Frente Cumbiero Competition

An exciting opportunity is coming your way! By sending an email to INFO@COLOMBIAGE.COM outlining the correct answers to our three questions below, the lucky winner will receive:

- 2 tickets to FRENTE CUMBIERO LIVE IN LONDON this 31 May together with the chance to meet the band backstage.

- An original copy of FRENTE CUMBIERO’S 7″ VYNIL, a collector’s item, signed by the members of the band.

- A delicious dinner for two at London’s leading Latin American restaurant SABOR in Islington.

Questions are as follows:

1. In which studios in Medellín, Colombia, will Frente Cumbiero’s Ondatrópica project gather a group of the best old school Colombian tropical musicians together with the new generation to record an album?

2. What are the names of BBC Radio 3 World Routes Academy’s 2012 apprentice and mentor respectively?

3. Name one of the four panelists that accompanied Colombiage’s Director, Landa Acevedo-Scott in February at Unconvention 2012 Colombiage’s panel “Culture is Propaganda: Is Colombia’s new wave of cultural stars changing the image of a troubled nation?”

Participant emails will be received until 29 May at 5:00 pm and the winner will be notified via email. His/her name will appear in this very page shortly afterwards. A special mention will also be published here after the concert.

Don’t miss the chance to see FRENTE CUMBIERO LIVE IN LONDON at Brixton Jamm this 31 May at 7pm accompained by DJ Russ Jones aka The Hackney Globe Trotter.

Best of luck to everyone!

The Colombiage Team

Ajiaco

Photos by Pablo Salgado

Ajiaco is a chicken and potato soup, and a regional variation on the better-known sancocho. It originates from Colombia’s capital, Bogota, in the Altiplano region of the country. This region lies 2,600 meters above sea level, making a warming winter broth a suitable local favourite. The key ingredient in the soup is guasca, a herb only produced in the area from which ajiaco originates. It is this herb that gives the dish its distinct flavour.

In the Altiplano, there is less variety in the crops available than in Colombia’s warmer regions. Consequently, whereas sancocho is made with a variety of different vegetables and tubers, the recipe for ajiaco typically uses three or four different types of potato, with each providing different tastes and textures.

SABOR’S AJIACO
(Chicken and potato soup from Bogota)

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
3 cloves of garlic
2 red onions
salt to taste
2 litres of chicken stock
12 small yellow potatoes (also known as papa amarilla, yellow potatoes can be found in South American shops in Brixton, Elephant and Castle and Seven Sisters)
2 corn cobs, cut in half
4 medium white potatoes, peeled and cut into 5mm slices (new potatoes or jersey royals are ideal)
4 purple potatoes, peeled and cut into 5mm slices (also known as truffle black potatoes, purple potatoes can be found in the supermarket. Red potatoes can be used instead, as they also retain their shape when cooked) 1 bunch of spring onions
1 bunch of coriander
8 tablespoons of guasca (this herb can be found dried in Brixton, Elephant and Castle and Seven Sisters; soak the dried herbs in water before use to get a more aromatic flavour)
250 ml of double cream or sour cream
4 tablespoons of capers, drained
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

Method
First, marinade the chicken breasts with the salt, onions and garlic and leave over night.

The next day, place the chicken breasts into a heavy 4-litre casserole dish. Add water, cover the dish and cook until the chicken is tender. When cooked, remove the chicken from the dish. Remove the skin from the chicken and discard. Cut the chicken into strips.

Cook the yellow potatoes in the casserole dish with the chicken stock, until the potatoes start to disintegrate. At this point the soup should be thick and fairly smooth.

Add the spring onion, coriander, sliced white and purple potatoes, guasca and corn halves to the soup, and continue cooking.

When cooked, remove the bunches of spring onions and coriander.

To serve, divide the chicken strips between four deep bowls and pour over the soup. Dress each bowl with 3 tablespoons of cream and 1 tablespoon of chopped capers. Place the slices of avocado over the top, and serve.

Lulo, an exclusive Andean fruit

As a person that was brought up in the Andes in Colombia, I learned to love fruits from a very early age, thanks to my father’s passion and tradition of planting fruit trees, and in some cases naming the trees after kids. For me, the most delicious of South American fruits are mango, maracuya (passion fruit) and lulo. Lulo in particular has inspired me and given so much pleasure in our kitchen at Sabor, that early this year we decided to plant around 2000 trees on our farm in Quinchia, in the coffee-growing region of Colombia, and I would like to share with you all you some facts about this delicious fruit.

Lulo is an exclusively Andean which can be compared with gooseberry, kiwi and lime, and which has a floral aroma. Its scientific name is Solanum quitoense and it comes from the Solanum genus of the Solanaceae family. The Solanum genus also includes 3 food crops of global importance: tomatoes, aubergines and potatoes.

