Sunday, February 19, 2017

Paches!

When we go back to the United States, people often ask about Guatemalan cuisine. Sadly, all I've been able to make for folks so far is the typical supper of scrambled eggs and refried beans. (It's authentic, but not very exciting.) However, today we got to have a lesson from a neighbor and friend who is a great cook. She often makes and sells food at break time in the Bible institute, so we got the benefit of learning from a pro!

This cooking lesson was all about paches, a traditional Guatemalan food that goes back to the Mayans and quite probably predates Spanish colonization. Most people are familiar with tamales - made with masa (corn flour) and various types of stuffing - because they are common in many Central American countries. However, I was told today that paches are almost exclusively found in Guatemala, and are unique because they're stuffed with mashed potatoes. They're also delicious!

Patty bought the ingredients at local markets and grocery stores, so everything was ready when we arrived around 9:00. She had started at 7:30 or so in the morning and already had the chicken breast cut up into chunks, the potatoes on to boil, and had started washing the mashan leaves. She uses a toothbrush to make sure that the leaves (especially along the central rib) are free from dirt. A note about this - in Mexico, people usually steam tamales in corn husks.  In other places, it's common to use banana leaves. Here in our area of Guatemala, however, we export the banana leaves, and use the leaves of a local plant called mashan, instead. Patty said she buys them in bundles of 20. The larger leaves are 2.50Q a bundle, and the smaller ones are 1.50 a bundle. (For reference - a  is approximately 13 cents.)



Next up we got started on the sauce. I am learning just how amazing and nuanced different sauces can be, so I was excited to learn her recipe and technique. This is the same sauce that they use on tamales as well. The flavors are complex and deep, and I am hoping to be able to make this frequently. Honestly, I think it would be good on just about anything! We started by cleaning two different types of dried peppers. The first is called chile pasa (raisin pepper), and the dried chili did look and feel sort of like a giant raisin. The second is called chili huac. These were smaller and drier. We opened the peppers and removed the seeds and membranes.
Chili Huac - whole

Chili Huac - seeded

Rachel removing seeds from the chili pasa
After our peppers had been seeded and prepared, we put them in a large pot with halved tomatoes, a small onion, three cloves of garlic, a very coarsely chopped red pepper, and a couple tablespoons of salt. After everything had been added, we filled the pot with water until the ingredients were just covered, and then set it on to boil.

Sarah preparing the tomatoes
Before cooking 
Next came some aromatic fun. Patty and I had gone to our local market the Tuesday before, and she had purchased 4 ounces of ajonjoli (sesame seeds) and 4 ounces of pepitoria (like dried pumpkin seeds, but a little different flavor). We washed them thoroughly (it's surprising how much dirt came loose), and then toasted them in a hot skillet. The ajonjoli had a nutty smell. The pepitoria jumped in the skillet over the heat. Lastly, we toasted some whole cinnamon sticks to add to the sauce. As you can imagine, all of these different smells made the kitchen so fragrant!

Ajonjoli (sesame seeds)

Washing the pepitoria
Toasting 
 While things were toasting, we peeled the potatoes. Patty cooks her potatoes with the peel on and then peels them after they're cooked. The potatoes here are very thin skinned, so they're easy to peel post-cooking. She then mashes the potatoes. However, these aren't Granny's mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. She doesn't add anything - no milk or even salt.The texture we were going for was a coarse but consistent mash, NOT a puree.



Now the sauce!! We started by putting the toasted ajonjoli, pepitoria, and cinnamon in a blender and then added enough of the liquid from the cooked vegetables to make the mixture easy to blend. It took a while to get the mix smooth, but once we did so we added it to the potatoes, and then blended the remaining veggies and liquid. Because of the mix of peppers and tomatoes, the color of the sauce was a deep, ruby red. It was beautiful, and smelled fantastic!

Blending the seeds

Vegetable mix after cooking
What a pretty sauce
After adding the blended seed mix and sauce, we stirred well. That's no easy feat with such a big pot! Next up we added salt, pepper, consomme, oil, and masa (corn flour) in just the right proportions to make the mixture taste and feel right. The consistency upon finishing should be somewhere between a puree and a thick mash.

 Now it was time for the magic! Patty took 2 leaves (a small and a large) and put them front side together, so that the backside of the small leaf was ready to receive the mixture and the back side of the large leaf would be on the outside while cooking. She placed about 3/4 cup of potato mixture in the middle of the small leaf, and then put a chunk of chicken breast and a whole, small, mild pepper next to that.

chicken pieces
Peppers
All the good stuff!
Then, we folded! First up, we took the top of the small leaf only, and folded it down over the mixture. 

Next, you fold both layers of leaves over from the sides. Right first, then left.


 Then, you fold the single leaf left on top down, and then gently tap the folded end down on the counter to move the contents to the bottom. After that, all that's left is to fold the remaining 2 layers of leaves on the end over the whole packet. (You'll probably need to break the rigid center stem of the leaf to get the bundle to lie flat.) Voila! You have a wrapped pache ready to be cooked!

 

Before we started folding, we prepared the cooking pot. For this size of recipe, we ended up making around 60 paches! (That takes a big, big pot!) Paches need to be steamed, so we put metal steamer inserts from a different, smaller pot at the bottom, just to get some height. To increase the distance between the bottom of the pot (where the water will be) and the paches, we stacked all of the stems that Patty had cut off of the leaves.

