Nicaragua: Rondon Recipe

Everywhere you turn on Little Corn Island are signs advertising rondon.  The restaurants preparing this traditional Caribbean meal ask that you tell them by lunch that day if you will be eating it for dinner (which is more planning than most people do on the island).  We shared our first rondon experience with a travel group we met at our Spanish school and in diving class.

During one of our non-diving days, we asked Miss Bridgette, a local restaurant owner to let us help her prepare the evening’s rondon.  She was surprised that we asked, I think, but explained the recipe and allowed us to take pictures, nonetheless.  We had a difficult time trying to guess all the ingredients; and a fantastic time enjoying it.  We actually shared a bowl and couldn’t finish it!

Ingredients

1 Cassava

1 Bread Fruit

1 Sweet Potato

1 Dashin

1 Plantain

1 Banana (unripe)

1 Yucca

1 Yellow Onion

1 China Pepper

1 Clove Garlic

1 Lobster Tail

1 Fish

1 Handful of Shrimp

1 Handful Marjoram

1 Handful Basil

1 Scoop chicken consume

1 lime

2 dry coconuts

Instructions (Serves 2 hungry people)

1. Peel all vegetable except sweet potato and cut in half.
2. Add lime to water (to prevent bananas from browning) in a large pot, soak all cut vegetables for 30 minutes.
3. Shred coconut in a separate bowl.  Add water and squeeze shredded coconut.
4. Drain coconut and water through a sieve into a large pot in which you plan to make the soup.
5. Peel leaves from marjoram and basil.  Soak for 5 minutes.
6. Add marjoram and basil to coconut milk.  Set on stove to boil.
7. Add scoop of chicken consume to ingredients on the stove.
8. Add garlic and onion to mixture.
9. Once boiling, add all root vegetables to cook for 20 minutes.
10. Clean seafood and steam on top of soup mixture for the last 10 minutes.  Avoid stirring too much so as not to break apart fish.
11. Serve in a big bowl with limes on the side.