A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide

August 21st, 2006 · 24 Comments

(Clockwise from top left: changua, arepa with queso blanco, pan de bono, and patacones - Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce) A Colombian breakfast is not just one thing like you might think a proper English fry up would be.I think that a Colombian breakfast can actually have many different possibilities limited only by the appetite, types of leftovers, and guided by the region of Colombia you are in/from.This post discusses a breakfast that includes changua, arepas, pan de bono, and patacones. (I will talk about how to make each of those items below.) What you dont see is what you might have to drink with this meal. That could include aqua de panela, strong Colombian coffee, or even steaming hot chocolate.It could easily have been beans, rice, chicharrones, and fried eggs with a side of hogao.This breakfast is an amalgam of breakfasts I had as a kid at home and while on vacation in Bogota, Colombia.This set of food may LOOK simple but it can take a while and lots of energy.

I would suggest starting with the Pan De Bono and I will cover that first.

Pan De Bono

Note: The translated ingredients and directions on the mix I show below are incorrect! I will give you the correct directions here in English.

Ingredients:

1 box of Pan De Bono mix
3 cups grated fresh queso blanco (farmer’s cheese - do not try to substitute this. Go to a latino market and get it fresh)
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk

Directions:

Grate the queso blanco with a fine grater. It is fragile and will crumble/grate easily. Do enough to equal 3 cups. Try to buy enough so that you can eat some slices of it later.

(Pan De Bono dough ready for forming - Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce) Pinch off small balls and then knead a bit more and then roll out into little snakes about 3.5 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Gently pinch the snake into a little circle and bake at 450 F on parchment for about 15 minutes.

Baked Pan De Bonos - (Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce) Next you might want to fry up your patacones. I have covered that in a previous post called How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones).

(Patacones - Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce)Next you might want to make you arepas.
Colombian ArepasIngredients:

2 cups Masa Harina (very finely ground corn meal. Do NOT use regular corn meal. I talk more about what to use below)
3 cups BOILING water (MUST be boiling)
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

I suggest this brand of Masa Harina.

(Masa Harina - Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce)In a large bowl pour in 2 cups of harina, 2 teaspoons of salt and mix well. Add the 3 cups of boiling water and mix with a spoon. Before it cools much knead it with your hands. My grandmother starts kneading almost right away with her heat-tolerant asbestos hands! I cant do that so I let it cool a bit.Knead into a rubber not overly sticky ball. If its very sticky add more harina. I had to do that and feel that I need to work more on my technique!

Arepa dough, a bit sticky - (Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce)Form the dough into little patties and then either grill or cook in a well seasoned cast iron pan. Its ok ifthe interior is a bit moist. These can burn easily and dry out easily. I like them toasty, adds nice flavor.

(Arepa with guava paste - Copyright Â© 2006 Nika Boyce)Ok, now you have all the sides to the main part of the breakfast, Changua! This is a very rich concoction of milk and eggs that is quite filling and very welcome in the morning. My father ADORED changua and this dish reminds me so much of him that I actually feel sad when I think of it, make it, and eat it. I can still see him bending over a fresh bowl of changua, beaming with joy, inhaling the scent and blissing out on the flavor and the memories from Colombia. We lost my father in 1999 to brutal early onset Alzheimers Disease.Colombian Changua

Ingredients:

4 cups milk
4 or 6 eggs
1/4 cup diced onions (I used vidalias)
2 tablespoons butter
Dash of cominos
diced green onions, to taste
diced cilantro, to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in a large milk-boiling-friendly pot, add onions and cominos. Saute on low heat until golden brown.

Add 4 cups of milk and bring to a rolling simmer (do not boil so hard that it boils over, that only puts you in a bad mood).

Once up to the boiling simmer add eggs Allow to simmer for between 5 and 10 minutes (some people like the egg well cooked, others like it barely cooked at all).

Add diced green onions and cilantro to serving bowls and then ladle out servings that include eggs and plenty of broth.

