I was emailing back and forth with one of my sisters today and our conversation turned to how our diets have, or have not, changed since moving to Costa Rica. The discussion reminded me that my post about cooking here is overdue.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I was to grow up during an era when people hung their wash on the line behind the house, covered leftovers in the fridge with a bowl for a makeshift lid, and actually baked cakes from scratch. I say lucky, because in our new life in Costa Rica we often find ourselves without some of the little (and sometimes large) conveniences that we used to think we couldn’t do without.
Actually, I haven’t baked a cake here yet. But I have resurrected my pie-baking skills and whipped together a variety of them: pumpkin pies (made with winter squash, actually), pecan, lemon meringue, and lemon chiffon. Spaghetti sauce doesn't come from a jar. Neither does gravy. And since we haven’t found bread here, I make our own.
I’ve always loved baking bread. There’s something about working with dough… I’m not sure what it is, but I assume the pleasure response it triggers has the same roots (no pun intended) as the satisfaction a gardener/farmer gets from working the soil by hand. And nothing that comes from a bakery here or in the States can compare with a loaf fresh out of your own oven.
Cooking – even from scratch – can be interesting without the well-stocked pantry I enjoyed in the States. Some of that dearth will be remedied with time. Some will remain a void in my alimentary tool chest, as the plain truth is that many ingredients can’t be bought here at any price, and others command a price that I just can’t justify. Turkey is a good example. I read a report last week that the Automercardo in Alajuela had two frozen turkeys on hand. They appeared to weigh in at about 10 to 12 pounds and cost $22 & $24, respectively. Thanks, but I’ll pass.
I get around the problem by creating all new recipes for my old favorites, as I did with the squash pie that could have almost passed as pumpkin. I made a pecan pie for company, but guess what? There is no corn syrup to be had anywhere withina 10 mile radius - and perhaps further. So I hit the Internet and discovered, to my surprise, that the early French settlers who brought the recipe to the South didn’t have corn syrup either! Who would have thought?!? It turns out that they actually used brown sugar instead, and so did I. My pie tasted fabulous!
Then there is the question of what cookware to use. For years I’ve been threatening to toss my Teflon skillets and dig out my old collection of cast iron and now I have finally made good on it.
I made the decision partly for health reasons. The jury is still out on the safety of Teflon and the science is contradictory, but given that I have an alternative on hand, I choose to err on the side of caution. My other motivation is purely economical. In my kitchen, Teflon pans generally have a life of about two years. And they aren’t cheap. But I am! I don’t like U.S. prices for cookware and in Costa Rica the price can be double what I would pay back home.
Fortunately, my 1950s upbringing makes me well-familiar with cast iron cookware, even though I haven’t used mine in years. Hah! I knew I bought them for a reason! Actually, I’ve owned one of my skillets for close to forty years – and it was old when I bought it at a yard sale in Ohio. The rest are newer – maybe a dozen years old – and have seen only enough use to get them reasonably well seasoned. What better time or place to haul them out and put them back into service?!
Cast iron is virtually indestructible, so theoretically I shouldn’t need to buy another skillet – ever! They are naturally non-stick, if properly seasoned and well-cared for. They heat evenly, without the hotspots you get in all but the most heavy, expensive stainless skillets. And they hold the heat better than aluminum or stainless, keeping food warm longer if my timing happens to be off. What’s not to like about all of that? Well, the weight, maybe. But I look at handling them as part of my weight/resistance training that will keep my arms – and bones – strong.
To be sure, I still own and use other cookware. I love the saucepans and Dutch oven of my fifteen year old set of Circulon. I still own and use my big Revere Ware soup pot. And, then of course, there is my stainless steel pressure cooker – an essential tool in a country where beans and grass-fed beef are eaten many times each week.
If it all sounds like more work than it’s worth, maybe it depends on where one sits. For diehard do-it-yourselfers like us, the satisfaction is worth the extra time required to create food from scratch. What I really could use, though, is a few more ingredients. Like green chiles (canned or fresh) and a little tin of ground sage. Who knows, maybe I’ll find them next to that $22 turkey!
Pura Vida
