Wilo Benet of San Juan Puerto Rico demonstrates how to make sofrito

In Mexican kitchens, many dishes were born out of leftovers and a desire to make something new. Women would see what they had on hand and create a wholly different meal with it.

A bowl of leftover boiled plantains and leftover black beans, if such a thing ever exists there, might be turned into Torundas de Platano Macho, or fried plaintain balls, with a black bean sauce.

That’s what Tomas Dominguez of Café Santa Cruz in Coatepec, Veracruz, and Iliana de la Vega of the San Antonio campus of the Culinary Institute of America told the audience Wednesdsay at the beginning of the second annual Latin Flavors, American Kitchens conference, a three-day event that’s drawn a host of international chefs to discuss the culinary treasures of Central and South America.

Alfredo Ayala adds cilantro to Habichuelas Guisadas

The same story was heard from chefs visiting from Brazil, Chile and Puerto Rico.

Take manioc, for example. It’s “the staple food of Brazil,” said Teresa Corcao from Rio de Janeiro. It can be known by numerous names, including tapioca, which is the most common form found in the U.S.

But it’s also the “invisible food,” she continued. “They eat it a lot, but they don’t talk about it.”

Yet you’ll find it in everything from farofa, a powdery dish used as a condiment, to a tapioca brulee.

Beans are the same with most of the Latin American cuisines. They are expected, rather than analyzed.

You might have one type of bean with lunch and another type with dinner, culinary historian Maricel E. Presilla said.

They could be as common to North American palates as pintos, garbanzos or black beans, or as select as Puerto Rican gandules.

Evan Martinez, Art Stahl, Elizabeth Kossick and Cynthia Rodriguez listen to a panel of speakers during the Latin Flavors, American Kitchens conference. Kossick is the CIA's Latin Cuisines Specialist, while Martinez, Stahl and Rodriguez are graduates of the San Antonio program.

The iconic foods of these countries will be explored more fully in the two remaining days of the conference. “There’s so much we still don’t know about the foods and flavors of Latin America,” Mark Erickson, vice president of continuing education for the CIA, said during his opening remarks.

That’s the focus of the San Antonio campus at the Pearl Brewery, according to Ken Halliday of Silver Ventures, which manages the site. “We see food at the center of everything we do here,” he said. “And a unique component to this project is education.”

So, if all goes well, the chefs in attendance will take what they learn “back into your kitchens and your menus,” he said.

Habichuelas Guisadas (Puerto Rican Bean Stew)

1 pound white navy beans (see note)
1 ham hock
½ pound smoked ham, cubed
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
Whole culantro leaves

Sofrito:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
½ green bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped or tomato paste, to taste
4 tablespoons Cubanelle chiles or Anaheim chiles, finely chopped (see note)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
¾ cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
½ teaspoon dried oregano
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Cilantro leaves, chopped, to garnish

Soak the beans overnight in 2 quarts of cold water. The next day, drain and rinse in cold water. Transfer the beans to a medium-sized pot, and cover with cold water by 2 inches. Add the ham hock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour.

For the sofrito: While beans are cooking, heat the olive in a sauté pan on medium-high heat and add the onion, bell pepper, tomato, chiles, garlic, cilantro, oregano, salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. After the beans have cooked for 1 hour, and add the sofrito, ham, butternut squash and culantro leaves, and cook for 30 minutes more or until tender.  If the beans are too dry, add a little bit of water or chicken stock. Remove culantro leaves.

Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves. Serve immediately with white rice.

Note: Either pinto or kidney beans can be substituted for white navy beans. Season with hotter chiles, if you prefer a spicier dish.

Makes 8 servings.

Adapted from Alfredo Ayala/Latin Flavors, American Kitchens

Sheesh Tawook, martinated grilled chicken breast, is served with coleslaw, hummus and garlic sauce.

Pasha’s Mediterranean Grill is one of those places where you are pretty sure what you’re going to order during the drive over. If you’re with a close friend, such as your spouse, it’s likely you know what he or she will order, too.

With us, the negotiations begin outside the door. He, for instance, almost always gets the Vegetarian Plate. This means that I can forget getting some of the Baba Ghannouj (puréed, roasted eggplant) that he loves, but I might get a crunchy falafel (fried chickpea patties).

