Recetas Típicas de Costa Rica

Slippers

They use the same name that Costa Ricans use to refer to sandals. It is called this way because its main ingredient is the Chayote. It is produced at high export levels; with this vegetable lot of kitchen recipes can be made. It is a very use vegetable in Costa Rica.

Ingredients (4 persons):
2 big Chayotes (christophines)
½ cup of grated cheese. (Mozzarella)
½ cup of ground of soft cheese.
½ cup of sugar
2 spoonful of butter
½ cup of cream

You divide in half the Chayote, and cook them in water with just a little bit of salt. The pulp (without breaking the rind) is removed. You make a puree with the ground cheese, the butter, the cream and the sugar.
The rinds are fill up with the puree and covered with the grated cheese and putted into the furnace until gilding.

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This flower comes from a tree with the same name. This tree is located in the rural countryside.
Years back it was used to surround the properties, like a wall.
This was because its roots are very strong and it maintains in slanted lands.
The flower of itabo is an excellent source of C vitamin and contains many
iron, phosphorus and niacin. Also it gives much fiber.
Its flowering is in Easter (March - April); this is the reason that is prepared in different ways.
 It has a characteristic bitter flavor and it is reduced by removing the center and using only the petals of the flower.
 
Basic Recipe:
1- Wash the petals
2- Cook in water until boiling
3- Put a bit of salt and wring them out.

Itabo Flower with egg:
1- 1 bunch of flowers
2- 2 eggs
3- ½ chopped onion
4- Bit of salt and oil

Warm up the frying pan with oil, add the onion. Then put in the flowers and the beaten eggs with pick of salt. It is ready when the egg is cooked. It is usually accompanied with tortillas.

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Pejibaye Entrance

Pejibaye is the fruit that comes from the of the palm tree. It is a rich fiber food.
It is cooked in boil water with sugar, head bone and little salt. It has to be cooking between 40 minutes and 1 hour approximately. Generally they are peeled up and they eat alone, if you want you can eat them with mayonnaise.

Ingredients:
1- 12 stew pejibayes.
2- 1 sweet pepper
3- 1 onion
4- 1 cilantro
5- 1 celery
6- 3 sharp lemons
7- Mayonnaise
8- Bit of mustard and salt

Chop the onion, the sweet pepper, the cilantro and the celery.  Peel and cut the Pejibaye.

Remove the seed and put all the species on. Add salt, mustard and sugar. Cool it down and served it with salt cookies or tortillas.

 

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This food is served in small portions, like an entrance. It is very tough food because of the beans mixed with pork.

Ingredients:
1- 1k of pork cutlet
2- 1k of tender beans, bigs and red
3- 1 onion
4- 1 sweet pepper
5-1 celery
6-1 thyme
7-oregano
8-cilantro
9-1 garlic head, salt, and season as you like.
10- 4 potatoes (cooked in water with salt)

Put in a pot with water to the fire. When it boils add the beans and turn the fire of.
Leave them during one hour.
After this, put to cook the pig rib with all the spices and condiments you want except cilantro.
When the meat is smooth, add the beans (wring out of the hot water) cook them for 30 minutes until they are soft. Put the rotten potatoes and the itched cilantro.
When the meat is soft, add the beans (wring out of the hot water) and cook for 30 minutes until they are soft. Add the potatoes and the chopped cilantro.

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Toad water

This drink come from the Atlantic part of the country, it is a very fresh drink.
Resbaladera

Ingredients:
1- 12 glases
2- 1 water gallon
3- 1 sweet cover
4- 250 g of ginger
5- 1 cup of lemon juice

Boil 1 liter of water with the candy cover cut in pieces. Put the ginger also in pieces and crushed. Let it cook until this completely dissolved in the candy. Let it cool up and pass it through a strainer. The lemon is added, the rest of the water and it is served with ice.

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This drink is from the north zone of our country. It is made for drinking it any time of the day.

Ingredients:
1- ¼ k of rice
2- 4 smell cloves
3- 2 cinnamon splinters
4- Bit of nutmeg
5- 1 L of milk
6- 2 teaspoonful of corn starch and sugar as you want.

The rice must be raw and soak 2 hours before. Mix all the ingredients in a pot and cook for 15-20 minutes. Cook the rice and thick the mixture .Afterwards liquidize y passed it throw the strainer. Let it cool down and served it with ice.

 

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Drunk bread.

It could be eaten in the dessert or just like a whim.

Ingredients:
1-10 sweet bread rolls
2- 2 beat eggs with bit of salt
3-Sugar honey
4-1 cup of water
5-1 cup of sugar
6- Bit of cinnamon
7- Honey
8- ¼ cup of Rum
9-Oil

First cook 1 water cup, a sugar cup and add cinnamon. When this cools off adds honey and Rum. Later divided each bread in half. They go through the beat eggs and they are fried in hot oil. They retire and put in a paper towel. When they are lukewarm they should be bath with honey.

