Getting a hit

Yesterday went into town, centro. Haven't been in for a while and luckily it was still the same exciting foreign, city place of eye candy, snapshots and otherness. phew.
Principally the occasion was to order some more of our soy milk and organic coffee from Puerto Rico and then maybe some art seeing. We spent a bit of time huddled in the upstairs office for our order por mayor and hid our disapointment but not surprise that both desired products were outta stock and not around for another month. hrmpf. Trialling a new milk and coffee for in-between.

Onto art time. I really like going up to AFA . You can lock your bike inside the foyer. And you could have lunch at the neighbouring Sindicato de Folkloristicas Club which I really will do one day. The whole gallery-inside-the-building concept is a bit like Melb's Curtin House only without so much cool school and with a real life concierge and lift with metal grate sliding doors. But I use the stairs cos its only to the first floor [or the 2nd floor if you are chilean; 1st floor is the ground floor and that's why you never get a G button in the lifts here].  Then its through the magic neon lit, wallpaper beloved entrance to a surprise view of the peeps in the street below and the sexy cinema across the way. When finished oggling the view and AFA's curious collection of books not for sale, we caught the last days of the floaty architectural experiences from Juan Martinez Macari in his 1940-45 project. 

[I think it finishes up on 29 abril]

nothing to see here

 same view, different exhibition

lunch date soon

Minimal and intricately pressed architectural diagrams of a selection of Art Deco liner style houses from around Estadio Nacional were strictly grouped in plan-elevation-elevation-plan order. The slight third dimension giving a breath to the austerity. And since our last visitor had her tour eye focussed very much on this style of architecture, and the added dismay of very little information around on this era, this was a fitting display of the underrated Santiago 1940's architectural style. Ace to see a meticulous dissection of it. Now just need to see someone do a book on the Art Deco buildings of Chile…pf.  There's a good writeup here and now that I think about it, ol' Juan looks quite like Dave Burrows

Passing the Feria de Libro in Plaza de Armas on the way home, I picked up a couple of books I have had on my wishlist for ages, for cheaper than shop price. I think books here have lately been undergoing a bit of a rennaisance, in terms of content and design. Although still a bit pricey, there are more books all the time on esoteric cultural matter, fotography, art. And all looking a lot prettier these days. And there were heaps of titles including my favourites from LOM and Ocho Libros.  I'll go on about the books another time.

So in and around Plaza de Armas is still going off, hey Pedro?

AFA, Calle Phillips 16, 2 piso, oficina A. 

Top tip: Look up before entering the building and wonder how I can get up to that cross bridge please.

You'll know what I mean when you are there.

Never cross a bunny

bunny across the road

There are no hot cross buns here. At least I couldn't see none.

So, we made our own. 

I think they were a medium success.

I followed this receta by getting Flaite to read it out so I wouldn't get flour in the keys. In the end I don't think I put enough flour in as the dough was very sticky and batter-y and not so doughy. 

I left it to rise overnight and had dreams of the dough overflowing the bowl and seeping across the floor and up the bed and covering us in a doughy doona of sultanas and mixed spice....

then I woke up and slip-slapped that dough into bun shapes, popped 'em into the oven sin cruces and after being instructed to double their baking time by Flaite, 

we got

golden brown sweet 'n' spicy bunnies

Pastel de Choclo casero dance remix

choclo detritus

The choclo or gigante corn cobs, started to appear in January. I am always a bit freaked out by their oversized look. In fact, I always prefer my produce to come in smaller sizes; apples, kiwis and tomatoes always taste better when they are smaller.
The fearsome looking choclos got overlooked for awhile in favour of the more recognisable, slender maiz or choclo americano. I happily ate the huge choclos prepared as freshly made humitas that were touted at the feria for 500 pesos each, steaming warm and authentically parcelled up. But I had to pass over the home made Pastel de Choclos because of the unknown meat content.

tipo casero

Then I went to Quinoa, the vegetarian restaurant that doesn't make loud noises about being vego but simply "fresh from the market". Here I had my first Pastel de Choclo, served up in the traditonal greda dish, hot hot hot from the oven. And it was good and evidently easy to make. I now had a solid reason to buy my own choclos.

