Chairo

An Andean soup built on freeze-dried potato, soaked and crushed, whose black soaking water is thrown away.

Pork, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb, pork.

Ingredients

• 250 g chuño negro, freeze-dried potato
• 700 g lamb shoulder or neck, on the bone
• 100 g pork belly, diced
• 100 g pearled wheat or barley
• 2 potatoes, in chunks
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon ají panca paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 100 g broad beans, podded
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 litres water
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. THE CHUÑO SOAKING WATER IS THROWN AWAY. Freeze-dried potato is soaked overnight and the water it comes out of is black, bitter and smells strongly of the fermentation it was made by. That water is not flavour and it is not thrift: poured into the pot it makes a grey, acrid soup that nobody finishes. Soak, drain, rinse through two or three changes, and only then does the chuño go in. This is the opposite of the papa seca on the carapulcra page, whose soaking water is the best thing about it, and getting the two the wrong way round ruins both dishes.
2. AND THE CHUÑO IS CRUSHED, NOT SLICED. After soaking it is squeezed and broken up roughly in the hand or with the end of a rolling pin, so the pieces are uneven and porous and take up the broth. Cut neatly it stays dense and rubbery in the middle.
3. IT IS SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND THERE IS NO SHORTENING IT. Twelve hours minimum; chuño is bone-hard and two hours in warm water does almost nothing. If it still resists a thumbnail it is not ready.
4. THE WHEAT GOES IN EARLY AND THE FRESH POTATO LATE. The wheat takes an hour; a fresh potato takes twenty minutes and disintegrates if given an hour, and this soup wants both textures in the bowl.
5. THE LAMB IS COOKED ON THE BONE and the bones left in. This is a long thin soup rather than a rich one, and the bones are most of what gives it body.
6. AND THE OREGANO IS RUBBED BETWEEN THE PALMS as it goes in. Dried oregano thrown in whole stays woody; crushed warm between the hands it releases its oil, and in a soup this plain that is noticeable.
7. Chuño covered generously with cold water and SOAKED OVERNIGHT, at least 12 hours.
8. DRAINED, the black water thrown away, and rinsed through 3 changes of cold water. Squeezed and CRUSHED roughly by hand.
9. Lamb and pork browned in the oil in a heavy pot. Lifted out.
10. The onion softened 8 minutes, the garlic 1 minute, then the ají panca 2 minutes.
11. The meat returned with the water, brought to a simmer and skimmed.
12. The wheat added and simmered 1 HOUR.
13. The crushed chuño added and cooked 25 MINUTES.
14. The fresh potatoes, carrot and broad beans added for a further 20 minutes.
15. The cumin and the oregano RUBBED BETWEEN THE PALMS added. Tasted and salted generously.
16. The coriander stirred in off the heat and served very hot.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Peru · All recipes