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Hello dear readers. Today we have a guest post from Alicia's husband, Adrian.

Bonus Recipe!! This is Adrian Maruri. The Ecuadorian food recipe month was a crazy one and we are already on the Irish month which so far has been quite tasty. My wife couldn’t post weekly about the meals in the Ecuadorian month as she likes to, so I volunteered to post the last recipe plus a very special bonus dessert: Plantain Cake! (which has got to be the most Ecuadorian desert) As always, desert is the last course so we’ll start with the last meal of the Ecuador series, the delicious “Arroz Con Menestra y Carne” (steak, rice, and lentils).

The recipe I used can be found in the great Laylita’s website where she has a wide range of Ecuadorian recipes so I’ll copy the recipe here and only comment on the things I did differently or in addition to it and any comments I may have.

Arroz con Menestra y Carne

As you can see in the picture, instead of serving this meal with sliced avocados, I like to make Guacamole to dip the fried plantain slices in. The side fried plantain for this meal is usually green and preferably so in my opinion. As a traditional occurrence when making lentil menestra, you’ll always end up with leftovers which is best to keep in the freezer and will be great later when you’re in a pinch since the lentils are great on their own, better with rice, and best with an added sunny-side up egg on top.

Now what you came for… The Plantain Cake! There’s probably not a more Ecuadorian dessert out there, at least not a proper one (some people call a fruit salad a desert which is fine but I think cake wins the “dessertiness” contest) Now, full disclosure, you don’t really use green plantains in this recipe as depicted in the thumbnail, they must be very ripe. I should add, I have never made or had this before until now so I can’t confirm whether this is the best or the worst recipe for this cake, but I really enjoyed it. I also know that the have different versions of this cake in Colombia and Venezuela but how different or in what way, I don’t know. So without further ado, here it is:

Plantain Cake

For reference, here is a link to the recipe site, although be warned, it is all in Spanish: https://cookpad.com/es/recetas/116152-torta-de-maduro-ecuatoriana

​I was so curious when I saw cheese as part of the ingredients but I have to say it added a nice contrast to the sweetness of the cake which in part makes sense because in Ecuador we eat plantain with cheese all the time, green or ripe, but a cake with cheese was new to me. The consistency was a bit more like a plantain flan than a cake, which doesn’t take from its deliciousness, I was just left wondering if a different recipe would get me vastly different results… who knows. Hope you enjoy these recipes!

Hello! Alicia back again with more Ecuadorian recipes to share. If you're new here I'll explain. Each month this year, my family is choosing a different country from our heritage. Once a week we make a traditional meal from that country and then I share it with you here on the blog. In January we did Germany, February is Ecuador, and March will be Ireland.

Unfortunately, my little family was stricken with the flu in February and although we made our Ecuadorian meals, I was unable to share them on the blog. So this week is Ecuadorian week where I am sharing all our recipes. Monday I shared my favorite Ecuadorian breakfast soup, Encebollado.

Today I have two recipes that look similar but have distinctly different flavors: Sango de Camarón and Encocado de Camarón. Camarón means shrimp, so these are both dishes that feature shrimp! Both dishes start with refrito. Refrito is a combination of sauteed red onion, bell peppers, garlic, and spices. To make the refrito you will need Achiote or saffron.

If you look at the ingredients for Sango you might raise an eyebrow; plantain, peanut butter, shrimp. But trust me this is so delicious! Especially with the addition of lime juice at the end.

Sango starts with the refrito. Then grated plantain is added with a dab of peanut butter. In the end your cooked shrimp is mixed in with the plantain mixture. Squeeze lime juice on it, mix it with your rice, eat and enjoy. I think this is my second favorite Ecuadorian dish. That's how good it is. It's not spicy at all, but very flavorful!

Some tips for making Sango:

• You want to use really green plantains, so don't let them sit too long. We once used plantains that were too sweet and it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either.
  
• Soak the finely grated plantain in the shrimp water for just a little extra flavor.
  
• Always add the cilantro in last to keep its color.
  

Encocado de Camarón is a very simple dish with a lot of flavor. After the refrito is cooked coconut milk is added with the shrimp and cilantro. It's SOOOOOO good! All the flavors are really subtle but compliment each other excellently.

It's commonly eaten with rice and in Esmereldas (a city in Ecuador) it's also common to eat with a boiled green plantain. I thought it sounded strange but it was actually good to eat with the encocado.

Some tips for Encocado de Camarón

• Salt the water when you boil the plantain. Otherwise it will be too bland.
  
• Cilantro can be added at the same time as the coconut milk. But add more at the end for the color.
  
• More or less coconut milk can be used based on your preference. More would make it more like a sauce, less would make it thicker.
  

I think you'll really like these meals. I love them. Let me know if you try them out and what you think.

Check back in next week when we'll be starting our month of Irish meals!

And if you don't want to wait for next month Dating Divas has a pack for an Irish Date Night. It's on sale right now so check it out. You get recipes, games and other fun activities for the night with your significant other.

Alicia here! I'm finally back. You probably thought I abandoned the blog and my culinary travels, but in reality we got hit with the flu at my house and then my back went out. Such a time to be alive. But we did actually make an Ecuadorian meal every week this month as promised. And I will be sharing all of them with you this week!