 
 

We stacked all of the wrapped paches inside the pot and then added our water - just enough to thoroughly cover the bottom without drowning any paches. At the end, we used the extra leaves to create a layer on top to help trap the steam, and covered it all with a piece of plastic and a lid. This giant pot of paches was then set on the stove over two burners on high and cooked for about an hour and a half.

 
 

Then came the best part - EATING! Paches are best enjoyed with friends, which we were able to do this afternoon. They're traditionally served with little pieces of French bread so you can soak up all the good stuff from the leaf. We finished the afternoon with many games of Dutch Blitz and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this delicious day.

Worth the wait and effort
NOT lettuce!
Que rico!!
Friends gathered for good food!
Finishing off the day with a fun game together




Sunday, February 12, 2017

Brain Dump

Once again, we've left this blog blank for a long time. <sigh> Sorry. Originally, we started it in hopes that it would be discovered by others just starting out on the mission journey and could help them with insight and information we had trouble finding. Now, it sometimes feels more like a tool for us to keep our friends and family back home informed about what we're up to. Then again, it's also a public blog, so (the internet being what it is) there's no telling who might stumble across it. Hmmm - place to guide others in practical matters?  Personal space for our loved ones? Platform for preaching and teaching the truth of Jesus Christ? Maybe it's all of the above. Or none! For now, here's just a little bit of what's been on my mind recently:

  • Missionaries - your kids must be a priority! Before we left for the field, I reminded God that Isaiah 40:11 promises that He leads gently those who have young. In essence, I was reminding him that my kids were a priority for me, and He has reminded me many times since that they must be a priority for ME as well. This year we chose to home school because the educational options available to us weren't the best fit for our kiddos. There have been times that I've felt a little guilty (and gotten some flack from others, to be honest) for spending so much time focused on my own children's needs. After all, we are here to help others, right? Listen - the truth is that regardless of where you live, your own family has been given to you for a reason. God knew what He was doing when He gave them to you. Family is important to Him, and it should be important to us. No matter where you are, but ESPECIALLY on the mission field, you can, should, and must make sure your own family unit is intact and cared for emotionally, spiritually, and physically. 
  •  Politics stink! I vacillate between being incredibly relieved to be far from the circus that seems to be the U.S. political arena these days, and wishing I could be back in the fray lobbying and involved in local politics once again. What I REALLY wish, though, was that people would, um, I don't know - be reasonable? I've lost friendships because of politics. I can't believe that's true, but it is. I have found myself cringing when it's time to read the news or check social media, not wanting to learn more bad news or (even worse) see more people behaving badly. Heaven help me if I try to read the comments section of an article or comment! It makes me all the more grateful that the answer for the world's problems won't come from the political sphere, but already came 2,000 years ago as the adopted son of a carpenter. Still, I struggle in knowing how to have wisdom in what to say and when/where to say it, and when it's best to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes it's harder to love people the more you know about their political beliefs (and how they choose to express them), honestly, and I long to love all people well. I also don't want to be guilty of the same ignorance or bias or blindness that so infuriates me when I see it in others. Oh, Jesus - help us all!
  • My baby girl is almost all grown up. Our oldest daughter is looking at the strong possibility of starting college a year early, pending only sufficient financial aid, which we are excited to see how God will provide. What that means is that she'll be leaving not just our home, but the country in which we serve. We'll be 3,000 miles and 2 countries apart for much of the year. This is the point at which a lot of parents start wringing their hands and fretting. Honestly, though, all I feel is excitement for her and for the world that she's about to take on. We've made a lot of mistakes are parents (as all do), but it's been a delight and a pleasure to parent her and her sisters. I have loved each and every age in its own way, and encourage all of you to forget that tired old lie that the teenage years have to be awful and filled with strife. Our experience has been just the opposite, in fact, and the only regret I have about her leaving is that I will miss her cheerful, capable, insightful presence in my daily life. At what is nearly the end of this process of getting her raised up and ready to be on her own, I feel totally confident in my teenage daughter's abilities to make good choices, be kind, follow her convictions, and honor Christ in all she does. It's been a blur, but an honor, and I'm all the more encouraged to soak up what time we have left with her and her siblings in our home, and to rejoice in the victories I know they all have ahead. 
  •  Ministry work doesn't always look like what I thought it would. the past year has been filled with challenges and changes, as I know we've alluded to in past posts, but one of the beautiful things that's come out of it is more intimacy with God, which has enabled us to hear His voice and learn His ways more and more. Before we left for the mission field, my impression of mission work was that it was almost exclusively evangelism, often in the street with strangers. And it is that, sometimes, but not always. Once we got here, we both plugged in to established Christian organizations and lent our energies to their work, which was mostly discipleship and training. We're still with one, but not with the other. Lately, I've felt more convicted to connect with individuals rather than organizations. I found a Christian friend who leads a Bible study at a women's shelter, so I asked if I could help. I met a Christian man who runs a school that needed help with its English program, so I asked if I could help. I have three Christian acquaintances who really want to learn English, so I asked if I could help. Ostensibly, I suppose, some of my activities don't look overtly 'missionary,' except that they are. In forging relationships with these folks, I can pray for and with them and strengthen their faith. In teaching them practical skills, I can help them widen their own sphere of influence and gain resources necessary for outreach. In many ways, it feels like one of the keys to ministry work is to equip locals to spread the gospel and not rely on outsiders to do it, so it feels good to be doing what I'm doing. To be honest, I'm still learning what it means to be a missionary, but for now I'm glad for the new doors God is opening and ways He's allowing me to expand my vision and understanding of this calling He's given me. 
  •  Just so you know, I still don't miss winter and snow. At all.