Chile with Chillies!

We've been cooking again, as you can see! Here in the deep south of Chile there is a feeling of being way out on the periphery with sceenery just like northern Norway and even Greenland: our side trip to Greenland in August 2010 was a great preparation for our glacier and mountain experiences. At Hostel Nataly there are 25 Chilean and Colombian guys staying here whilst working away from home in the petroleum construction industry. Talking to them is a great way to brush up on our Spanish, and a fantastic way to become closely aquainted with the finer points of Chileno pronunciation. And it's tricky, very tricky! Firstly, they talk really rapidly, and the big shocker is that the letter 's' is almost always omitted. Thus a former fisherman who regaled us with his fascinating life story on the seven seas talked to us of 'alakka'..."Aaaaah!" Jon suddenly exclaims, "Alaska!"
And just as Simon is typing this, a number of the guys have seized a guitar and a small penny whistle as a little jam session emerges.

But what about the chillies? We thought that you might like to follow us more closely by reproducing this recipe and thinking of us here in Puerto Natales as you eat it!
Well, think back to our big trip last year: Southeast Asia; and in homage to those happy days, we've created a sort of Asian crossover menu to enjoy in the cosy kitchen here. Jon made a Malaysian beef with pineapple curry, whilst Simon attempted chicken sticky-rice, Laos style! Here's what you should do:
Firstly, in a massive cooking pot, boil up some water, add some lemon slices, throw in plenty of dried chilie flakes, a knob of butter, plenty of rice and a packet of powdered chicken soup. Stir like crazy, don't let the rice stick to the bottom of the pan, and wait for the whole thing to thicken up and the rice to become fluffy.
Next for the main event: Fry off plenty of onion and garlic in butter, adding both jalapeno and yellow chilli peppers, making sure to sprinkle plenty of dried chilli flakes at the same time. We used Merkén de Mapuche, a special Chileno blend which is smooth and inoffensive. If you can't lay your hands on it back home: improvise! Throw in some good quality minced beef (not forgetting that the best in the world grazes in the Southern Cone), some chopped fresh tomatoes and some tinned tomato, making sure that all this comes up to a simmer. Now is the time to sweeten the mix with the juice from a tin of pineapples, and allow the whole sauce to reduce until thick enough to add the pineapple chunks, pour over the sticky rice and enjoy! Simon’s tip would be to wash all this down with some fruity Chilean white wine, say a Sauvignon Blanc. It’s really rather good here, and even cheaper than in the BWS aisles at Bodmin Asda…

Update: the following day, we also created Spaghetti Natalese! Yum!