The yuca is boiling in a witch-like cauldron, heavily dented from years of use, over a fire built of three large tree trunks. To keep the fire slowly burning, the matriarch of the family inches the timber closer to the center from time to time. The fishing trip was a success. As the yuca, a potato-like tuber, simmers, the abuela is handling the catch, each of the odd species that they brought in requiring different treatment.
The sun is setting — we made it back just in time — and the smoke adds to the surreal feeling that the half-light of dusk creates.
The little kitchen sits apart from the rest of the house, with half-way walls letting the smoke escape and the dim light filter in. When it comes right down to it, when you peel away all the layers of distraction, what is ultimately the most indispensable to us as humans is our health.
Health is the pith, the root, the fiber, the meat and potatoes, the kernel, the staple, and the marrow of our existence. And, as this list of synonyms demonstrates, we have always known that diet is at the heart of the matter.
Cultures across the globe have adapted their diet to availability, environmental constraints and physiological needs. The Amazonian diet — high carb, low fat — and an active lifestyle lead to several health benefits. Early studies, conducted at a time prior to or during the major lifestyle changes that have accompanied recent colonization of the Ecuadorian Amazon, have also demonstrated a balanced diet and overall good health.
In comparison, colonists living nearby showed more stunting, malnutrition and parasite infections. In the Brazilian northeast, is commonly turned into manioc flour by grating and being left out to dry under the sun, and is pretty much used in everything. This delicious Brazilian snack is often served as an appetizer and just fits in your mouth perfectly.
Cooked manioc is then mashed and stuffed with cheese and deep-fried in hot oil to create manioc dumplings that conceal an oozy cheesy filling inside. Plantains are an unripe fruit similar to bananas, though not sweet, and can only be eaten after cooking by steaming, boiling, or frying they cannot be eaten raw. In a savory dish, they have a similar texture and flavor to potatoes, and indeed their starchy nature makes them more similar to a vegetable than fruit from a cooking perspective.
Plantains are popular in a wide variety of desserts, often fried and combined with sweet fruits. This is probably the most common way of serving plantain, as double-cooked chips that are crispy on the outside and soft inside. The technique involves using very green plantains, peeling them, and cutting them into two or three parts.
They are then partially cooked in hot oil, then smashed flat, and then deep-fried until golden. The Amazon jungle is filled with a huge number of sweet, succulent, and exotic fruits used to make a wide variety of colorful drinks, desserts, and sauces.
In Peru, one of the most popular Amazonian super fruits is the camu camu , which contains an astonishing amount of vitamin C.
All these fruits are used to make cocktails, ice-creams, breakfast juices, and even incorporated into savory dishes to create exotic and unexpected flavor combinations. It has an almost pineapple scent and a chocolatey flavor and makes delicious ice cream or any other kind of dessert for that matter. A special mention needs to go to the Amazonian palm trees, whose constituent materials are used for anything from construction to cooking and cuisine. Cooking-wise, their leaves are often used to bind and wrap many ingredients together before cooking in a variety of ways, their natural oils, and fragrance complementing the complex seasonings trapped inside.
From a cuisine perspective, the succulent heart of palm found inside forms the basis of many salads in the region. Made with raw hearts of palm cut in strings like fettucini and seasoned with local spices, this salad may look plain, as it usually does not include any other vegetable, but it is extremely fresh and bursting with flavor. It is a great option for vegetarians. The genera Capsicum species, to which all peppers belong, originated in the Amazon Rainforest.
They are used to spice up rice, yuca, and plantain dishes and are the basis for many sauces. Common to the Peruvian Amazon, this sauce is a popular accompaniment to many Amazonian dishes and involves mixing raw onion slivers, tomatoes, lime and lemon juice, some coriander, and anywhere between a teaspoon to a tablespoon of chili sauce made from the charapita pepper, dependent on how spicy you like it.
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It is of indigenous origin, and is made with leaves of the manioc plant that have been finely ground and boiled for a week. Then, salted pork, dried meat and smoke ingredients, such as bacon and sausage, are added. It must be served extremely hot in a cuia, or gourd. Amazonian cuisine in includes many freshwater fish such as peixe nobre noble fish , the pirarucu, and tambaqui.
Fish dishes are usually served with tomato sauce, prepared in coconut milk or stewed in tucupi a sauce made with fermented manioc juices.
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