Ajiaco, a Colombian chicken and potatoe stew is my absolutely favorite soup or stew from Colombia. It is originally from the capital city Bogotá and is known by its full name “ajiaco bogotano or santafereño”. It is in fact so famous that it is often served during Christmas. If you are interested in Colombian Christmas traditions and recipes, check out this blog article. However, I had not attempted to make this delicious stew because I was under the impression that some important ingredients could not be found in Germany. For example the key herb galinsoga , I had checked everywhere and could not find it. But one reader pointed out to me that you don’t need it fresh, but that you can find it online once dried or that one Latin American store may even have it fresh in Munich. So when I finally got this herb and made the recipe here in Germany, it really tasted almost like in Colombia!
Have you heard of cottage pie? This is a British casserole dish containing one layer of minced beef with some veggies and one layer of mashed potatoes. It is baked with some melted cheddar on top. Typically it is served with peas. I already have the so called shepherd’s pie on the blog. This is a similar dish, however, it contains lamb instead of beef. Since it has been very popular among my readers, I decided to add cottage pie. I personally like cottage pie a lot, probably more than shepherd’s pie. Probably because I was born in Uruguay, which is known for exporting a lot of beef. I find this pie perfect in fall and winter, it is such a comfy dish. May I interest you in making it?
I will never forget the first time I was asked in a hotel in Colombia what I wanted for breakfast. I replied: “arepas“, a flatbread made from corn, which there are millions of variations of. The person looked at me in disgust, clearly, there were going to be arepas, duh, the question was how I wanted my eggs. Whether I wanted regular scrambled eggs, or scrambled eggs with sausage, or with tomatoes and spring onions, which is the “huevos pericos.” I had never tried this version and therefore asked for “huevos pericos.” Below I introduce you to the recipe and also outline how a typical breakfast in Colombia looks like and what is going to be served.
A typcial Colombian breakfast: arepa con queso with scrambled eggs and freshly pressed juice
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Yay, today I get to introduce Colombian buñuelos with German ingredients. I already have a buñuelos recipe on the blog. However, for the previous recipe we had to make the cheese ourselves. But now I managed to make a recipe with cheeses that are readily available in Germany. So let me introduce to you these cheese fritters. They are traditionally served in December, for sure for Christmas, but also for New Year’s. If you would like to learn more about Colombian Christmas traditions and recipes, check out that blog post. Just as I managed to make Colombian pandebonos with this farmer’s cheese, I replaced the Colombian queso costeño with it. I also like to use a mix and throw in feta cheese. As cheeses have a different amount of liquid, I had to tweak the recipe a bit, but then it was perfect!
I was in Scotland for the first time in my life. Went on a holiday with my hubby. We managed to go during the most magical time, which was end of September, beginning of October. Conclusion: Scotland is so extremly beautiful, I want to go back immediately! Of course we tried lots of Scottish classics such as haggis. It took very little time to realize that every tiny (“wee” in Scottish) café would offer a soup of the day. I mean, it probably comes as no surprise, it was windy, it was chilly, and I can imagine the winter months to be long in Scotland. A nice soup is perfect to warm up. Usually this soup was served with thick (!) slices of sourdough bread or cheese scones made with cheddar. I believe in the US and Canada these would be considered “biscuits” as they were also cut round and also had a lot of layers. The best cheese scones I tried in Scotland were the ones from Bad Girl Bakery in Inverness (I was not paid to say this). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, I was so busy enjoying this super delicious cheese scone, I completely forgot. You can get a peek on the Insta of Bad Girl Bakery if you want. Regardless, I was determined to reproduce this delicious cheese scone.
You probably know that it is only my hubby and me so I thought making a full baking sheet of cake would probably be too much. I already have a plum sheet cake on here. So I figured I would make more of a coffee cake in a round form. This would probably not take as long to eat. So I got to working on it and once done, it took very little and suddenly I only saw half of the cake left. Where had it gone? My hubby looked all innocent, he claimed he had only eaten three pieces of cake. If these these pieces were very large chunks of cake I inquired. Well, this depends on how you define “chunck”. Well, well, well… I think it speaks for itself that hubby was so excited about this recipe. I loosely based it on the recipe from Alfons Schuhbeck (in German). he is very famous, especially for this plum cake called Zwetschgendatschi, so I am happy to present this plum cake with yeast dough, lots of plums, and cinnamon crumbs. If you are short on time, I can recommend a much quicker plum cake, which uses baking powder as the leavener instead of yeast.
Guiso de lentejas can be translated as lentil stew and is thoroughly enjoyed in Uruguay. Unfortunately, I never had the priviledge of eating this dish in Uruguay, somehow my family was not that much into legumes. Legumes are probably enjoyed all around the world, Uruguay is no exception. Typically this stew is seasoned with different meat (here also bacon) and gets its characteristic flavor from the tomatoes instead of the broth. Plus point, it comes together in about half an hour and is definitely a hearty dish for the whole family.
Tomatoe tart or tarte tatin with tomatoes, pizza margherita with puff pastry dough, I don’t really know how you want to call this beauty, but you will find tomatoes simmered in caramel, baked with the dough on top and then turned upside down. Sprinkle with additional mozzarella, pine nuts and basil, and you can dig into this summery dish. I had the audacity of eating the entire thing in one go, approved of it and therefore decided to put it on the blog.
Warning, these classic empanadas from Colombia are a labor of love. If you are going to make everything from scratch like I did, you will need a few hours. However, one of the good things about empanadas is that you can prepare a lot in advance. You may wish to make the filling and/or the dough one to two days prior and then “only” need to fill and fry the empanadas the following day. But before we get into the details, what are empanadas exactly? Empanadas are dumplings, each Latin American country has its own variation, heck, every region and city will be proud of their particular empanadas. Since I was born in Uruguay, I am used to empanadas made with wheat flour. The traditional filling in Uruguay is beef (duh) and they are usually baked in the oven. Yes, of course I have a recipe for Uruguayan empanadas on my blog. Colombian empanadas on the other hand are made with cornmeal, if using the right one, they will be gluten-free. Most of the time they are not baked in the oven, but deep-fried. The filling varies, some use a piece of meat that is later pulled apart, I simply decided to use already minced meat. One particularity of Colombia is the “guiso” or “hogao”, this is a thick sauce made of tomatoes, spring onions, onions and herbs that are typically mixed with the meat filling. This makes them Colombian.
Today you will get Gougère from Switzerland! Gougères are cheese balls made from choux pastry. They are super light and airy. If you like eclairs and profiteroles, these are for you, a savory snack made from exactly the same dough, choux pastry is first boiled before eggs are added. If you are interested in sweet choux pastry, how about profiteroles with raspberry filling, black forest eclairs, eclairs with coffee cream or peanut butter filling. Below cheese balls are a wonderful fingerfood, snack, or can be served for any gathering.



















