Breakfast (Desayuno)

Oatmeal
A very basic, but at the same time, a very popular breakfast under cyclists and hikers.

- oat meal
- milk powder (everywhere available, even in the smallest shops)
- water
- sugar
- optional fruit like raisons, dried pears / apples / apricots

Heat the water and put the milk powder in it. Add the fruit and wait until the water boils. Add the oat meal and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring until the oatmeal is warm and slimy. Add sugar. Ready

Martin from Germany writes:
Oat meal with a South American touch: Instead of sugar just add two teaspoons of dulce de leche.In case one doesn't have access to instant dulce de leche but a lot of time (about two hours):

Ingredients:

3 liters of milk
800 g of sugar
1 valilla bean
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

Boil the milk together with the sugar, vanilla and baking soda on high heat stirring constantly. When the mixture stars turning brown, reduce the heat and keep it cooking. Don't stop stirring! When it becomes a pasty light brown mass remove it from the fire and let it cool down. The faster it cools down the better. Katharina and Clemens from Germany write:
Since dulce de leche is on of the greatest things in South America, we tried to find a way to make it ourselves but in a less complicated way. You just have to buy condensated milk in a tin, cook the closed tin for 1,5 (maybe 2) hours, then you open it and the stuff ist ready to put on bread, cake or just in your mouth and enjoy it!

Barleys (mote)
Mote can be used for all kind of dishes and we even found it in drinks that are sold along the road in Chile. We mainly use it for making an alternative breakfast.

- 200g barley
- cream (a little package of chantilly powder) or pudding
- milk powder
- water
- optional: fruit

Soak the barleys the night before in (hot) water. Whip the cream or pudding with water and milk powder until a stiff mass is formed. Boil the barley with fresh water and mix it with the cream and fruit.

Lunch (Almuerzo)

In Chile and Argentina, almuerzo is the largest meal of the day. A hot meal, after which you must take a few hours rest, before going back to work at the end of the afternoon. We just take something simple for lunch.

Bread

- yeast or baking powder
- 300 g flour
- water
- little bit of salt

Make a paste with a level spoon of yeast and hand warm water.
Put 250g flour, the salt, the yeast or baking powder, and some water in a wide bowl and make a nice dough from it. Add more water when needed.
Put the pan with the dough in a plastic bag and place it in a warm surrounding (sleeping bag). and leave it for a while to swell.


Two ways to bake the bread on the camp site:

1. on a stove 
Put some flour on a frying pan and lay the dough on top of it. Cover the dough with an upside down pan. Bake the bread for 15 minutes on a low fire. Then turn the bread and bake it for another 15 minutes.
Let it cool down and it is ready to be eaten.

2. on an open fire
Led the fire burn until some nice coals are formed. Put some flour in a big pan and lay the dough on top of it. Close the pan with a lid and place the pan on a stone in the middle of the fire. Put 2-3 coals on top of the lid. The pan has become a little oven. Turn the bread after 15 minutes and bake it for another 15 minutes.

Bacon and tomato

- 100g bacon
- 1 tomato
- bread

Bake the bacon. Cut the tomato into slices. Put everything on a piece of bread. And ready to be eaten. Very simple but excellent.

Advocado 

- 1 avocado
- 50 g cheese
- 1 tomato
- salt
- bread

Mash the avocado and add some salt.
Cut the tomato in slices.
Pile the bread with the avocado the cheese and the tomato.
A never failed lunch. 

Pizza crackers

- 250 g flour
- baking powder or yeast
- salt
- water
- pizza spices
- 50g oat meal
- oil

Make a paste with a level spoon of yeast and hand warm water.
Put 250g flour, the salt the yeast or baking powder, the pizza spices, the oat meal and some water in a wide bowl and make a nice dough from it. Add more water when needed.
Put the pan with the dough in a plastic bag and place it in a warm surrounding (sleeping bag) and leave it for a while to swell.

Form crackers out of the dough and bake them with some oil in a frying pan. Very nice with just some butter.

Mashed potatoes

- 200 g mashed potatoes
- package of soup
- pepper
- salt
- water
- 50 g milk powder

Mix the milk powder with some warm water.
Put everything in a pan and stir until a stiff mass is formed.
Ready to be eaten.