As a starting point I used trusty Clasicos vegetarianos del mundo. However, I discovered their version of the recipe was only really good for learning how to make the choclo topping. Handy, as this was what I needed the most. The rest I significantly adapted or made up to match the Quinoa version.

We have been using Plenty religiously since it was gifted and the enthusiasm ol' Yotam has for berenjenas is contagious. We have made all of his aubergine recipes and I have the burnt aubergine cooking technique down pat.

So,this is what I used for the filling of the Pastel.

 The aubergines can also be prepared over the asado, whilst waiting for the carbon to get to the right temperature, before any meat gets cooked. 

So, Pastel de Choclo is a good dish to make the day after an asado, 

saving some barbequed vegies for its filling.

And this is how I made it!

Pastel de Choclo con berenjenas

Makes enough for 4 folk using one largeish baking dish say 20 x 30cm or 4 single serve dishes, preferably round
TOPPING INGREDIENTS
4 choclos, kernels scraped off, discard cob and leaves [can substitute for regular sweet corn even frozen corn kernels will do, about 5-6 cups of kernels]
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbs olive oil

FILLING INGREDIENTS
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in rounds
4 eggplants, medium, roasted with the flesh scooped out, skins discarded
400g mushrooms, sliced
olive oil for frying

1-2 zapallo italianos [zucchini], oven roasted and diced up [optional]

1/2 tsp oregano, fresh and chopped
1/2 tsp cumin, toasted and lightly ground
about 20 black fat olives, pitted [in Chile the amargo ones]

brown sugar for top sprinkling

METHOD
Heat oven to 180C
Hard boil eggs, peel, cool and slice.
If roasting eggplants, put them on first and get them going. Balance the whole aubergine directly on a gas element and roast until skin is burnt. Turn until all the sides are burnt. It's ready when a sharp knife can slide easily into the flesh. Then remove from flame and put on a plate. Cut open lengthwise and scoop out flesh and set aside. Discard the skin.

TOPPING
In large saucepan, fry onions in the olive oil until soft and golden. In a blender add cooked onions with corn kernels and blend until smooth. Return corn mix to saucepan over low heat and stir mix until it thickens, about 5-10 mins. Then set aside.

FILLING
In medium pan heat some olive oil and fry mushrooms until soft. Add eggplant flesh and zucchinis if using. Mix thru and then take off heat and mix in the oregano, cumin and olives.

ASSEMBLY
In the baking dish fill with half the filling mix
then make a layer of the sliced eggs
then cover with the rest of filling
then slather with the corn mixture completely covering the dish
then sprinkle with the sugar
then bake for 45-60 mins trying to make the top go golden brown
then eat it.

greda is gold!

Beats for treats

love love this clip..cool cool grabs of santiago..our ace town

I am bouncing my way to the kitchen with this track.
DJ Raff rocks and he is makin' his way round the country and
I think I will go to the show at GAM.
But that is ages away.
Meantime I'm gonna make pastel de choclo, vegetarian style.
Yes it is possible...

Growing up greener

This got me thinking about the little jardin del patio...and how much it has growded and greened up the depto
Starting with feria crates, lined with old plastic, filled with compost soil and then with seedlings bought from the nice man with the seedlings cart on Irarrazaval.

Then water, wait, water, wait, kill bugs in the middle of the night, wait, rearrange for maximum sunshine, wait, water

pickpickpick,eateateat

go to seed.....

¡Ataque!

I have found about a zine fair that I can actually go to. Arriba!
It's an 'Attack of the Fanzines', with plenty of folk involved, some I heard of and new folk I ain't.
It's happening in the ever flaite but always hip Plaza Brazil, Sat 2 April at 1600hrs, where the kids will give it their all with the second round of their monthly attempt to zine-up the barrio.
I missed la primera but my hosting of incoming visitors was maxed out over the summer months and I didn't get in much computer time hence the inability to find out wtf is going on in this town.
That and my growing reluctance to leave my hood.
For this I will leave my 'hood.