Alex's Night, or Casado A-Tipica (or Not Your Average Marriage Plate)

Pura Vida mi Amigos!

Jim here blogging as Alex takes us to the land of poisonous frogs, toucans and little baby sloths:  Costa Rica!!!  Pura Vida means "Pure Life" and it's the standard greeting and goodbye (at least that's what they tell us tourists).

Alex with his new life partner, Hanna, the little baby sloth

Soooo Cute!

This blog is dedicated to Nancy.  Not only because she's a great person, but also because she was our travel companion on part of our trip.

Casado Tipico is the national dish of Costa Rica.  It refers to your typical Costa Rican plate.   But, since this is Supper Club, we've got to be atypical. 

Casado refers to a married man.  The story goes that when you're a bachelor, you only eat beans and rice.  Once you're married, you get a upgraded to a whole plate of food.  A "Casado Tipica" or "Typical Plate" generally consists of rice, beans, a salad, perhaps an egg (fried or hard -boiled), and a protein (fish, chicken or beef).  Casado's are also pretty darn cheap in Costa Rica.  Most of them seemed to cost $4-6 Dollars.

Look Nancy, a Monkey!!!

Alex was repeatedly punched in the face by the Ocean!  Fun, huh?

This is Palmitas, and while it might just look like a ball of cheese... well, actually, that's what it is.  But it's a delicious ball of cheese that we bought in the Cloud Forest at a roadside stand.  It's an especialitie of that area.  Delicious. 








Our menu

Palmitas cheese all the way from Costa Rica
Patacones with black bean dip   (Twice fried green plaintains with refried black beans)
Casado Tipico
       Gallo Pinto  (usually a breaksfast dish, but it's far better than just plain rice)  Gallo Pinto Recipe
       Coconut oil fried Tofu with Mango/Pineapple/Papaya Salsa
       Seis Leches pudding  (Six Milk pudding)  (Twice as good as Tres Leches )  Pan de Tres Leches by chef Art Smith



Besides eating plates of food, what else do married people do, you might ask?

I'm waiting...isn't someone going to ask???  And get your minds out of the gutter Jenny Jo!

They talk about donuts!  At least that's what Bri and Deb are doing.  They're talking about all the great places they've gone and gotten great donuts.  Deb claims that there is a great place in Southie (which is South Boston for all you damn forrinaah's) and Alex and I are immediately all ears because all we've found is the 1,284 Dunkin Donuts franchises in the 4 block radius from my place and Doughboy Donuts, which should be awesome...   but isn't.  Eventually Deb has to crush us both and reveal that the place she was thinking about was somewhere else.  Tease!!!

What else do married couples do???  Apparently they steal each other's dreams. Deb is upset with Bri because he went on a long bike ride to somewhere while she was off visiting Stass (Hi, Stass!).  Unbeknownst to Bri, that's been a dream of hers and he stole it.  How dare he?  Luckily, couples also make up.  Or at least they get distracted and forget they were mad.  Something like that.


Our Meal:

Patacones

Finished Product

What could be better than frying plantains and then smashing them with a hammer and frying them again?  Then getting to dip them in a black bean dip or the amazing salsa made for the tofu, that's what!!!

It's like Wack-A-Mole, but delicious

Deep Fried Goodness x 2

Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto is normally a breakfast dish in Costa Rica, but honestly, who wants plain rice and plain beans when you can have this.  I could eat this for breakfast every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and every 2nd Saturday.

The recipe comes from the Costa Rican Tourist Board, so it has to be good.

Gallo Pinto Recipe

Tofu Steaks with Mango, Papaya, Pineapple Salsa

Marinated Tofu Fried and slathered with this sweet, spicy salsa is just Sabor on the Plata.

 Mango, Papaya, Pineapple Salsa

• 1/8 cup mango, brunoise
• 1/8 cup pineapple, brunoise
• 1/8 cup papaya, brunoise
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon Serrano chile minced
• 1/8 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
• Salt, to taste

Mix it all together.  

