The Andes · Volume 19, The Freeze, the Mine and the Valley Maize
Charquekán
Oruro, Bolivia
Illustration
As tradition built it
Charquekán
One credible-source quantity
Ingredients
- 1½ kg charque de llama
- 4 potatoes
- 1lb mote
- 2 eggs
- for frying oil
- to taste salt
- to taste llajwa, to serve
Method
- Soften the charque in water.
- Pound and shred it into fibres.
- Fry in oil until toasted and tender, seasoning with salt to taste.
- Boil the potatoes and eggs separately in their skins and serve alongside the mote, with llajwa to taste.
Notes
Potato-in-skin, queso criollo and boiled egg were added to the dish over generations, on the chapter's own account, but the one credible-source recipe given here, with real quantities, does not include queso criollo, so it is left out here rather than assumed.
What a modern chef changes
Smoke-finished charque, soft yolk
Rung 02
Method
- Rehydrate the charque in a controlled low-temperature water bath in the dehydrator's own reservoir rather than a plain soak, for a more even softening through the fibres before pounding.
- Fry the shredded charque over the Big Green Egg's direct heat rather than a pan, for a genuine wood-smoke note the mining camps' own open fires would once have given it, honestly presented as a substitute rather than a replica of that specific fuel.
- Serve the boiled egg soft, cooked sous vide to a still-liquid yolk, a small departure from the traditional hard-boiled egg that changes the dish's richness without changing what it fundamentally is.