Lulo is indigenous to the tropical region of the , primarily(although it is now also grown in Central America). Its Colombian name 'Lulo' comes from the Quechua "ruru" which means fruit or egg. In Ecuador it is known as Naranjilla (little orange) for its acidity, round form and orange colour when fully ripe, although the pulp and juice remain green. The fruit's tartness is reminiscent of a Seville orange, the species used for making marmalade.

Lulo grows on a bush - it is a perennial which takes around 10-12 months to produce fruit. In Colombia it grows in warm climates between 800m and 2000m above sea level. Traditionally it is difficult to cultivate, as it is delicate and susceptible to disease and parasites, however new hybrids (not GM) are proving more fruitful. Traditional bushes are waist high, but our lulo de la selva grows 5-6 feet high, produces an abundance of fruit and retains a good flavour even after processing. The lulo used in cocktails at Sabor comes from a co-operative of luleros in Belen de Umbria, Risaralda in the coffee belt of Colombia, we hope very soon it will come from our family farm!!!!!!!!.

In South America the fruit is used widely in juices, milkshakes, jams and desserts. The juice has a floral aroma and is often blended with water (or milk) and sugar. The tartness can be subtly balanced with pressed apple or pear juice, with a dash of elderflower cordial.

In order to introduce lulo to the British palate, as part of our mission to popularise Nuevo Latino cuisine, Sabor turned to Fruto del Espiritu as a supplier. As well as Sabor, Fruto del Espiritu supplies clients such as the Dorchester Bar, where the a lulo twist on a Mojito has led to the Mulito. Another favourite is the Lulo & Amaretto Sour (which we created at Sabor), building on the natural tartness of Lulo. Fruto del Espiritu has also introduced lulo to over 50 schools and youth clubs throughout the UK as part of a Healthy Eating & Enterprise programme, where students have to create their own cocktails.

Sancocho

Soups are an important element in the South American cuisine. In my home they played an indispensable part of the main meal. Most South American soups originated in European kitchens, but a few like sancocho date back to pre-Hispanic times. In fact sancocho was the sacred dish of the Incas, who used it not only as energy food but also as an offering to the gods, asking for good health. With the introduction of pucheros or cocidos by the Spaniards local ingredients such as corn, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, peppers and yucca were used as ingredients

This is one of our Collaboration with Perfiles Magazine, A Latin American London Base Magazine.

Open publication - Free publishing - More sancocho

Colombian Independence Day - 200 Years Anniversary

Sabor is proud to be collaborating with Vinopolis in the celebration of 200 years of Colombian Independence this year. For this event we have created a new range of cocktails using Colombian fruits, which will be served at a special event at Vinopolis on the evening of 20th July.

Cimarrón

On Thursday 18th March the superb Colombian joropo band Cimarrón are coming to the Union Chapel in Islington. Performers like this bring back memories for me of my upbringing in Colombia, and in particular the diversity of musical and other cultural experiences which we were able to enjoy. I'm delighted to see troupes like Cimarrón coming to the UK and bringing with them their roots and their culture to share with us. Details of the concert may be found here - we are selling tickets in the restaurant.

In my early teens i became a member of a youth group in my home town Quinchia, in the department of Risaralda in the coffee region of Colombia, this group was set up by university students from our town, that having moved to Pereira, our departmental capital to continue the university studies, realised how little was on offer in our town for young people. The Corporacion Quinchia Nueva was set up, first as an study group, and it developed into a cultural organisation, in the absence of an official cultural organisation in the town. It consisted of various groups, such as sports teams, theatre, band and a dance troupe that was the most successful of the lot. By winning departmental folk dance championships and touring all around the country, this troupe developed to the point that it became the Ballet Michua, the official ballet company of the department of Risaralda. Folk dance had offered me a fantastic outlet in my youth, by learning about the different cultural regions of the country, and offering the opportunity of travel and broadening my horizon. Like the CQN there are many cultural organisations in Colombia, teaching young people about their roots, their communities and most importantly being an active part of the community.

Cimarrón is a seven-piece with spectacular, super-tight performances of joropo music and dance. Hailing from the vast Orinoco plains which stretch from Colombia into Venezuela, joropo is a fast traditional rhythm played on harp, bandola and cuatro accompanied by bass, cajon and maracas. Cimarrón fire up flawless virtuosity with a heart-stopping sense of drama.

Led by harpist Carlos Rojas and based in Colombia, Cimarrón have been experimenting with the music of their homeland for the past two decades, on the search for new musical horizons whilst staying true to their roots.

The mestizo people who inhabit the llanos [plains] on the great Orinoco river are descendants of Spanish settlers, African slaves and Indigenous Indians. This is cattle rearing country where life revolves around country ranches. Music accompanies the daily working tasks such as milking and cattle drives. The word Cimarrón, meaning wild bull, is a symbol of liberty in Los Llanos.

Find out more at http://www.astarmusic.co.uk/?page_id=15 or download their mp3 EP from Amazon.