Enjoy with all the sides you made all morning long and then collapse on the couch for a leisurely nap.

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24 comments for this entry ↓

1 Pamela // Aug 23, 2006 at 3:27 am

That looks tasty! Thanks for sharing these recipes and a little snippet of another culture. This is a perfect example of one of the many perks blogging can bring!

Again I say thank you Nika!
2 nika // Aug 23, 2006 at 8:02 am

Pamela: glad you enjoyed it!
3 bexs // Aug 23, 2006 at 8:23 am

Hi Nika, your queso-arepa-cilantro pic looks stunning. Can you tell me anything about the cheese though? (I live in Germany, no latino markets here….)It’s a cow’s cheese, right? Has it got a sharp flavour? I can’t begin to think what it might be called here…It looks like such a perfect nibble, to serve with drinks etc. Impressive stuff.

xox
4 nika // Aug 23, 2006 at 10:57 am

bexs: glad you liked it! Queso Blanco is an acid precipitated cheese. Made fresh from cow’s milk. As it is an acid precipitated cheese it doesnt melt, has a tangy flavor and a “rubbery” feel against the teeth.

You can make it at home easily!

Here is a recipe for it:

Ingredients:

1 Gal Whole Milk
1/4 C fresh squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Heat milk up to 180 F (82 C) stirring constantly. Do not to burn the milk!

Whisk in the lemon juice, stir for 10-15 minutes.

Pour the now curdled milk through a strainer or colander that has been lined with a moistened cheese cloth.

Cool for about 20 minutes, pull the ends of the cheese cloth together and make a little packet out of it.

Hang the ball of cheese in the cloth to drain in the fridge for some 7 hours or so. You want it to hang until the dripping of whey stops (hang it over a bowl in the fridge).

Salt to taste, enjoy!
5 bexs // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:02 am

Oh that is so sweet of you to take the time… I will make it at home, sounds like just the sort of kitchen project I need. Thank you so much for the recipe and inspiration.

xox
6 nika // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:39 am

bexs: sure thing! Let me know how it goes
7 Nicole // Aug 25, 2006 at 1:48 pm

Thanks so much for this post! I was drooling over the breakfast photos on flickr and was really curious about what everything was! Also, thanks for the cheesemaking instructions…I’ll be trying it sometime soon
8 nika // Aug 25, 2006 at 1:56 pm

nicole: glad you liked it! I tell you this is such fillin food, I could not finish everything you see here.. I guess I am a food wimp
Let me know how the cheese experiment goes.
9 Latina Viva // Feb 16, 2007 at 11:30 am

Latin Food Blog - Nika’s Culinaria…

This is completely different from the Delicioso website. This is a food blog - a good one - written by Nika, a Colombian-American chica. Nika's Culinaria is a vast and varied blog. In her own words: "I post a……
10 Jackie // Jun 18, 2007 at 10:00 am

Nika, Is there anything I can use as a substitute for the cheese cloth?
11 Nika // Jun 18, 2007 at 10:03 am

Jackie: perhaps something like a loose weave natural cotton that you have put through the wash a few times (so there is no sizing or conditioners) ..
12 Jackie // Jun 18, 2007 at 10:10 am

Thanks! I will give that a try too!
13 Jackie // Jul 3, 2007 at 7:09 am

Hi Nika,
I just tried to make the cheese, but the milk is not curdled at all… help! lol
14 Nika // Jul 3, 2007 at 8:32 am

Jackie: oh that must be so frustrating! Make sure that you measure the temperature of your milk, get a candy thermometer and watch it so see that you get to the temp needed. Once you add the acid, keep going with the stirring until it breaks and curdles. If you are measuring in C, make sure that I converted the number correctly (I cant remember if I calculated it or if someone else did).

