had this at family gatherings, so I always liken it to a celebration food rather than an everyday meal, whereas bandeja paisa or mondongo are easily available from restaurants all over and outside of Medellin. Ajiaco is a special treat worthy of a special occasion.

Lina opted to make this for our Xmas eve dinner we were having with some homesick friends. Some Colombian, some not. It is actually a very easy dish to make for large groups, as it is pretty quick and easy to prepare and execute. 

There are however two key ingredients you must use to get a pretty authentic Ajiaco. They are guascas and papa criolla. Both are now readily available in any good Colombian or Latin American retailer. I.e. any shop near to Seven Sisters and that pink monstrosity in Elephant and Castle. Or as we recently found out some shops on Blackstock Road near to Finsbury Park as well.

The papa criolla are needed as when they cook they dissolve and give the soup its traditional yellow colour. Guasca is needed for the taste.

You can do most of this well in advance and a day of mixing those flavours together will do it no harm at all.

Ingredients for 4 (kind of)

1 Chicken breast

4 chicken thighs

Several pounds of as many different types of potatoes as you can get

2 ears of corn, cut in half

2 handfuls of guascas

Chicken stock or water

To serve with

Capers

Double cream or crème fraîche

Cooked rice

A banana each

Slices of avocado if you are so inclined. I am not.

Method

1. Get a frying pan pretty hot and add some oil. Add the chicken thighs and crisp up the skin. Pop in the oven to finish cooking. This is better this way, as most people put the thighs in the soup to cook and the skin goes soggy. Not nice. Keep warm.
2. Bring the water or stock up to a simmer. Add the chicken breast and a handful of the guascas. Simmer till the breast is cooked.
3. Remove chicken breast. Set aside. Once cooled, shred.
4. Add the potatoes and corn to the pot. Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the corn and potatoes are cooked.
5. Remove some of the potatoes and mash with a fork. Add back to the pot to thicken. Add the rest of the guascas.
6. Add the shredded chicken breast back to the pot to warm through. Season.
7. Place one chicken thigh, ½ an ear of corn, and several good ladles of the soup into bowls.

Serve the rice, banana, capers and cream separately, you can then add or not add as you wish to your soup. I like to add a bit at a time so I have the soup with bits of cream and capers but not all the time. When you order Ajiaco in a restaurant in Colombia, the cream and capers are added on top just before service.

Don’t ask me why the banana with a soup. I don’t know. But it does work. I prefer to eat mine separately, but some people mix it in with the soup.

Slices of avocado are generally eaten with most Colombian meals, not only soups. I am not keen on this green mushy mess, but if you want to then this is up to you.

Enjoy this wonderful warming and hearty soup in these dark cold days. 

Queareparaenamorarte – What should I do to make you fall in love with me?

I started to write this blog several months ago, then after a while I forgot about it, but sitting here in North London, I may as well finish it and post it. There is another one, which I shall post in a week or so, maybe.

I first saw Queareparaenamorarte on youtube. It was on an Anthony Bourdain show he did on Colombia. Well actually on Medellin and Cartagena. (Link here).

The name Queareparaenamorarte is a title from an old Colombian song. Which means What should I do to make you fall in love with me? But as being Paisa they have a play on words with that true Paisa dish the arepa. Get it. It’s a Paisa thing, what can we say. You either love them or not, that’s arepas.

The food in this restaurant which sits in La Fe is regional Colombian fare, dishes taken from all over the Colombia. Some recipes seem to be from someones Nan, Aunt or whoever. It’s a mixed bunch.

I’d heard from people that the food was fantastic, well presented, but everyone had the same complaint. The portions were small. Very. What we found was perfectly portioned food. Normal size for us, but for Mr and Mrs Average Paisa the portions were super duper small. Starter size even.

On the youtube video people are singing the praises of the restaurant owner, who is seen hovering over a cook waiting for a chorizo to be cooked. He then takes a piece off the grill. Not very hygienic, but makes great television.

The first time we went, we just sat in the bar and had a beer, when Faustino Asprilla (ex Newcastle footballer and all round Colombian superstar) walks out and jumps in a car with some hot blonde and shoots off. I would have run out and grabbed a foto or autograph, but my beer was getting warm. So I left him in peace. Well he only played for Newcastle.

We went back a few times after to sample the food. I somehow preferred day time eating than night time eating in Colombia, as I always used to goto bed on a full stomach. Never a good thing.

The place is always jammin’ on a weekend afternoon, with the high society of Medellin popping in more to see and be seen than actually eat. I could be rather cynical here and say they wouldn’t understand the food, but you would have to be pretty dead not to enjoy it. For Medellin and area it’s some of the best.

I can not actually remember what we ate when we went during the day, as it was such a long time ago, but when we visited it at night once, we had the mixed platter of little nibbles. A couple of chorizo, morcilla, chicarron (crispy pork skin and fat), platanos. Well basically everything you will find up in the mountains above Medellin, but all served together in bite size morsels. Nice, went down pretty damn well with a few beers, and watching those lovely people of Medellin see and be seen made it a fun evening.