On the other hand, if I give him at least one of the pickles from my plate, he will allow me to have a couple of spoonfuls of hummus from his. Who says romance is dead?

At Pasha, which is on Wurzbach Road just west of I-10, you’ll also find some of the friendliest, most attentive employees in the city. I don’t say this lightly. I have favorites in all parts of town. But the servers, hosts and even managers here are nothing but helpful.

The restaurant is informal. You stand in line and order as in other fast-serve restaurants in town. At Pasha, though, after you are seated they bring the meal to your table, the bread, the water and any re-orders you might wish to make.

The food at Pasha is better than good. I won’t say that every dish there is the best example of each dish that I’ve ever had.  I might have tasted a better tabbouleh salad at one place, or a peerless hummus with a generous sheen of olive oil and a dash of powdered sumac at another.

But at Pasha, you can count on  good, straightforward dishes that taste like what the menu says.

The chicken breast on the kebabs two of us ordered recently were not in the least overcooked. The flavors of the marinade on my chicken kebab, marinated in saffron, lemon juice and olive oil, actually tasted of these things instead of time too long spent on the broiler. The dish comes with Pasha’s beautiful basmati rice, but they nicely substituted a smaller version of a Greek salad for me.

A friend’s Sheesh Tawook Kebab, was, if anything, even juicier than mine. Yes, he liked the other food on the dish, the potatoes and cabbage and pickles, but what really won him over was an innocent appearing, but quite powerful, creamy garlic sauce served as a condiment.

I was not particularly happy with the sliced beef and lamb mixture on my Gyros Plate on another visit.  It was cool and dry. I loved the garlicky flavor, but this meat needs to be sliced onto the plate immediately before serving to get to the table warm.  It didn’t seem to be a fluke, either. A companion on another visit had the same cool, dry slices.

The big, puffy rounds of freshly baked flatbread that come to the table look to me like Indian naan. (I haven’t asked if they have tandoor oven back there.) Whatever it is, it’s an appealing, hot, puffy loaf that you tear apart. If you go into Pasha and order just a side dish of hummus, bread and some pickles, you’ll have a fine afternoon snack.

On my next visit, I have decided to not go to Pasha with my mind made up. The Greek Moussaka, a casserole extraordinaire, or Joojeh Kebab, a Cornish hen marinated in saffron, lemon juice and olive oil, grilled, and served with rice and grilled tomatoes are tempting. And, I’m trusting Pasha to do it right.

Pasha Mediterranean Grill
9330 Wurzbach Road
(210) 561-5858
$-$$
Lunch and dinner: Daily

Roasted vegetables are delicious any time of year, but especially when it feels comfortable enough to turn on the oven — and leave it on for more than an hour.

To those who make a face at the word “rutabagas,”  I invite you to give this vegetable another chance. It has an earthy but mellow, slightly sweet flavor when baked or boiled.  Add melted butter and crumbled bacon to mashed rutabagas and you have a dish my family always welcomed at the Christmas dinner table.

Fennel bulb adds a gentle flavor of anise to the blend, with garlic and onion offering more substantial tastes to counter the blander flavors of the potatoes.

With some good whole-grain bread and butter, and maybe a wedge of cheddar to slice, this could be the centerpiece of a meat-free meal.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound rutabagas, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound onions, cut into 1-inch wedges or slices about ½-inch thick
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into slices about ½-inch thick or narrower
1 pound sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes, OR use cleaned fingerling potatoes, cut into the same size
8 cloves peeled garlic
1/2 tablespoon crumbled, dried sage
1/2 tablespoon crumbled, dried rosemary
1/2 tablespoon crumbled, dried oregano
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place very large roasting pan in oven and heat for 15 minutes (or 2 large roasting pans – vegetables should be in single layer).

Remove from oven. Add olive oil to pan. Add vegetables and garlic and gently stir them around in the oil. Put in the oven. After about 45 minutes, add herbs, salt and pepper, to taste, and stir gently around in pan. Take from the oven when the vegetables are tender, after about 1 ¼ hours. Drizzle over lemon juice, sprinkle with fresh parsley, stir vegetables gently and serve.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Adapted from recipeczar.com