Passport & Plate - Colada Morada
Ecuador | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 8 photos
Ingredients
1 pineapple
1 babaco
3 cups of strawberries
10 naranjilla
1.5 cups of purple flour
3 cups blueberry
3 cups blackberry
1/2 panela block
5 cinnamon sticks
16 cups of water
Some hierba morada
How to prepare this recipeCut pineapple and babaco into bite size pieces. Keep the skin.
Add 8 cups of water, naranjilla, panela block, cinnamon sticks, hierba morada, pineapple and babaco skin to a huge pot. Place pot on heated stove. Stir until mixture starts to boil (30 minutes.) Filter out solid ingredients.
Add blueberry, blackberry, purple flour and 8 cups of water to huge pot. Stir until mixture starts to boil (25 minutes.) Filter out solid ingredients.
Turn off stove. Let mixture sit for 20 minutes.
Add pineapple and babaco pieces to warm mixture.
Can be served warm immediately or served cold after refrigeration.
Note: Some ingredients, such as naranjilla or babaco, can only be easily found in Ecuador.
The story behind this recipeNovember 2, 2013. Somewhere in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, the aromatic smell of all things wonderful fills a small, wooden compound. Three women are sitting around a streaming pot, chatting away. “Are you excited? How many more months?” Floreana asks the other as she continues stirring the mixture. “60 days. He’s going to be the 4th boy in the house. I need a girl!” responded her pregnant cousin, Zeneida. “I’ve always been an only child. I am beyond excited to have a baby brother,” replied Carol, the tallest and palest.
The men are inside the forest collecting bamboo and wood. With machete in hand, Neil goes about hacking at the materials. The bamboo is the more dangerous of the two. Spikes protruding from its bark; one wrong move meant certain impalement. After tediously dragging the materials back with the help of his assistant, the two begin to assemble their masterpiece. Neil strips the wood of its thick barks and sets it out to dry in the starching Ecuadorian sun. His assistant cut the bamboo into thin strips. Then they brought out a hammer and some nails. After some banging there and here, a beautiful chair with an olive green interior and earthly brown support structure appears, reflecting the stunning natural surroundings.
Then the women call Neil and his assistant in and present them with oddly shaped bread and the warm drink. Sweat dripping down from his hair, the assistant sits down at the recently- assembled chair. He nibbles his “guagua de pan” and sips his “colada morada”, content to be alive on Day of the Dead.
(I am currently on a bridge year in Ecuador with a leadership development nonprofit named Global Citizen Year. Neil is my Ecuadorian host dad, Floreana is my Ecuadorian host mom, Zeneida is my (previously) pregnant host aunt, Carol is Zeneida’s American host daughter, and I am the assistant. I chose this story because it reflects how cooking and gender roles are related in Ecuador.)
