"Más chileno que el mote con huesillos..."

Say what? Let me explain... This week in the pastry workshop we cooked various types of stewed/ mashed/ pureed fruit, among others the Chilean classic drink /dessert, Mote con huesillos.  Mote refers to grains of barley, parboiled and peeled.  Huesillos are dried peaches, here named after ossicles or little bones, although personally I think they resemble testicles. The huesillos (pronounced wesiyos) are soaked overnight in water, and then boiled in that same water, along with sugar and spices such as cinnamon, cardomom, cloves... 

The mote also gets boiled seperately in sugar. Once soft, a caramel (yup, more sugar!) gets added to the huesillos, creating a syrupy golden brown mixture. After cooling, the little testicles have to be depipped. Traditionally the mote con huesillos is served cold as a refreshing drink, the mote at the bottom of a tall glass, covered in the syrupy goodness of the huesillos.

In Chile you will find this in restaurants as a dessert, at markets or on busy city streets, sold from vending carts. It's classic, common, traditionally Chilean, and therefore exists the saying 

"more Chilean than mote con huesillos..."

Excuse my French...

Julienne...chiffonade.. brunoise... parmentier... ridiculously fancy names for ridiculously small cuts of veggies or fruit. I imagine every person who's studied culinary arts and got his money's worth had to undergo this tedious task of slicing and dicing things into perfect (and I mean PERFECT) shapes of exact equal size. This is what our first kitchen "workshop" consisted of, and we are told that this will not be the last time we'll be subjected to this French foolishness. I understand that having equally sized pieces ensures a balanced cooking process, but who wants to eat an al dente piece of potato the size of a baby's finger nail?

What I do find interesting is the history of where the names of these cuts come from. Antoine Parmentier, for example, is credited with introducing the potato to France. He came to know the tasty tuber while being held captive in Prussia during the 7 Year War. Later he defended it as a nutritional alternative and managed to get the laws lifted that prohibited its cultivation in France. Until then the potato had been considered inedible in the greater part of Europe. After the French Revolution the cultivation of potato hugely alleviated the famine that prevailed. And for all his effort Parmentier was awarded by naming a 1cm cube of potato after him...

I for one am more partial to robust, rustic chopping, something you can actually bite into! But still, I'm eager to learn and perfect all the French rules and margins, even if only to know better how to break them... oh rébellion!

Enough history and folly for one day.  Next week: mayonaisse :)

New beginnings...

In Chile, prison sentences are always given with an extra day, i.e. a convict would never be sentenced to 3 years, but always 3 years and A day... Don't ask me why, that's just how it is. That's why my very  new husband will joke: "We've been married for one month and a day..."  and so we have, although I don't like to think of our fresh marriage as a prison sentence. Well, not yet anyway...

Getting married ear-marked another change for us: that of moving from our humble adobe abode in the desert to Antofagasta, the not-so-lovely coastal city in the north of Chile. Believe it or not, this place is even drier than San Pedro, and because of the lack of rainfall the streets and buildings are bathed in desert dust, sticking to everything because of the high humidity. But Antofagasta is not all grime and garbage, and we are hard set on discovering it's hidden jewels. It definitely doesn't lack in natural grandure, if the people just weren't so set on ruining it!

Inacap Technical College

So step 1) get married....            check!
     step 2) move house...            check!
     step 3) study culinary arts....  about to start!


I've enrolled in a 2 year course of "Gastronomia Internacional" and will be starting this week! This blog aims to inform those of you that are bored and obliged to read this (if you are family or close friend, yes you are obliged) of the trials and tribulations of a chef in the making. That's if I don't chop my fingers off...