Pacayas

As we had just eaten the tastiest cheesy tortillas the world has to offer what more did we have to do the next day but head back to the markets to find our lady.

Apparently to our disappointment we were not the only ones who rated her food as she was sold out by 10am. “No Mas” The only thing to do was get amongst the market place and start stocking up on fresh produce for the kitchen back home.

I came across this peculiar looking vegetable, which looked like a floret of baby sweet corn, called ‘pacaya’ and it happens to be the early fruit of a date palm. The women selling their produce become quite animated when you ask them how they cook certain veg, and when they realise you are actually going to cook it yourself they start to throw in free stuff: herbs, chilies and unknown dried bits. My Spanish isn’t exactly top notch but it is here in these market places that I feel at home as it is with these women that I learnt my basic Spanish 15 years ago whilst living in Mexico. When talking about food you don’t need perfect grammar, you need eagerness and an interest and all else will fall into place.

Juanita our small house lady; and I’m not using the word ‘small’ lightly here, she comes up to my belly button and can’t reach most of the light switches in the house. She explained to me about the fan on top of the stove ‘el stuve’ and what it does but she has never been able to reach it so just opens the window. Although small she has the fiercest eyes I have ever seen. They are perched upon her face like fiery green emeralds, she is tough. And fortunately was delighted to show me how to cook these pacayas.

The pacayas are quite bitter when raw so they need a good half an hour boiling time in salted water to soften them up a bit. Then we beat some egg whites till they were stiff and folded in the yolks to make an amazing batter. The pacayas are then dipped into the batter and shallow fried. The egg is so fluffy it keeps its shape even in the heavy oil. We ate them with salsa verde, which we whipped up from the tomatillos I brought back from the markets. There is nothing I love more than to discover a new vegetable and to be shown how to prepare it by an expert is absolutely heaven for me.

For the recipe check it out here.