Chairo paceño

As tradition built it

Chairo paceño

The chuño soaks overnight; the meat cooks at least an hour.

Ingredients

The broth

• 1.9 litres water
• 250g beef
• 250g lamb, or chalona (dried mutton)
• 1 tbsp salt, or to taste

The pot

• 120ml green broad beans, peeled
• 120ml green peas, peeled
• 120ml carrot, peeled
• 960ml potato, peeled and chopped
• 240ml chuño, soaked, peeled and coarsely crushed
• 240ml white maize, peeled and cooked
• 240ml wheat (trigo mote), peeled and cooked

The sauce

• 2 tbsp lard or oil
• 240ml white onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp ají colorado, ground
• ½ tsp cumin, ground
• ½ tsp oregano, crumbled
• ¼ tsp black pepper, ground

To finish

• 60ml spring onion tops, finely chopped
• 1 tsp parsley, finely chopped
• ½ tsp oregano, crumbled
• 1 tsp hierbabuena (mint), finely chopped

Method

1. Soak the chuño the night before so the chairo is not sour. Peel it, crush it coarsely on a batán, and wash it many times.
2. Put the water in the pot over a high heat. When it is barely warm, add the beef and the lamb or chalona. Skim it before it boils, add the salt, and cook at least an hour.
3. Add the broad beans, peas, carrot and potato and boil about 15 minutes.
4. Add the chuño and boil 5 minutes more.
5. Add the maize and wheat and cook until the potato is done.
6. In a small pot heat the lard over a high heat and brown the onion. Add the ají, cumin, oregano and pepper, cook a few minutes, then stir it into the chairo and boil everything together about 10 minutes more.
7. Take it off the heat and add the spring onion, parsley, oregano and hierbabuena.
8. Serve a piece of each meat in every plate. Keep the broth near its starting quantity; add boiling water or broth if it thickens too much.

Notes

The recipe is Los Tiempos'. Its list says lamb and its method says chalona. Rita del Solar's recipe, from Beatriz Rossells' Antología de la gastronomía boliviana, printed in El Deber, uses a lamb shoulder and half a kilo of chalona, fries the onion, garlic, carrot and green ají early, adds huacataya, and sets the table with chicharrón, fresh cheese, locoto, herbs and ulupicas, in clay bowls with wooden spoons.

What a modern chef changes

Water-bath chuño, twin sous vide meats, clarified base

Method

1. Rehydrate the chuño in the dehydrator's own low-temperature water bath rather than by a simple overnight soak, for a more even, controllable texture across the whole batch than a bucket on the counter gives.
2. Cook the beef and lamb separately, sous vide, to a precise doneness for each, then fold both meats through the finished broth only at the point of serving, rather than boiling them alongside the vegetables for the full cooking time.
3. Pass a portion of the finished broth through the chinois for a cleaner base beneath the whole, chunky texture the traditional bowl is built to carry, the two textures served together rather than one replacing the other.