Argentine · Soup
Locro
- Intermediate
- 3 h
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with a warm current of chile, an earthy, grounding base.
Ingredients
- 400g dried white corn (maíz blanco), soaked overnight, the body of the nation
- 200g white beans, soaked; 500g pumpkin, cubed (half will dissolve, by design)
- 400g beef brisket + 200g pork ribs + 150g pancetta + 1 chorizo, the meat parade
- 1 leek, 2 spring onions; paprika, cumin
- The quiquirimichi: 4 tbsp fat or oil bloomed with 2 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp chili, spooned over each bowl
The skills inside
Soaking dried goods back to life
The words inside
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Simmer the drained corn and beans in ample water 1 h before anything else joins. 60 min
- Add the meats in order of toughness; simmer 1.5 h more, stirring from the bottom: locro loves to stick. 300 min
- Pumpkin in for the final 40 min, half mashed into the broth until the stew turns golden and thick enough to hold a story. 40 min
- Serve in deep bowls with the crimson quiquirimichi drizzled over, the fire on the gold.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Soaking dried goods back to life 69 recipes
- Fully submerged with room to swell: the level is well above everything at the start and still above it at the end.
- Given the full time, and judged by what is in the bowl rather than by the hours on the clock.
- Tested at the CENTRE of the largest piece, cut or pressed. Anything with a hard dry core will still have one after cooking, because the outside softens first and stops the water getting further in.
- The soaking water was dealt with on purpose: kept because it holds flavour, or thrown away because it holds what should not be eaten, but never simply left undecided.
- Drained before it is used, so the dish does not silently gain all the water that came with it.
Where it goes wrong Too little water, or too little time. The pieces swell until they are packed tight against each other and the ones in the middle never fully take up water; they will not soften later in the dish either, so the finished plate has hard pieces scattered through it.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Syrah (northern Rhône) or Nebbiolo
- Also Right
- The braising wine itself, better bottle
- From the Taps
- Belgian dubbel
- Zero-Proof
- Beet & blackcurrant shrub
Long-cooked beef trades bite for depth: savory, structured reds echo the pot; and pouring the braise’s own region is law.
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