If you're doing it much ahead of time, I'd recommend not  not adding the chile until a few hours ahead of time.  We made it and ate it and it was delicious.  The next day it was too pepper-tasting to me. --Jim

Here's a little secret of the Deep Space Supper Club Kitchen:

Deb claims to suffer from a very rare serious condition called Juicer's Middle Finger and is forced to juice limes and lemons using her mouth.  All of you out there thinking "ewwww" should be ashamed of yourselves.  It's a real thing,  at least we think it is.  It sounds totally reasonable that it's so rare it doesn't even show up on Wikipedia.  Anyway, we're compassionate accepting people here at the Deep Space Supper club and we chose to believe her when she swore that at no time did she drool or did her mouth actually touch anything but the skin.  Are we trusting or gullible?  you decide.

Seis Leches Bread Pudding with Tequila Carmel Sauce and Pepito Brittle

Tres Leches Cake, or 3 Milks Cake for those of you that don't habla the Espanol like I do, is the national dessert of Costa Rica.  At least, that's what the waitress at this little dive bar told us.







But why do only 3 milks when you can do 6?  That's right,  Regular Milk, Condensed, evaporated, heavy cream, half and half and coconut milk all in one heavenly dessert that is then drizzled with a tequila Carmel.  We skipped the pepito brittle (pumpkin seed brittle) mainly because we screwed it up.

It very possible was the best dessert we ever made.

Seis Leches Bread Pudding Recipe

To add the 3 more leches, just change the recipe to use 1 Cup of each leche.

Scoring

I wrote them down at some point, but can't find them, so I'm going to make them up, trying to channel my tres compadres.  ***Please note that these reviews probably bear no resemblance to what they actually said.  It should be obvious to everyone that Hungry Deb never gets to give a review as Full Deb has almost always shoved her down into the basement of their tiny house that exists in Deb's psyche.


Patacones with Black Bean Dip
Bri  A-  It's not often you get to beat your food with a hammer.  Normally that's a good thing.
Hungry Deb A+  They were delicious!!!
Full Deb  B  They were delicious, but I'd never make them again.
Jim  A+  So tasty with the black bean dip and even tastier with a little of the salsa on it.
Alex  A  They were good, but they weren't that complicated ...

 Casado Tipico
       Gallo Pinto All of us  B  It was tasty beans and rice but still, it was beans and rice

Tofu Steak with PapMangPine Salsa
Bri A-  The salsa was great
Hungry Deb  A The contrast between the savory tofu and the sweet yet spicy salsa was delicious 
Full Deb A-  That was easy and I might do that again.
Alex  A  It was tasty and the flavors were complex
Jim  A+  You could put that salsa on top of almost anything and I'd enjoy eating it.

Seis Leches Cake
Bri  A+  OMFG, 6 milks, tequila carmel, what more could you want?
Hungry Deb  A+  In a pleasure coma.  I may have finally been satisfied.
Full Deb  A+  Surprisingly good and delicious
Alex  A+  Great Texture, rounded flavors and beautiful to look at
Jim  A+  Possibly the best dessert we've ever made


That brings this long overdue post to a close, mi amigos y amigas.  I'll just leave you with a few random quotes from our night of cooking and snarking.  Pura Vida!

 The problem with biking is you can never look around.  Unless you're looking at small children darting right in front of you...   ---Deb

"My butt does take up a lot of your visual range.  It's like Rommy focusing on anything when there's bacon in the room."  --Anon

 I looked at the internet to tell me what to do.  -- Alex  We all know how that works out most times.  -- Bri

OMG, you guys are all about utensils!  Everyone  keeps trying to give me spoons!  --Deb

Bri and Deb are currently obsessed with the  Alphas  and The Unusuals.  Alex and Jim are obsessed with the last season of "Make it or Break It"  I can't believe I actually put that in print.  I'm so ashamed [Jim}


"I've never used a hammer in cooking before."  -- Alex
   :"you've never made that bleu chicken dish before?  I made that for Bri before, long ago"  -- Deb
         "Yeah there was bleu all over the place."  -- Bri

Plantains at a Roadside Stand