My family and I are now back from the beach (if you follow me on Instagram, you probably were able to tell I was somewhere tropical) — we came back up to the Andean mountains yesterday, climbing somewhere around 9,400 feet in altitude. Crazy change, huh?
The city my parents live at in Ecuador, Quito, is very high up on the Ecuadorian Sierra. It is a gorgeous metropolitan city with lots of history and movement. I really like it here, but man, I sure do miss the gorgeous coastal views we got to enjoy on these last few days.
The beach we went to was about five hours driving from Quito; we all drove together as a family and enjoyed some lively conversations (anywhere from business to marathon running.) About half way to our final destination, there was a famous fruit stand that tourists stop at to buy lots of fresh produce. It was a very pretty site, all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. My dad was totally enthused and got lots of tropical treats: papayas, pineapples, plantains, you name it. It’s funny, my dad is totally in love with plantains. He bought a whole plantain shoot, possibly carrying 50 plantains. In-sane! He adores plantains so much because he knows the maids at the beach know how to make all sorts of killer recipes using these…especially one (my dad’s favorite) that is called: Bolon de Verde. Bolones de Verde are fried plantain balls (the size of a golf ball, maybe a little bigger) filled with melted queso fresco. These can be enjoyed with a little hot sauce on top and accompanied with coffee. SO GOOD. We literally had these every day while at the beach. My dad liked them for breakfast…and I, as a midday snack (oh boy, what a snack!) I will share their recipe with you guys soon, so stay tuned!
Now that we are back on the Andes and are trying to keep warm, my mom and I decided to make some Colombian Cornbread muffins to bring us comfort. We’ll enjoy them with hot coffee at this high altitude. Yeah, that sounds nice. 🙂
You can make these delicious muffins and eat them as a side dish with whatever you want, maybe with some warm chili soup?
- 1 can sweet corn, blended
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup queso fresco, grated
- 1 ¾ cup milk (you can sub this with your favorite non-dairy milk)
- ½ stick butter
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ½ cup sugar
- Pinch sea salt
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease cupcake pan and set aside.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Carefully pour mixture into each cupcake hole.
- Bake until cornbread passes the knife test.
