Casados con pescado, hechos en casa

Last night I managed to make a dish that ended up being one of the most exciting meals I've ever made. Not because it was the most exciting food - although it was extremely tasty - rather because I relived an experience I really enjoyed in Costa Rica right here in Astoria, and I made it all myself.

The "casado" is a really popular and often inexpensive dish in CR that usually involves a meat of some kind (in this case I used fish), rice, black beans, fried plantains and salad. As you can see here, I did not use anything green, and I should have! But I was too excited about having found yuca here at home and so I got carried away with the starches. Next time I'll throw in some salad or broccoli with carrots, I swear :) I made some more changes to the traditional dish, as follows: 1) I used brown rice instead of white rice, 2) I used green plantains instead of ripe plantains (I don't like the sweet flavor), 3) I also baked some plantain fries in the oven (which were AMAZING!) and 4) I added some boiled yuca. I used talapia but I recommend a fish with a less strong flavor... talapia kind of overpowers me sometimes. But it's inexpensive!

I had it in my head to attempt making casados because I was pretty sure I could find most of the materials here in Josh's neighborhood and I also knew I'd have plenty of leftovers, something that always pleases me. So, I had this strange drive to make casados and they turned out extremely well. Such a basic dish, but packed full of such flavor and all kinds of differnet textures on the same plate. Just great! It reminded me of the parts of CR that I really enjoyed, like going to restaurants and little hole-in-the-wall places with friends and professors. I'm so glad that I could bring back a little something with me :D

Because it was so much food, I didn't make a dessert. Hours later I contented myself with Maria cookies and milk. I packed away the rice and yuca, and even now as I write this at nearly 11:00 PM, I'm thinking of all the wonderful ways I can use them in leftovers in the coming days. I'm leaning towards some breakfast tacos with eggs, brown rice and a bit of cheese... we'll see! That will be only one of tomorrow's food aventures.