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ANDEAN SPECIALTIES: Aji de trigo, empanadas saltenas and lauchas, and fricase.
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Lilian Zamorano is grinding maroon aji panca in the blender when the oven timer rings in the kitchen of her Kendall condominium.
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Out comes a cookie sheet of cunapes, puffy little breads made from yuca starch, Large eggs and cheese.
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'I miss Bolivia, but not cooking at 12,000 feet,' she says, scraping down the chili puree.
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Born in La Paz, Zamorano is from the highland region known as the Altiplano, one of the highest inhabited areas in the world.
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Landlocked Bolivia, named for its liberator, Simon Bolivar, is surrounded by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
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It was once part of the Inca Empire and called Alto Peru.
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Zamorano left in 1971 with her two young sons, arriving in Washington, D.C., as an attache with the Bolivian embassy.
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Newly divorced, she was ready to start a new life.
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When a revolution back home knocked her out of a job eight months later, she decided to stay.
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She worked for the next 25 years at the World Bank.
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'I had never cooked before - when I first arrived I didn't even know how to boil a potato, I only baked as my mother had,' she said.
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She learned from food columns and cookbooks, including a Bolivian one.
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Her sons encouraged her and soon she was bringing her creamy peanut, chili and cheese huancaina dip to parties.
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After retiring five years ago, she returned to La Paz, but missed America and her sons.
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She sold everything but her books and art collection and moved two years ago to Miami, where one of her sons lives.
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Bolivia's food is influenced by its Andean neighbors but has distinct specialties in each of its nine states.
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Staples are potatoes (there are over 300 varieties), chuno (freeze-dry white and black potatoes), sweet potatoes, pork, beef, the super-grain quinoa, trigo pelado (hulled wheat kernels), aji amarillo (yellow chili) and aji colorado (also known as the panca chili).
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The cheese puffs are a typical breakfast food often eaten with api, a thick purple corn drink.
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Llauchas, from Bolivian friend and caterer Susy Murillo, are a breakfast empanada made from a yeasty pizza-like dough stuffed with cheese sauce.
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Empanadas saltenas are plump and yellow, the dough tinted with aji amarillo and stuffed with a mix of seasoned minced meat and gelatin.
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It coagulates and melts when baked, creating a juicy filling which bursts in your mouth.
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At the stove, Zamorano is sauteing onions for aji de trigo, a hearty chupe
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(stew).
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Cubes of sirloin, minced celery, carrot, parsley, red chili puree and tomatoes go in next, then boiled wheat kernels and potato chunks, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper.
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This is served with hot rolls and fricase, a pork stew in a warm aji amarillo sauce thickened with bread crumbs.
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Dessert is walnut cake iced with dulce de leche and decorated with walnut halves and an unusual quiona pudding studded with slivered almonds and currants and topped with a hot, sweet, wine sauce or possibly meil de chancaca (fig-flavored cane syrup).
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It tastes all the sweeter cooked at sea level with a view of palm trees.
