Cocina de Doña Haydée

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

Virginia Woolf, 1882 – 1941, British novelist and essayist

Sisters Alicia and Irene Espinosa know that good food served in comfortable surroundings is a staple of good life. And they wanted to provide this good food, mixed with a cupful of Nicaraguan tradition and a heaping portion of their mother’s nationally renowned native cooking.

Nearly a dozen years ago, Irene now 56, and Alicia, 50, observed a lack of restaurants that served authentic Nicaraguan food. If such a restaurant did exist, it lacked the comforts of easy furniture, tasteful décor, and air conditioning. The sisters’ mother, Doña Haydée, namesake of their restaurant, Cocina de Dña Haydée, had participated in a culinary contest sponsored by the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism. Indio Viejo, or Old Indian, seemed to be the perfect dish to enter. This typical stew of corn dough with shredded beef and special spices was a plate that mothers had taught daughters to prepare for generations, thereby preserving the rich culinary traditions of Nicaragua. The Indio Viejo won first price in the category of typical plates. The sisters also knew that their mother’s recipe for nacatamales - corn dough, pork or chicken, and spices wrapped in plantain leaves - was another big winner; people throughout Nicaragua had been treated to Dna. Haydee’s specialty.

Now 82 years old, Mom Haydée, still makes the nacatamales that serve the restaurant’s flagship location at Kilometer 4 ½ on Carretera Masaya as well as at the two satellite locations at the Food Court MetroCentro and Restaurante Bello Horizonte. Both satellite locations were opened about 7 ½ years ago. Irene says that many customers who live outside of Nicaragua will stop by the restaurant to stock up on nacatamales, which they will put on ice on their flights so they could bring home a sacred piece of Nicaragua.

Alicia and Irene and their parents were all born in Boaco but found their way to Managua. Some 20 years ago, Irene lived in Costa Rica and Honduras and used the knowledge she had gained under her mother’s tutelage to make and sell nacatamales. Alicia, however, rolls her eyes and smiles as she admits she didn’t know how to cook when she got married. Later, however, her husband worked for the Nicaraguan embassy in Japan and she asked her family members for recipes for the traditional Nicaraguan fare so she could cook for Nicaraguans overseas. She became an accomplished cook of traditional Nicaraguan cuisine. A few years later, when Alicia returned to Nicaragua, the sisters contemplated started “ a small business” that served the food they had grown to love. Irene was a housewife and mother of three children, aged 13, 16, and 20, when they decided to try their hand at a restaurant. The husbands of both Alicia and Irene are partners in the restaurant and several of the womens’ six children also work there.

They opened their original restaurant near La Union supermarket on Calleterra Masaya. That space, however, only had nine tables which they quickly realized would not be able to accommodate their obvious and early success. After less than two years at their original location, the sisters moved to their current space, which originally consisted of the front dining area and lower level terrace. They have subsequently added a large downstairs dining area and an upstairs eating space. The current capacity is approximately 160 diners. The restaurant serves approximately 200 guests a day. This number, of course, fluctuates depending on factors such as the season and the number of events and tours in the area. The main restaurant employs 90 staff members who purchase the ingredients, oversee payroll, hire and train staff, prepare food, and serve the food; the servers wear traditional Nicaraguan garb. Cocina de Dna. Haydee is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the year except Christmas, New Year’s, and the Thursday and Friday preceding Easter Sunday.

The women nostalgically recall the early days. They started their day at 5 a.m. by going to the local markets to purchase ingredients. They had only five employees. Alicia would serve people while Irene worked in the kitchen. Fourteen-hour workdays were common. Beverages were warehoused at Alicia’s house and soups prepared at Irene’s house because there wasn’t enough space in the restaurant.

“We never thought we would be this successful,” Irene says. For the first six years they were in business all the profits went back into the restaurant. Their only compensation was 500 cordobas a month for fuel.

Many of the dishes – including the gallo pinto (a beans and rice dish), Carne Asada, cerdo frito, and Indio Viejo – are made at the main restaurant and ferried to the other locations.

Logistically speaking, Alicia and Irene take turns overseeing the various restaurant locations. For instance, Irene recently was overseeing the MetroCentro and Bello Horizonte stores while Alicia was in charge of the main location. They switch these duties each six months, a tactic they say helps them to stay fresh. While the restaurants pretty much run themselves these days, the women strive to maintain the high levels of quality and consistency for which they are known. They constantly taste the food, making sure it meets their high culinary standards. In addition, they sign the checks and oversee the budgets. Once a month the partners in the restaurant meet to see sales trends and to review profits and losses, and to respond accordingly.

Despite the fact that the restaurant is a well-oiled cooking machine, the women still spend most of the day at their sites and return for an hour or two in the evenings. They take turns taking vacations, although one time they were able to sneak away together to Europe and left their husbands at the helm. Everything ran smoothly, they recall.

The sisters are now considering starting another restaurant in Granada, but aren’t sure of any possible timetable. While Irene says she likes the restaurant business, Alicia may be tempted to start another project, but she’s in no hurry.

“I am very proud that we have created this place,” Alicia says. “We have fulfilled our expectations.”

Recipes from the kitchen of Cocina de Doña Haydée

Haydee Sopa de Albondigas (Meatball Soup)

Ingredients for the soup
1 chicken cut in pieces
12 cups of water
3 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons salt
1 onion
2 chitolmas ( green peppers)
½ tablespoon of achiote
1 small ayote cut in pieces
2 tomatoes
12 chilotes (baby corn)
5 sprigs of mint
¼ cup sour orange juice
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon pepper

Procedure for the soup:
• Cook the chicken pieces in a bit of water with the garlic, onion, chiltoma and achiote
• When the chicken is tender, add/the chilote and ayote and cook for 10 minutes.
• Add the tomato, mint, sour orange, cumin, pepper and water and boil for 15 minutes, making sure the chicken is cooked thoroughly
• Add the meatballs
• When the meatballs float to the top, the soup is done.

Ingredients for the meatballs:
1 pound boneless chicken breast
½ stick of butter
2 tablespoons sour orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Achiote
Minced chiltoma, onion, and mint
1 egg
½ pound masa de maiz (corn flour)
Soup broth (prepared as directed at above)

Procedure for the meatballs:
• Mince the boiled chicken breast meat
• Add the butter, sour orange juice, salt and pepper, chopped achiote, chiltoma onion and mint, egg and masa de maiz and mix
• Shape the ingredients into balls the size and shape of a small lime. If necessary, add some soup broth to make mixture keep shape.
• Put in the soup broth. When meatballs float to the top, the soup is ready.

Torta de Elote (Corn Cob Torte)

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 ½ sticks of butter
1 pound of sweet corn
1 ½ cups of milk
3 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
2 sticks of cinnamon ( yes )

Procedure:
• Melt the butter
• Blend the 4 eggs with one stick of cinnamon in the blender
• Add the elotes and the milk, blending
• Remove the blender mixture and set aside
• Blend the melted butter, sugar, flour and one stick of cinnamon
• Combine the two mixtures and put in a greased pyrex dish
• Bake at 240 degrees Celsius or about 465 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes

For more information about Doña Haydée, please visit their web site at www.lacocina.com.ni.

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