Take a peek at this page with this recipe:

( http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/misc_quesoblanco.html )

* Makes 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
* 1 gallon whole milk
* 1/4 cup vinegar

Over a direct source of heat warm 1 gallon of milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring often to keep it from scorching. Maintain this temperature for several minutes. Slowly add vinegar until the curds separate from the whey. Usually 1/4 cup of vinegar will precipitate 1 gallon of milk.

Pour the curds and whey into a cheesecloth-lined colander. Tie the four corners of the cheesecloth into a knot and hang to drain for several hours or until the bag of curds stops dripping. Take the mass of curds out of the cheesecloth. It will be a solid bag of curd. It may be wrapped in Saran Wrap and stored in the refrigerator until needed. It will keep up to 1 week.
15 Jackie // Jul 5, 2007 at 11:25 pm

Nika, Thanks so much. I will try that again.
xoxoxo
16 Jonathan // Aug 29, 2007 at 6:24 pm

Oh thank you so much. I am colombian but grew up on american fast food. Ive been wanting to learn how to cook my childhood meals. Thank you so much, now I know what ingredients Im looking for at the store…..Thanks!
17 Nika // Aug 30, 2007 at 10:45 am

Jonathan: Its helping you make the colombian food of your youth that makes this all worth it! (Ok, and I also got to eat this as well so it sure was a yummy process for me

Let me know how it goes for you!
18 Carolina Segura // Nov 9, 2007 at 12:08 pm

hola!
Im Colombian living in Liverpool. Im tryin to teach my pupils here to prepare changua and some recipes from Boyaca, where I come from. It’s lovely to find a website like yours! Though I know the recipes in another way, that’s pretty it! The hardest is to find the ingredients. Coriander doesn’t taste the sam nad trying to make some fresh chees is really hard. Anyway thanks for your work!
Carolina
19 Nika // Nov 9, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Carolina: Wow, that must be a challenge! Its wonderful that you are bringing some Colombian sunshine to their lives

I am glad I can be a resource. Yeah, making cheese can be a bit of a pain if your not in the habit of it (like making bread).

Thats wild about the coriander. Maybe you can get some seeds from home (send via mail?) and grow some for yourself?

I bet most of what you get there spice wise is Indian or Jamaican right? I am guessing any Jamaican store would have ingredients a bit closer to home.

Let me know what else you all are up to!
20 Carol // Jan 1, 2008 at 7:31 pm

Nika,
I live in Michigan, but was just in Miami and ate pandebono at a restaurant called OLA and fell in love with it. Any idea where I can purchase the pandebono mix? I should have purchased it while in Miami, but didn’t. Can I buy it on the internet?
Carol
21 Nika // Jan 6, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Carol: I bet they were delicious!

Here is a link:

http://store.amigofoods.com/pandebono.html;_ylc=X1MDMjAyMjI3NjA5OQRfcgMyBGJ0A3Byb2QtY2xpY2sEZHN0aQNwYW5kZWJvbm8EaW5BcnJheQMEc2kDYW1pZ29mb29kcwRzcmNpA2VsbGFwYW5kZWJvcQR2X21uA3JQcm9kQWZmBHZfb3JkAzEEdl9yaWQDNV9tdWRfMzExMTY4MzE1BHZfc24Dc3RvcmVzLnByb2R1Y3RyZWNvcw–
22 Kate // Jan 26, 2008 at 7:23 pm

Nika this website is wonderful!! I was born in the US but was raised eating all this wonderful delicious colombian food and and elated to now be able to cook it for MY mom and surprise her! Thanks again!!
23 Nika // Jan 26, 2008 at 7:31 pm

Kate: goodness! I cant wait to hear how it goes. If my daughter did the same it would melt my heart As she is only 11, we cook together for now.
24 Jacquelyn // Feb 2, 2008 at 8:01 pm

Changua is what we call Grandpa Soup in my family because he would often make it for us in the morning. Sometimes he would put in small pieces of French bread or potatoes. Thanks for bringing back a wonderful memory. I’ll have to make some soon.

Nikas Culinaria

eat with your eyes