The Southern Cone · Volume 26, Coast, Valley and the Mapuche and German South
Porotos granados
Central-south Chile
Illustration
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 30 sources in the brief
A central-south peasant summer dish, eaten exactly when fresh beans and choclo come into season together, the corn component's own name, pilco, drawn from the Mapudungun pidcu.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 medium, finely chopped onion, chopped
- 1 tsp ají de color
- 2 cups squash, cubed
- 2 cups corn
- 2 cups broth or water
- 4 cups fresh beans, shelled
- 2 to 3 tomatoes, diced
- to taste salt, pepper and cumin
- 1 bundle a bundle of basil
Method
- Sauté the onion with ají de color for a minute, then continue cooking a further 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add the cubed squash, corn, broth or water, shelled fresh beans and diced tomatoes.
- Season with salt, pepper and cumin, add the bundle of basil, cover and simmer 20 minutes until the beans are tender.
- Remove the basil and adjust the seasoning.
What a modern chef changes
Dehydrated beans, and a light pass of woodsmoke
Method
- Dry a portion of the fresh beans in a dehydrator, then rehydrate them briefly in the finished broth, a controllable way to concentrate their flavour rather than diluting it further into the pot.
- Blend and pass a portion of the squash through a chinois for a silkier background body without resorting to flour.
- Give the finished dish a light pass of woodsmoke from the Big Green Egg, held briefly under the closed lid with a handful of chips rather than actually cooked over fire, nodding honestly at merkén's smoke without asking a fresh summer dish to carry a whole separate technique.