Fanesca

As tradition built it

Fanesca

Best made a day ahead and reheated

Ingredients

• 500g salt cod (bacalao)
• 250g white beans, cooked
• 250g red beans, cooked
• 250g peas, cooked
• 250g tender choclo (fresh corn), cooked
• 250g chochos, cooked
• 250g sambo squash, cooked
• 250g zapallo squash, cooked
• 250g cabbage, cooked
• 200g rice, cooked
• 200g peanuts, ground to a paste
• ½ tsp cumin, ground
• 200g white onion
• 40g garlic
• 80ml achiote oil
• 100g butter
• 500ml milk
• 250ml cream
• 1 mesa cheese
• 1.5 litres fish stock, made from the cod's own cooking liquor
• to serve molo (plain mashed potato), to serve
• to serve dulce de higos (candied figs), to serve

Method

1. Soak 500 g of salt cod in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water every eight hours to draw out the salt.
2. Cook each of the twelve grains and pulses separately until tender rather than together in one pot: roughly 250 g each of white beans, red beans, peas, tender choclo, chochos, plus 250 g each of two squashes, sambo and zapallo, and 250 g of cabbage, alongside 200 g of rice and 200 g of peanuts with half a teaspoon of cumin, ground to a paste.
3. Build a base of 200 g white onion and 40 g garlic sautéed slowly in 80 ml of achiote oil and 100 g butter, then bring the base together with half a litre of milk, a quarter litre of cream, the peanut paste, a mesa cheese, and one and a half litres of fish stock made from the cod's own cooking liquor, stirring constantly as it comes together to a creamy, not thin, consistency, around 30 minutes at a gentle simmer.
4. Fold in the cooked grains last, so none of them break down further, and the flaked cod on top rather than stirred through.
5. Serve with molo, a plain mashed potato side, and dulce de higos, candied figs, and if you can manage it, make the whole thing the day before and reheat gently, since every Ecuadorian source agrees the flavours need the rest.

What a modern chef changes

Cod-infused milk, dehydrated cod crisp, batán-ground peanut base

Rung 03

Method

1. Keep the twelve grain structure exactly as it is; this dish's whole meaning is in the count, and reducing it defeats the point.
2. Change how the cod and the dairy meet instead of what goes in: infuse the milk itself with the cod bones and trim overnight in the fridge, strain, and use that cod milk to build the base rather than adding chunks of fish to a plain dairy stock, so the fish flavour runs through the whole broth rather than sitting on top of it in flakes.
3. Take a portion of the finished cod, dry it thin in a dehydrator with a light brush of oil, and serve it as a single crisp savoury leaf laid across the bowl rather than flaked through, so the fish is tasted as a distinct, concentrated note rather than a background protein.
4. Grind the peanut base on a batán rather than a blender for a denser, less aerated paste, and finish the whole soup through a chinois for a smoother, more considered texture than the everyday household version, without changing a single one of the twelve grains themselves.