If You Can't Take the Heat...

A few Saturdays ago I was supposed to meet with Traduzire about something. But he needed to cook in the Kitchen, so I decided to join him to see what it's like cooking in there.

We usually use charcoal to cook, but not the nice little squares we have in the states. They are pre-burned pieces of wood. Because of the rain, we have had a real hard time keeping the charcoal dry and so on this day we were using some broken up sticks.

Lighting the fire. It's very common to use plastic to start a fire, not paper.

The supplies for todays meal... rice and beans.

Traduzire was very annoyed with the younger boys because he didn't think the pans were cleaned good enough. And he wasn't talking about the inside, rather the outside is covered in soot. So he grabbed a scoop of dirt to start scrubbing the outside of the pan. I can't tell you how many times I just feel like I"m camping. By now it's about 10:00 and I kept saying, "shouldn't we start the beans, don't beans take forever to cook."

Cleaning the pan.

The dirt is getting the soot off.

The smoke can be a bit unbearable,
especially with wet wood. 

Before we can wash the beans, we have to clean them and pick out any bad beans. Traduzire is in no hurry, but it's not 10:30 and I'm wondering if we will EVER eat lunch today!

Finally! The beans make it into the pot!

Now it's time to clean the rice.

Similar to the beans we pick out anything weird, including some dirt.

Putting the rice into the pot.

The rice cooks so much faster than the
beans. It's lots of rice and hard to stir.

Round 1 of the beans is finally done! My guess is it's 1:00 or so and I'm beyond hungry! Yet no one complains and comes in asking, "where is lunch?!"Round 1 of the beans is mostly about getting them soft. Now we are onto round 2 which is mostly about getting them to taste good and also a little softer. The flavor comes from a common receipt here, as it's used for making spaghetti and I think even chicken. You put oil in the bottom of a pan and add in potatoes, onions and garlic. After those simmer for a bit, you add in tomato paste and let that simmer some more. Now comes the secret ingredient, Benny (it's a strong chicken stock seasoning). Finally you add the beans and some bean water back in and let it cook for another hour or so!

A pot full of beans and paper pot holders!

In go the potatoes and onions.

Tomato Paste

Stir, stir, stir. 

This is how hungry I feel =)

Having a little fun in the hot sweaty Kitchen.

Clearly, I have thought him well.

The secret ingredient!

Yum! Beans made well are one of my favorite here.

Dishing out lunch. Rice first. 

The pup eats whatever we eat, no special dog food here. 

Beans piping hot off the stove. 

Beans on top, making sure everyone gets some potatoes and juice.

FINALLY DONE!!

To the table and into happy bellies @ 2:30!

Helping cook in the Kitchen is something I've always wanted to do. While Traduzire did most of the work, I promise I helped more than the pictures suggest =) I've always respected those who work in the Kitchen and even been okay with them laying down in between meals. But actually getting to do, I'm not sure what to say other than I'm glad I finally got to see what goes into preparing such a big meal first hand and I'm glad that Traduzire was my teacher.