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The arracache is the vegetable that is harvested twice a year. Normally it is accompanied with meat and vegetables. It is one of the more common minces in our country.

Ingredients:
1- 1 k of arracache
2- Boil it with a bit of salt
3-1/2 chopped and boiled pork post
4- ¼ k highly seasoned pork sausage
5- 4 chopped potatoes, boiled in water
6- 4 clove of garlic grind up
7- 1 big onion cut very thin
8- 1 sweet pepper
9- 1 roll of cilantro
10- 1 bit of annatto
11- 2big tomatoes in pieces
12-3 spoons of vegetable oil
13- Pepper, cumin, grind oregano, salt for your choice.

Put oil in a pot. Fry the garlic’s, the chili and the onion.
Then add the pork sausage, let it cook until it is well fried. Mix the tomatoes and the meat. Let it cook until it forms a sauce. Add the salt and all the flavoring. Finally add the arracache, the potatoes and put them in a slow fire. Dry it well and incorporate the cilantro.

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Enyucado

This food is for any hour of the day. The yuca is very famous on Costa Ricans cuisine.

Ingredients:
1- Peel y cut 1 k of yucca.
2-2 eggs
3- 4 flour spoons
4-1 cup of grated cheese.

Cook with water and salt until they are soft. Make a puree with it and add the eggs, the flour and the cheese. They can also fill up with different things:

a- Fill with: cheese and pepper cut in pieces.
b- Fill with: ground meet cooked with onion, sweet pepper, garlic, celery and cilantro.
c- Fill with: wring up tuna.

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Roast tamal

Specially for drinking coffee, it is a sweet dessert.

Ingredients:
1- 1/2 corn pastry.
2- 1/4 granted cheese
3- 1 egg
4- 1 cup of sugar
5- 1 cup of cream
6- 1 ½ cup of sour milk
7- 1/2 butter bar
8- 1 cup of granted coconut

It is easily prepared just mix all the ingredients with a spoon. Put them to cook, mix thm and when it starts to boil put it to bake.

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Tender Corncob Tamals
 
It is simple and fast.

Ingredients:
1- 12 corncobs
2- 1/2 cup of sugar
3- 1/2 butter bar
4- 1/2 cup of cream

Buy 12 corncobs and take of the husk. Liquidize with the sugar, the butter and the cream.It is processed until you obtain a pastry.

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Sauce meat

Normally this food is for having lunch. It is eaten with rice and salad.

Ingredients:
1- 2 lb of meat head in pieces
2-1/2 onion
3-1/2 sweet pepper
4- 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
5- 1 or 2 clove of garlic in bits
6- Salt, species as you want
7- 4 medium tomatoes
8- 2 spoonful of Lizano sauce (Costa Rican special sauce)
9- 1 species cub

Cook the meat with 3 or 4 cups of water. Put one spoonful with salt, onion, sweet pepper, cilantro, garlic’s, divided the tomatoes in four pieces. When the meat is cooked, remove the juice. Add the condiments and the Lizano sauce in your choice.

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Bread Pudding

It is famous dessert of grandmas. It is especially in the rural zones. There are many kinds of puddings, not only of bread.

Ingredients: 
1- 1 Italian bread (baguette)
2- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
3- 3 cans of evaporated milk or regular milk
4- 1 melted butter bar
5- 1 spoonful of vanilla
6- 1 cup of sugar
7- 2 eggs
8- Currants as you like

Squeeze the bread in a container, adds the evaporated or the regular milk and let it soak for few minutes. Immediately all the other ingredients are added to him. Stir it so that they aren’t left bread pieces.  Bake it in 375 degrees. When this cooked put on the top condensed milk.

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Chilera
The Chilera is spicy; normally it is to combine with the lunch. In all the restaurants you will find it in the top of the table.

Ingredients:
1-12 small hot peppers
2-3 large carrots sliced in thin round pieces
3-2 large onions sliced in thin pieces
4-1/2 of a cauliflower chopped in small pieces
5-8 ounces of your favorite fruit vinegar
6-1 cucumber sliced medium

Combine all the vegetables, hot peppers and enough vinegar to fill a container.
Refrigerate for about two weeks until the vegetables and vinegar have absorbed the flavor of the hot peppers.
Used when serving rice and bean dishes and other meals. Shake on or add a few drops of the vinegar to the meal, or add to a soup use it wherever you would a hot sauce.
The pickled vegetables can also be eaten as a side dish. Beware, they are Spicy!

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Milked rice

The rice with milk is a dessert done slowly cooking milk rice with sugar. It eats cold or warm. Usually lies down cinnamon.

