I grew up eating a lot of offal, animal organ meats and their non-popular parts. I never thought much about which part of an animal I was eating until someone pointed it out: “How can you eat that?” Ew. I have encountered this reaction many times in my life: back in Panama when I first joined a private school, some cousins who consider themselves “picky eaters”, and then when I first moved in to the US, almost 11 years ago.

I mentioned on the podcast I don’t judge people who react negatively to something I’m eating because I myself don’t love eating just anything and everything. If you listened to my first podcast on food trends, you’ll hear me talking about not being very interested in eating bugs and/or dishes made out of waste and by waste I don’t mean eating from nose to tail because THAT I have been already doing it all my life.

Listen to the podcast here:

I’m almost finished with a book called ‘The Power Of Habit’ and on one chapter Charles Duhigg mentions how in order for housewives to cook some offal (chicken livers, etc) during the war (I or II can’t remember), they released some recipes for them to try at home, adding it to meatloaf and whatnot since their husbands already had the habit for their to eat such dishes.

It makes you realize and accept that most things we eat have to do with familiarity, yes, I’m sure there are tons of exceptions and I’d love to do more research on the palate and its development, but this is more of a psychological and scientific approach and I think it’s going to take me longer before I can make a full episode on this subject.

There are tons of articles online that talk about offal and recipes in general, this is why on this episode I focused on Panamanian food, and of course other Panamanians would have chosen other dishes that would be instead of my top 10, but for now I can only write about what I have learned and experienced so here you go:

10 Panamanian Dishes With Offal

These are my favourite offal Panamanian dishes, and not so favourites, but that I grew up eating and would probably eat mostly when cooked by mum!

1. RABITO DE PUERCO CON POROTOS: pigtail bean stew

Recipe (click here)

2. SAO – SAUS: pickled pig’s trotters

Recipe (click here)

3. CORAZON DE RES FRITO: fried beef heart
I’m planning to work on this recipe and will update this list :)

4. PICADILLO DE BOFE: cow lung semi-stew

This recipe isn’t as traditional for what I grew up eating, but until I write one myself, here you go (click here).

5. DOMPLIN DE BOFE: cow lung fritter
My sister says she will make it, share photos, and perhaps a recipe, coming soon!

6. GUACHO DE RABITO: pigtail rice stew 

Recipe (click here)

7. SOPA DE PATA DE RES (cow’s feet soup)
My mum says she will make it, share photos, and perhaps a recipe, coming soon!

8. BISTEC DE HIGADO ENCEBOLLADO (beef liver & onions)
My mum says she will make it, share photos, and perhaps a recipe, coming soon!

9. MONDONGO: beef tripe stew

Recipe (click here)

10. HUEVOS DE PESCADO FRITO: fried fish eggs
My sister promised to rescue me with this dish by finding a recipe to share on the blog, or at least taking a photo and sharing the name of a spot in Panama where you can find this non-popular dish.

OTHER DISHES WORTH MENTIONING:

Pajarilla (fried spleen), Testículos de Toro (bulls balls), Mollejas Fritas (sweetbreads), Buche (tendon, cartilage, pig ears), intestines (we mostly use it ot stuff chorizo, but I love the yakitori (japanese grilled style), but the last time I had it I almost died with an allergy and no tasty food is worth the suffering I went through that night so I either better get a shit ton of limes the next time I eat that, or I’ll refuse to eat it unless I’m next to a hospital and the restaurant is paying my medical bills, thank you!

Don’t make that face, you can get sick even eating lettuce, ahem, so just make sure if you’re cooking animal parts, meats, vegetables, anything you’re going to eat, make sure it’s properly clean, unless of course your stomach is stronger than mine.

Will you be eating offal anytime soon? Let me know in the comments! Also let me know how you liked this episode!

¡a comer!

This ceviche recipe is for people who love all the things sour!  I love sour and acid flavors and the reason why I emphasize this is because the day I made a ceviche similar to this one for my ex-boss (Chef Andy), he almost passed out.