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, each month this year my family is choosing a different country from our heritage and making a traditional meal from that country each week. Then I am sharing our recipes and meals on the blog! Last month was Germany and it was so delicious! Check out my previous posts from January.

This month we decided to do Ecuador. My husband is from Ecuador and lucky for me Ecuadorian food is really flavorful and delicious. He's from Guayaquil, which is a coastal city, so that means a lot of seafood. Another plus for me because I love seafood! We have shared some non-seafood Ecuadorian recipes previously on the blog (here, and here), and I will have one more non-seafood recipe this month for you!

The dish I'm sharing with you this post is Encebollado. It's one of my favorite dishes. It's a soup that is actually commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch (or brunch) in Ecuador. Whenever I suggest it for dinner my husband is says it's weird to eat for dinner. It is a warm soup though, despite being for breakfast. Tuna, yucca, and onion are the main ingredients in this delicious soup. The strong onion flavor is a great contrast to the subtle flavors of the yucca and tuna, and a great compliment to the lime juice added in right before serving.

We usually make this from the can. Every time some one comes from Ecuador or we go, this is my favorite thing to bring back. So currently we have 8 cans of the soup in our pantry. But we have also made it from scratch on occasion. At these times my husband will call home and get the recipe from there. But today we decided to link you to Laylita's recipe. The only difference between her recipe and what we do is that we don't use pickled onions. We just add fresh red onions to the soup and let them soften in the broth (they still have a little crunch though).

When you eat encebollado make sure you have plenty of lime. I like a lot of lime juice in mine (at least one whole juicy lime) while my husband enjoys it with a smaller amount. 

Traditionally eaten with a crusty bread roll, plantain chips, and a nice cold Coke.

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      It seems like travel is in the air for our family this time of year!  My husband and I are taking a jaunt in the next few weeks to visit family and to see some of our kids graduate by way of California, Utah and Kansas!  Maddy just got back from Toronto.  Lindsey and her husband are going to Paris soon.  My DIL and my grandchildren are coming here soon while my son studies for the Bar.  My SIL and grandson are going to visit family in Ecuador for a couple of weeks!  All of this has inspired today's Friday Fave:

Where is your favorite travel destination?

     Since I am writing today's Friday Fave, I made the executive decision to be able to give you two destinations that I love.  
      When Glen and I were first married, he was in the army and we lived in Germany for 2 years.  What a beautiful country with such friendly people.  I wanted to be able to put some of our pictures from that time on here for you to see, but I am having technical difficulties with that.  Also, some of our photos have been in those old types of albums for so long that I can't even peel them out without damaging them.  Be sure to use acid free albums and pages for your memories. These by We R Memory Keepers are simple and affordable. I still need to change some of mine in order to keep them safe.  
       When we lived in Germany some of our favorite places to go were to the old castle ruins that are scattered all over the country.  We also love the old city of Rothenburg with it's Meistertrank Clock.  One vacation, we drove along the Neckar River to Heidelberg.  We even hiked up a mountain in the Alps, Glen had our first born son on his back in a pack.  There are just too many wonderful memories to enumerate!
      After we were married a few years, my Sister and her husband took us on a trip to Tahiti! It was so beautiful!  My husband had served as a missionary there 20 years before and it was so great for him to be able to show me the place he loved.  We stayed on the Island of Moorea and ended on the big island of Tahiti.  The people were wonderful and everything was gorgeous.  We snorkeled and ate tons of seafood.  It was amazing!   

       Madalynn just returned from a trip to Toronto to visit her boyfriend.  She really enjoys that city and the politeness of the Canadians.  She got to visit the Royal Ontario Museum this time which she said was really big and awesome.  On another trip, she visited a shoe museum! (If you knew how much my girls love shoes, you would understand.)  It looks like a beautiful city in pictures! Look at this one with the skinny building:

      We have mentioned before that Alicia's husband Adrian is from Ecuador.  A couple of years ago they took a trip back there and were able to go visit the Galapagos Island.  She told me she chose Galapagos as her Friday Fave because there's so many things to do. You can go to the beach, jungle and even the desert, all on one small island. There's not only so much biological diversity but there's interesting geological stuff too. "We were able to see the giant tortoises, iguanas, countless birds, and cool sea life. like rays, sharks, crabs, fish, and sea lions. The blue footed boobies were really cool because their feet are really bright blue!The food is good. And there's also a lot of history."  That is my Son-in-law up there inside a giant turtle shell!

      Lindsey had a difficult time choosing between Hawaii and France, because she has lived in both places,  But, since we were already touching on 2 tropical places and because she served a mission in France and loves the people there so much and is about to go back for a visit, she chose France.
       Lindsey lived there twice.  During Law School, she lived in Cergy, near Paris for a semester.  Then, she served a mission after Law School for 18 months in the southern part of France, including Lyon and Bordeaux and other beautiful cities.  In Lindsey's words, "​France has everything, big cities, small villages nestled in green countryside, forests, beaches, Europe's largest sand dune. Everywhere you go there is history and culture and delicious food. I am in love with France."  That is Lindsey and her missionary companion in the pictures above, snow shoeing! 

       Well, those are our choices.  Pretty diverse, and we haven't even touched on the places we absolutely love in the USA!  That may have to be another Friday Fave! Tell us about some of your favorite destinations!  We would love to hear about them.