Nicaraguan Cooking: My Grandmother's Recipes

by Trudy Espinoza-Abrams

In this first English-language book of Nicaraguan cooking (and indeed, the only one available in any language), Trudy Espinoza-Abrams has dug deep into her childhood in Granada, Nicaragua and sifted through the countless hours spent in her grandmother's k

Genres: Cookbooks

146 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2004

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If, as the author asserts, there are no other English-language books describing the cooking of Nicaragua, then her inclusion of some rather exotic recipes is fully justified. But they are not all equally useful. I would certainly attempt Fricasé de Conejo (rabbit fricassee). I might try Plato de Tortuga (turtle dish), 'tho several species of turtles are legally protected against extinction. The likelihood of my preparing Pinol de Iguana (iguana stew), despite her careful instructions concerning how to skin it, is highly remote. Other recipes are especially intriguing. An example is Sopa de Rosquilla (corn ring soup) which involves fried cheese-and-corn dumplings twisted into rings floating in a stock of milk and chicken broth flavoured with garlic, onion, peppers and mint. The author is Nicaraguan in both ethnicity and origin, but lives and has lived for some time in the United States. This allows her to draw on her recollection of her family's cooking during her youth in Nicaragua and to suggest suitable substitute ingredients readily available in the USA. This brief (145 pp.) text is long on recipes and short on discussion of Nicaraguan cuisine. For example, she explains that several sauces popular in Nicaragua are of Cuban origin without explaining how they made their way from that island nation. Writing recipes is an art and a science with its own rules. Some of the recipes in this book (her first cookbook) would have benefited from the attention of a skilled recipe editor. The index is organized by the section of the book in which each dish appears. A more useful index would have listed alphabetically all of the dishes by both their English and Spanish names as well as under entries by their principal ingredient and by the type of dish. The book is a necessary addition to the library of anyone who wishes to look at Latin American cooking in breadth and depth.