Ingredients:
1-2 cup of rice
2-1 big can of sweet condensed milk
3-1 big can of evaporated milk
4-2 cups of milk
5-1 cups of sugar
6-1 small packet of cinnamon
7-1 small packet of smell cloves
8-1 little box of currants
9-1/2 butter bar

Put the rice to rest for 1 hour in water with cinnamon and smell cloves. Add milk cups and cook it for 1/2 hour, the fire must be low. Do not leave the rice to get dried (if this happens add more milk or water). Remove every two or three minutes so that it does not stick.
Add the sugar. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add condensed milk and let it evaporate. Cook it for 15 minutes more and let it rest.

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Meat suacepan

This soup includes all vegetables and rice.

Ingredients:
1-1 k of head meat
2-1/2 k of potatoes in half
3-2 chayote’s
4-1 medium yucca in half’s
5-2 corncobs in half’s
6-2 green bananas
7-salt and species as you like.

Put all the vegetables insides the pressure pot. It is served with white rice. You can put any vegetable you like.

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Stuffing Water Squach with Mozzarella
 This vegetable is delicious and very common in our country.

Ingredients (6 persons):
1- 3 water squash great cut along
2- 2 chicken consommé
 3-1 Pope Soup with Vegetables
4-1 evaporated milk cup
5-12 slices of Mozzarella Cheese cut in cubes
6-1 medium tomato cut in cubes to decorate

To cook, cut the water squash in half’s, use the Chicken consommé for 15 minutes until they are smooth but firm. Slip and to remove the pulp.
Dissolve the Soup Pope with vegetables in the evaporated milk and cook for 5 minutes or until the cream is thick. Add the pulp of water squash.
 Prepared the cream and fill it up with this mixture of the chayote rinds.
Place the cubes of Mozzarella Cheese over water squash to decorate with the tomato cubes and served it immediately.

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Tarts of yucca and Pejibaye
Easy to cook and perfect to take to parties.
Ingredients:
1-2 cups of yucca, cooked and fact puree
2-2 cups of pejibayes stews, peeled and in puree
3-2 spoonful of cilantro stung
4-2 cups of shattered beans
 5-100 g of sausage stung
6-2 fine teeth of garlic stung
7-1 spoonful of onion elegantly served
8-1 spoonful of sweet pepper
9-1 spoonful of Panamanian pepper
10-1/4 of instantaneous coffee
 11-1/2 cup of cream
12- 100g of Turrialba cheese
12-1 spoonful of sugar
13-salt and black pepper al flavor

In a frying pan, cook the sausage without the skin, until it is well toast; add the garlic and the onion. Mix for a minute, add the sweet pepper with the Panamanian pepper. Cook for a minute add the sugar, the coffee, the salt and the pepper.  Mix well then add the beans and leave them to be cooked for 15 minutes to slow fire.  Mix the puree of yucca with the Pejibaye one. Afterwards add the custard, the cilantro and a teaspoon of salt.  Mix until obtaining a uniform color.   Fill with a spoonful of beans and Turrialba cheese, cover with a spoonful of pure.  Bake until the tarts get a golden color.

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Minced of yucca and chicken
In Costa Rica the Picadillos are very common; they are eaten with salad and rice.

Ingredients:
1-2 Chicken breast, cooked and in strips
2-2 Cups of chicken broth
3- 2 Cups of liquefied tomato
4- 1 K of yucca in cubes
5- 4 spoonfuls of cilantro
6-1 onion pricked in cubes
7-1 pricked red sweet pepper in cubes
8- 2 branches of celery
9-1 spoonful of annatto
10-2 spoonfuls of English Sauce
11-1 teaspoonful of salt
12-6 garlic chopped cloves

Cook the garlic, the onion, the celery and sweet pepper, add the tomato, the annatto and the broth of chicken. Mix well and leave the strong fire to boil. Add the yucca, season it and mix well. Lower the fire average and let cook until the yucca is smooth. Add cilantro and the hot spices.

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Hash and Chayote season with meat of Cured meat

This Picadillo are typical of Costa Rica, its smell and its texture characterized this plate.

Ingredients:
1- 8 chayote’s
2- 1 k of sweet pepper
3- 1 big onion
4- 1 teaspoonful
5- 1 roll of cilantro

6- Salt and pepper as you like.Peel the chayote’s and cut in cubes. In a pot, set water to boil. Then add the chayotes. When they are smoothed, it means that they are ready to be cooked. Put them in a cup in the refrigerator from one day to the next. Cook the meat in a bit of water. Once cooked the meat, sting finely, as the onion, the chili and the cilantro. After this fried all the smells and mix them with the chayotes. Put salt and pepper as you like, mix them with the cilantro so it takes a color.

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Honey with banana (sweet snack)

It is a famous dessert normally in rural zones.

Ingredients:
1-8 ripen banana, well bare, boiled bananas and divided in chunks.
2-8 nails of smell ·
3- 1 teaspoonful of vanilla
4-1/2 cup of grated sweet lid.

Drain the bananas and put them in a pot. Add the nails of smell. Cook to slow fire during 15 minutes.  Add the sweet of lid grated, the vanilla; after-taste cook for 15 more minutes and serve.