What's for Dinner?

So, last week I showed you a peek at our market adventures, but I haven't talked much about what we do with all that food once we bring it home.  Last night I made one of our favorite dishes, Sopa de Pallar y Tomate (Pallar and Tomato Soup), and since I was home alone I decided to document the process. Here is the general set up:

To start, Pallar are these yummy huge white beans, that are apparently native to Peru.  Here they are simmering with some oregano and whole garlic cloves after soaking overnight to get soft:

According to wordreference.com the translation of 'pallar' is butter beans. I have never seen these in the States but according to my intrepid mother they sell them in cans at kroger. I will have to try this out when we get back!

After the beans have been cooking for a while, I scald and peel the tomatoes.  The tomatoes are so cute with the little crosses cut in them, pre-scalding:

After a little time in the water, it is amazing how much the skin peels:

Then, I peel and chop the tomatoes, and put them in the frying pan with some chopped garlic. I cook them until they go from looking like this:

to this:

While the tomatoes are cooking, I chop the onions.  We have both red and yellow onions here, but usually buy whichever is cheaper.  There were a few weeks earlier this year where we could get a kilo for 50 centimos (16 cents US) but now they are up to 1.20 soles (40 cents US) and seem a little older, which makes them more potent.

When the tomatoes are done, they get dumped out into a bowl and the onions take their place.

I basically leave them alone for a while until they are good and cooked and nicely browned:

From there, I just dump in the onions and the tomatoes with the soft, yummy pallar and let them cook together for a little while longer.  I add a little bit of lemon juice right at the end and voila:

Dinner!  It was delicious and I had some of the leftovers for lunch this afternoon.

I also spent a little time this morning playing with the blog layout, changing the background and the layout so pictures can be bigger. Enjoy!