Campo Cooking

Last week at my women's group the women requested another cooking class while we wait for the rest of the pila project funding to come in. I wanted to veer away from breads and try an entree, so we decided on Black Bean Burgers (a personal favorite to make out here). The ingredients are all easy to find at market day, and it's a healthy and economical alternative to a meat patty.

I translated the recipe to Q'eqchi' with the help of my Campur friend, and had the women each bring an ingredient. As all my cooking classes are, it was a bit chaotic and slow to start, but with the help of a few of the more eager women we churned out a few dozen patties. In all the hubbub I forgot to tell the women to strain the remaining bean water from the beans, so they didn't stick together in the pan as well as mine usually do. But they got the idea, and seemed to like the recipe (although it was a general consensus that the bean patties would be extra-good if one added meat. Kind of defeats the purpose, but oh well..).

On the same campo-cooking vein, my lovely site-mate Jareau decided to 1) extend his Peace Corps service by 3 months and 2) to embark on a campo food blog project in the meantime. He'll be experimenting with recipes using only things that we can buy in our village's market, and I will the honorary taster/commentator. So all you foodies out there, check his new blog out here!

Tortas re kenq'

Li xb'anol:

1 libra kenq' cha'aq
1 raix ik putzimbil
1 zanahor putzimbil
1 ceboll putzimbil
2-3 anx putzimbil
1-2 mol
½-1 sek' kaj kaxlin wa
comimo
atzam maalaj consume
ik

Ke chi us li kenq' tun tokol ajwi'. Junaji riquin li kenq' chiqbil, verduras, saab rui, li mol, ut li kaj kaxlan wa. K'e chi tiekwoq li aceit sa li xarten. K'e kaman li wa li xa junaji ru ut kili y ru. 5 jun pakal ut 5 minuto li jun paqal chik.