He said, “JC, what #%^%$^ ^@^%%##@? Are you trying to kill me?” or something along those lines. I mean his face was as if he had tasted the most acid thing in his life.  I felt so bad I almost cried.  I shared the same ceviche with my Panamanian relatives and they loved the ceviche. So either they love me so much that they didnâ€t dare to say that I overdid the lime juice, or my folks have a love for all the things sour like I do too.

I added grapefruit because I’ve been so lucky to find very juicy and flavorful ones, so this was a nice fruit to add to my ceviche.  We don’t serve it like that in Panama, but just like every recipe, nothing wrong with adding a few kicks in here and there. I served this ceviche with cajun fried yuca, and slices of avocado.  Fry the yuca as you usually would and add salt and cajun spices right away you get them out of the frying pan.

Now you know it, I love lime, lemons and every single citrus fruit available.  Either way, youâ€ve been warned, I love lime juice and this ceviche will make your face go like this ————–>

Panamanian Fish Ceviche with Grapefruit
Serves 3-4 – Prep Time: 20 mins plus 24 hours marinating

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh fish fillets (I used sole, but you could use red snapper, rockfish, cod, seabass, etc)
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 tsp culantro, chopped (if you can’t find it use cilantro)
1 habanero pepper, chopped (use half if you don’t like too much heat)
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/2 tsp of garlic, chopped
1/2 medium Spanish onion, finely chopped
1/2 grape fruit, segmented
Salt

Directions
-  Cut the fish into equal bite size pieces and place in a large glass bowl
-  Add the onions, habanero, celery, culantro and mix well with fish and lime juice
-  Place bowl in refrigerator for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
-  Serve on a bowl with the grapefruit, salt to taste and fried yuca (I also love to serve it with crackers or fried green plantains).

NOTE:
-  The ceviche can be marinated for less time but the one that I grew up eating and that I prefer is usually marinated more then 12 hours so it will look pretty cooked in compare to a ceviche that’s been marinated in lime juice for 45 minutes.  It’s a matter of preference.
-  How To Make The Perfect Ceviche And Common Mistakes To Avoid (click here)

¡a comer!

Caramelized Pork Chops in Pineapple-Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

3 1⁄2 tbsp canola oil
2 pork chops (3⁄4-inch thick)
1⁄2 cup fresh pineapple juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1 garlic clove, minced

Rest of recipe click here

The rest of the recipes for these dishes are on Domicile Magazine ‘Comfort Cooking – Panama Edition’ section (click here for recipes)

Whenever there is an opportunity to share Panamanian recipes, I try to take it!  The folks at Domicile Magazine requested that I share Panamanian comfort food recipes and actually most of the food I grew up eating falls in that category.  I chose to share these specific recipes because thatâ€s what I was craving at the moment.

When I was younger I wasnâ€t a very good cook, my thoughts were always focused on the results (ahem, eating) and not the process.  Thatâ€s why most of my childhood recipes are very practical. Cooking with rice, beans and meats was my forte.  I had most of my vegetables raw, unless they were root vegetables and those usually ended mashed or fried.

Culantro

Arroz con Culantro (Rice with Culantro)
Recipe click here

Up to this day I think it’s funny how difficult it’s to find culantro around stores.  Thatâ€s the herb we used the most at home or our “recao verde”, which is pretty much a ramita (sprig) one purchases ready with fresh: culantro, scallions and parsley.

The base for most of my “family sauces” are made with recao verde, and of course, garlic.

I loved cooking pork chops, smoked ones mostly because of how easy they’re to cook.  A good sauce on top would make miracles, no matter how over cooked my pork chop was, (we would really over cook our meat back then, my mom was always afraid of getting anyone sick).

Rice eventually became something easy to cook, versatile and delicious.  Rice is the reason why I could never do Atkins, I tried when I was around 15 years old, but after 30 days without rice I cried to the sight of it at home and broke the diet (I had a bad relationship with diets, Iâ€ll write about that someday).

And finally, my mom’s glorious bread pudding.  Her bread pudding that made up for a crappy week at school; it would become our snack of the following days and no matter how much she made, which was a lot, it was never enough.  I love my momâ€s bread pudding.

Mamallena – Panamanian Bread Pudding with Sangria
Recipe click here

Mamallena with Sangria-Rum Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream