Mondongo. (Cows stomach stew) Colombia

Back on the Pan American highway, I left the colonial city of Popoyan and headed into the hills that lead towards Pasto and Colombia’s the border with Ecuador. Struggling up yet another back- breaking climb and doing my best to make it to the next town before dark, I distracted myself from the throbbing pain in my legs by imagining what hearty platters I would attack at the small town I found.

A couple of golden empanadas washed down with an ice gold beer; a steaming bowl of beef sanchocho with a ripe avocado, some chorizo drenched in lemon juice a perhaps if I was good a home-made icecreme to celebrate a hard day at work. Completely lost in my culinary daydream I was woken by the red glare of some break lights in front of me.

"Get in the back of the truck” demanded the driver who was leaning out of the window.

“Porque?” I asked, convinced that I was in the initial stages of a kidnap.

The driver steps out of his truck and after exchanging a few pleasantries explains that this ancient route, that used to carry empires gold is now home to another lucrative industry, Cocaine. The green hills I had been admiring all day were covered in coca plants and apparently this was not a place for red-faced, blonde haired cyclist to travel after dark. Taking his word for it that I shouldn’t be out on the road at this time, and that in recent week’s armed bandits had been roaming the roads looting and pillaging as they pleased, I accepted his offer to drop me at the next truck stop where I was soon hunched of a steaming bowl of Mondongo. A dream come true!

  • 2 llb of cow’s stomach
  • Two large carrots, grated
  • Half a pound of fresh peas
  • 2 mild cooking chorizo sausages
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 2lb of potatoes cubed
  • 1\4 llb of sweet potato cubed
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Cilantro finely chopped

1. Cook the stomach in water with a little salt for half an hour to an hour or until soft. Leave to cool and cut into piece an inch squared.

2. Add the stomach pieces, the sliced chorizo, to a large pan and cover with water. Add your chopped onion, carrot, garlic and tomato and cook on a steady heat until the stomach is tender.

3. Add your potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas to the pot and continue to cook until they are soft and the pieces of potatoe fall of a fork.

4. Lastly, stir through some finely chopped cilantro and serve with a little fresh aji and some patacones.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 and is filed under Colombian Recipes, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or trackback from your own site. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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