Peruvian Highlands · Main
Pachamanca a la Olla
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with fresh herbs arguing happily on top, an earthy, grounding base, fading in warm spice.
Ingredients
- 800 g pork ribs, cut into pairs
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs (about 600 g)
- 40 g huacatay leaves
- 20 g chincho leaves, or a further 20 g huacatay
- 20 g mint leaves
- 6 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp ají panca paste
- 1 tbsp ají amarillo paste
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 250 ml chicha de jora, or dark beer
- 1 kg yellow potatoes, unpeeled
- 500 g sweet potatoes, halved lengthways
- 300 g habas in the pod
- 4 ears of corn, husks kept
- 2 banana leaves, or the reserved corn husks
- 1 tbsp salt
The skills inside
Steaming: basket, leaf and lid
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · alcohol
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
- Blend the huacatay, chincho, mint, garlic, both ají pastes, cumin, oregano, salt and half the chicha to a coarse green paste, rub it into the pork and chicken and leave them in the cold for 4 hours. 240 min
- Line a heavy pot with softened banana leaves so they hang over the rim, then stack in order: ribs on the base, chicken on top of them, potatoes and sweet potatoes above, corn and habas last.
- Pour the remaining chicha down the side, fold the leaves over the top, lay a damp cloth across the rim and clamp the lid on so no steam escapes at the edge.
- Cook over the lowest flame for about 90 minutes without lifting the lid; the pot should hiss faintly and smell of huacatay, not of scorching. 90 min
- Rest 10 minutes, then unstack in reverse onto a board and serve with ocopa or a rocoto salsa. 10 min
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.
Steaming: basket, leaf and lid 130 recipes
- Steam was running before the food went in: the water at a rolling boil and vapour coming steadily through the basket, rather than the whole thing warming up together.
- Nothing touches the water at any point: the food sits clear of it throughout, and the level neither drops enough to boil dry nor rises enough to wet it.
- The lid stayed on. Every lift costs the chamber its heat, and the number of lifts should be as close to none as the dish allows.
- Lifted out, the surface is glossy and plump with its colour heightened rather than dulled: greens brighter than they went in, not olive.
- Cooked through with the shape intact: it yields at the centre without having slumped or split, and there is no more than a spoonful of clean condensate beneath it.
Where it goes wrong The lid was loose or dripping and the condensate fell back onto the food, so it arrives waterlogged and pale with its seasoning washed down into the bottom of the dish.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Albariño or Muscadet
- Also Right
- Assyrtiko or Vermentino
- From the Taps
- Witbier
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with lemon
The Atlantic’s whites beside the sea’s own liquor: salinity in sympathy, acid keeping everything bright.
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