Bolivian Torrejas and Peanut Soup
Posted by Degan on September 7th, 2010
Note: this post was imported from EthnicEats.ca
After working my way through Vancouver’s South American restaurants, I wanted to try my hand at cooking some of the dishes, so a reader sent me some Bolivian recipes from his wife. Peanut soup and torrejas, a fried rice and cheese pancake with some roasted meats made an interesting and excellent meal. Here are the recipes:
Peanut Soup
Ingredients:
1 cup raw shelled peanuts
1 1/2 lb soup bones
1/2 cup fine chopped onions
1 small turnip (shredded)
one stalk fine chopped celery
1/4 cup fine chopped parsley
2 or 3 large carrots peeled and cut into 2 or 3″ sticks
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 cloves minced garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
Two potatoes peeled and quartered
2/3 to 1 cup rice
Put the peanuts in a small pot with water that covers them. Let them boil for 2 minutes, then cool off a little but not too cool because you squeeze the peeling off them and if it’s too cold it’s harder.
Put the mix in a blender with enough water to cover the peanuts, or “maybe a little more”. Liquefy the peanuts and set aside.Put about 3 quarts of water in a large pot. “make sure at least 1/2 of the pot is empty”. Bring the water to a boil.
Add one and one half pound of soup bones, preferably bones with a good amount of meat (you can cut the meat off when it’s done and serve the soup with meat).
Boil the meat for 10 minutes, then add onions, turnip, celery, parsley, carrots, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper and the liquefied peanuts. Be on top of this because this soup wants to boil over. Do not cover. Stir often.
Cook for maybe 20 minutes.
Add potatoes and rice. The amount of rice you add will determine how thick the soup ends up. The exact thickness is a bit of an art.
Cook for 15-20 minutes until the rice is done.
Torrejas (tor RAY has)
Ingredients:
2 cups rice (“leftover rice doesn’t work”)
1 large carrot, shredded
5 or 6 green onions
1/2 cup shredded cheese (any good melting cheese. We use cheddar)
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to taste
1-1 1/2 teaspoon crushed oregano
Flour, as needed.
Cook rice and set aside. In a bowl beat one egg and add 2/3 cup of water.
Add salt and pepper and flour until the mixture is slightly thicker than waffle batter (pretty thick). Set aside
Mix the veggies and cheese into the rice while the rice is still fairly hot. Then mix the batter with the rice concoction. The batter/rice/veggie mix should be very thick and sticky.
Heat oil in a pan 1/4 inch deep.
Spoon the torreja batter into the oil using a tablespoon or soup spoon and smash it down a little. Brown them on both sides. Maggie makes them about 3 inches in diameter. They will look like thick cookies. You can cook them crispy or chewy. I prefer chewy. Maggie puts them on their side in a cake pan with paper towels in the bottom when they’re done…You’ll have a bunch.
We eat them with fresh cooked beets and put salsa on them. Maggie also eats them with baked potato.
Variations:
Instead of rice you can use the same amount of quinoa OR one head of chopped leaf type lettuce. if you use lettuce you will have to add a bit more flour when you mix because the lettuce has water in it. Lettuce torrejas are my fave but we usually eat rice because it’s a lot of work and the work is multiplied when you make different types for the same meal.
