• Capital: Bogota
• Population: about 47.2 million
• Area: 1 141 748 km²
• Currency: Colombian peso

For my Colombian meal I made arroz atollado. It’s a Colombian style rice with pork, spicy sausage and potatoes. Delicious!

Arroz atollado

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pound pork sirloin
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tomatoes
• 4 scallions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 10 cilantro stems
• 1 pinch saffron
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cup long grain rice
• 1 large chorizo
• 1 russet potato

Directions:

Start by preparing all the ingredients. Chop the tomatoes, bell pepper and scallions. Cut the meat in 1 inch cubes. Measure the spices. Slice the chorizo and mince the garlic.

In a large pot, heat some oil and brown the pork meat. Once the meat is browned on the outside, add 4 cups of chicken broth and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a saucepan. Add the tomatoes, garlic, scallions,  cilantro, bell pepper, cumin, ground pepper, saffron and garlic powder. Cook all the ingredients for 15 minutes on medium low heat, uncovered, stirring pretty often to ensure it doesn’t burn. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and set aside.

Once the pork has been cooking for 30 minutes, separate the meat from the liquid. Measure the liquid. You should be left with about 6 cups. If there is too much, discard the excess. If there is not enough, add some chicken broth until you have 6 cups.

In a large dutch oven add the rice, tomato and spices mixture from the reserved saucepan, pork and the broth. Stir well and bring to a boil. Once the liquid is starting to bubble, turn the heat to medium low and let simmer for 20 minutes uncovered stirring occasionally.

While the rice is cooking, peel the potato and cut it in 1 inch cubes.

After 20 minutes, add the potato cubes and the chorizo slices. Stir and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. The rice will end up having the consistency of risotto with some very thick liquid.

Serve and add a little bit of chopped fresh cilantro on top.

Buen provecho!