Hola and Welcome to My Colombian Recipes. I hope you enjoy your visit!
My name is Erica and I was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia. I moved to the United States in 2000. I live in Connecticut with my husband and our two boys. I am not a professional chef however. My educational background is in Tourism and Hotel Management and Marketing. Although Spanish is my first language, this site is written in English, so please excuse any grammatical errors…I do my best.
I published my first cookbook “I Cook Latin Food: The Best Recipes from 5 Popular Hispanic Cooking Blogs (Spanish Edition)” in 2021 with Penguin Random House.
Growing up in Colombia, cooking was always important in our family. We gathered at mamita’s house every weekend where she cooked traditional Colombian dishes that have remained family favorites years later.
For more facts about me click here.
About the blog
This blog was created in February 2009 and was inspired by my maternal grandmother, who was a very important person in my life and an amazing traditional Colombian cook. I never saw Mamita cooking from a recipe. She made dinner from whatever ingredients she found in the kitchen. My hope is that people from other countries discover Colombian food and learn more about our culture and traditions. Cooking traditional Colombian food connects me to my culture and allows me to share my heritage with my American family.
My recipes are not limited to traditional Colombian food. I have many other recipes for dishes representing other countries that I enjoy cooking for my family and friends, which I will also share with you. The sources of most of my recipes are my family, friends and my own creations and experiments, but if I cook a dish from a magazine, cookbook or TV show, I will list the source. All of the pictures and writing are done by me. The webmaster of My Colombian Recipes is my husband, who doesn’t get a lot credit, but he handles all the technical stuff for the site.
Comments and e-mails
I appreciate all of your comments, feedback and e-mails. I read every single one of them! I am not always able to reply to them all but I will do my best to answer your questions as quickly as possible. Although I appreciate constructive criticism, rude comments will be deleted and not published. Remember, you can also subscribe to My Colombian Recipes by email or feed reader and never miss a post! Thank you for visiting.
This site is also available in Spanish (en español en este enlance)
Mercedes Ospina-Manotas
Hola, que son las brevas caladas? o como se llaman en ingles? y donde las consigues en California? por fis
Erica Dinho
Figs in Syrup. Here is a recipe to make them at home:https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/dulce-de-brevas-colombian-style-figs-with-syrup/
Leydi Montoya
Wow! I am so happy I found your page. I already started bookmaking recipes to make at home.
Thank you for making these recipes in Spanish and English.
My husband and I are both Colombian American. These recipes remind me of my mom's cooking. I have been wanting to make them but it has been hard since my mom doesnt measure "y es a ojo." Well that's not helpful for me to recreate.
Your page is what I have been looking for. Thank you and look forward to buying your book and making your recipes.
Thank you and thank you to your abuelita.
Brenda
Hi Erica,
Just tried Pandebono recipe. I used Queso Fresco cheese and instead of Feta I used Queso Cotija cheese grated. Mixed by hand, so broke up the Fresco into small pieces with my fingers into the mixture. I found the mixture a bit dry after mixing well, so I added 1 T. water, which helped. Dough was just slightly sticky. Rolled up well and baked well…..except they did not puff up as much as I expected. Is there something I may have done wrong? Any suggestions for next time. They do taste delicious !! Thank you for your recipes.
Marco Meneses
Excelente blog con recetas faciles. Gracias!
Yo soy Colombiano tambien y vivo en Miami.
Anonymous
Excelente blog con recetas facil;es!
nancy arce villegas
Erica me encantan tus recetas. Gracias
Fairlight
I have really enjoyed your blog. We are adopting from Colombia and I have so appreciated having a place that I now trust and rely on as we practice our Colombian cooking in preparation for one day bringing our little home. Also love that they are in Spanish and English so we can practice our language skills at the same time. Please do a cookbook with just your recipes!!!
Scott Jimenez
My name is Scott (my mother named me after missionaries). My mother, Maruja, was from a small town somewhat near Bogota. I was born in Barranquilla, then we emigrated to the EEUU (USA) and now live in Texas. My mother showed her love by cooking. And she could cook! I think my mother's cooking was one reason my in-laws accepted me as their son-in-law. She made platanos fritos, patacones, arroz con coco, arroz con pollo, empanadas, arroz con huevos. Next year I will write a book on her experiences titled "Maruja: Crossing Colombia".
Chris
You are from Medellin? People that you meet in the US must be very intrigued by that - usually when we hear about someone from Medellin on TV it is in an action/drama film such as the movie Blow or TV series Narcos about the famous Medellin cocaine cartel. I hope I don't just sound like an ignorant gringo, but it is the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear Medellin, as I'm sure you must be aware by now. I look forward to trying some of your recipes and enjoying some of the other things that Medellin has to offer the world!
Nicole
Hi Erika,
My husband is Barranquillero and I'm from the US - I've learned a lot from your website and just wanted to say thank you. My husband really enjoys my cooking and I've gotten a lot of recipes from here 🙂 These are my favorites from any website with Colombian recipes. Thank you
Jay Hack
Love the drink recipes. We are having a Christmas party for south american asylum seekers and their children who have been sent from Texas to New York as political pawns. I have been searching for drink recipes and I love your recipes for lime and coconut drinks. We are waffling on serving anything alcoholic but if we decide to do so, you have some great choices.
EG
What are your thoughts on the origin, historical usage, and current usage of the two terms guiso and hogao?
When I learned to cook many Colombian dishes while living in Colombia almost forty years ago for several years, guiso was the term everyone used. Seems that hogao has become a little more common now with the increased popularity of things like patacones (or tostones, as many have taken to calling them now), plantain chips, stuffed arepas, etc.
To me, a guiso was always made with white onions, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, salt, oil, and maybe a pinch of comino (though some items could be dropped for certain dishes) and used as a sauce base for other dishes like frijoles, arroz con pollo, and various soups.
Hogao wasn't a common term in any part of Colombia I lived in back then, and seems to have originated more in Antioquia (which was about the only part of Colombia where I did not live while there). And I more commonly heard salsa criolla instead of hogao as a cooked condiment of tomato and onion, with green onion commonly used either alone or alongside white onion—no cilantro, garlic, etc.
What's changed? And are the two terms used almost interchangeably now? Seems most recipes now (including yours) have almost identical ingredients just in different proportions.
And thank you for the wonderful blog. It's always enjoyable and a delight to read and reference when cooking.
Anonymous
Hola Erika!
Mi nombre es Ana y tambien naci en Medellin, Colombia extraño muho Colombia extraño la comida y los lugares. Vivi en Medellin por 13 años y fui adoptada cuando tenia 13 y ahora vivo en Estados Unidos, espero que cuando sea mas grande pueda ir a visitar mi pais porque lo extraño y extraño mis amigos(a) y mi familia.
Muchas gracias por compartir tus recetas!