Once

Once refers to an afternoon drink often accompanied with a snack at around 5:00 in the afternoon. It was traditionally an alcoholic drink called aguardiente. The Spanish word once actually means eleven, and it is the eleven letters in the word aguardiente that gives the once its name. Like most of the people we take mate around that time of day, while Tore starts with cooking the cena.

Dinner (Cena)

Cheese fondue

- 50 cl wine
- 500 g cheese (strong flavors)
- 1 tomato
- garlic
- pepper
- bread or vegetables

Put the mashed tomato, the garlic, and the wine in a pan. Heat it until it almost cooks. Add the cheese (cut into cubes) and let it melt. Keep stirring. Some pepper and finished.
To keep the cheese melted place the pan over some candles or a simmering stove.

Pancakes

- 250 cl milk
- 2 eggs
- 200 g flour
- butter

Mix the ingredients. 
Put some butter in a frying pan and add some of the mixture. When the edges of the pancake become brown, turn the pancake. Bake the other side.
Nice with everything.
For example: marmalade, syrup or sugar.
But also with chicken, corn and cream or ice-cream.

Dinner with saving of water

-  300 g  rice / pasta
- 1 onion
- 1 paprika
- 1 carrot
- package of thick soup
- oil

Put the  rice / pasta in a pan with water and cook it for a few minutes. Set the pan beside. Fry the cut vegetables in another pan with some oil. Heat the 2 pans one by one until everything is cooked. Add the soup to the vegetables. Pour the water that is left over from the rice / pasta in the vegetables pan and stir until all the soup transform into a thick sauce. You will have hunger after a day of cycling and carrying a lot of water, I hope.

Vegetarian ricebread

Two German cyclist cook for us a vegetarion disk based on baked rice. We still have to ask for the recepi, but it tasted very good.

Local dishes

We don't always cook for ourselves, but also take regional food from the restaurants. You can taste it yourself. Here are some recipes we obtained from the Chile Experience guidebook.
            

Empanadas (eaten all over Argentina and Chile, in different variations)

- 1 table spoon baking powder
- 4 cups flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 whole egg
- 1.5 cup warm milk
- 1 cup melted shortening
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, cumin and oregano
- 4 onions, finely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, cut in to wedges
- 20 black olives
- 40 large raisins

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the egg yolk, egg, milk and shortening. Mix to make a stiff dough. Divide into 20 pieces and roll each thinly into circles.

In a frying pan heat the oil with the paprika and sauté the onions until soft. Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, ground meat and salt. Mix with the onions. Cook over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Place 1-2 tablespoons of meat filling in the center of each pastry circle. Add the egg wedges, olives and raisins in each turnover. Fold the dough over the filling making a semicircular turnover. Wet the borders with a little milk and fold again to form a rectangle. Bake in a 200 C oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot.

Sopaipillas (eaten in Chile, Camino Austral and Central valley)

1 cup cooked pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon baking powder
corn oil

In a bowl mix pumpkin puree with the sifted flour, baking powder, margarine and salt. Form into a ball, without kneading. Spread the dough with a rolling pin to 1 cm thickness. Cut the fritters into 5 cm circles. Prick with a fork.

Fry in hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Drain them on a paper towels. Serve warm with green or red peper sauce or with sweet syrup.

Humitas (regional food in the north of Argentina)

- 12 ears fresh yellow corn
- large and tender corn leaves
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- fresh basil leaves chopped
- 4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 cup milk
- salt

Grate the corn with a hand grater and set aside. 

In a large saucepan sauté the onion and tomatoes in the oil and paprika. Remove from the heat and add the grated corn, salt, basil and add a little milk until the mixture is thick but not dry.

To assemble the humitas, place 2 corn leaves together, overlapping the wide ends and leaving the tips facing out. Put 2 tablespoons of the corn mixture in the middle of the leaves. Fold the sides to the middle overlapping them in the center by about 5 cm. Fold on end over, stand the humita on the folding end, and tap it down to remove air bubbles. Fold the other end over. Fasten with string made of torn leaves.

Home | Travel stories | Photos | Statistics | Off the map | Recipes | Preparations | Previous trips | Links | Notes | Search | Contact us

This page was last updated on Tuesday April 22, 2003
http://www.irisentoreopreis.nl