Costa Rican Cookin': Miel De Ayote

Hello again! We're back in the kitchen with another tasty recipe that's sure to get your mouth watering. Today we'll be observing my sister-in-law (and neighbor) Antonieta at work in her kitchen. If you remember my last post about chorreadas de elote, my intention was to get some more traditional recipes on here, but at the same time, to find ones that could be prepared outside of Costa Rica. I thought today's miel de ayote would be a good option, since ayote is related to squash and pumpkins. However, when I saw the procedure, I began to doubt that many of my readers would be trying this at home. In any case, I'll still give you the run-down, so you can do a bit of armchair (or deskchair) cooking:

First of all, you'll need to get an ayote or some type of pumpkin or squash. I think that ayotes are distinct from pumpkins and squash in that they're hard as hell (BYOMachete), and they have what appears to be a horrid skin disease on their outer shells:

This is the kind of thing that makes you want to turn around and walk back in the direction you came from. In any case, you gotta hack this bastard into some small chunks using a machete, an axe, or a big-ass knife.

Here's Toni showing the other reason I'm thinking this recipe may not work to well in the U.S.: tapa de dulce. This is basically a huge compressed chunk of sugar cane. Brown sugar would give you a similar taste, but it may not work the same. In any case, you have to chop and wash the tapa de dulce and add it to a pot with the ayote. That's how hard this sugar is: it fears neither water nor machete!

After accomodating the chunks of ayote (blistery side down) and dulce in the pot, you'll want to put it over your wood fired stove.

Mwa ha haaaa! Wait, you don't have a wood-fired stove? Oh crap. Well, this may also work on a regular stove, but I don't quite know how to do it.

Once on the stove, add about a half-cup of water. This may seem like precious little water, but somehow once the sugar melts and bubbles, it'll do just fine.

Partially cover, and wait about an hour or so.

Watch, observe, and wait by the fire, listening to the rain on the roof.

After about an hour, check on the pot. It should look like boiling Gremlins.

You can use a spoon to spread some of the syrup (miel) all over the ayote. That'll help it absorb the flavor.

Depending on what you've got, you can serve the ayote either hot or cold. If you've got a really thin-shelled ayote, you can theoretically eat the shell, but generally it's best scooped out and served without the shell. It's good with a bit of milk, cream, or ice cream.

Delicioso!

In any case, I hope you liked this, and if anyone is brave enough to try this at home (or over a campfire somewhere), I'd love to hear from you!

Buen provecho!

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