The Southern Cone · Volume 27, Cassava, Maté and the Chaco's Second Kitchen
Reviro
Eastern Paraguay, particularly Alto Paraná
Illustration
- Time
- About 50 minutes to 11 hoursOur estimate, from comparable dishes.
- Researched
- 49 sources cited
Associated specifically with mensú, itinerant yerba mate labourers of the Paraná forest, on both the Paraguayan and Argentine sides. A folk legend attributes its invention to a mother's tears falling into a flour mixture out of desperation at not being able to feed her children better; the legend is colour rather than history.
As tradition built it
Ingredients
- 150g pork fat
- 600g wheat flour
- 2 tbsp coarse salt
- 250ml water
To serve
- to serve fried egg
Method
- Melt the fat in an iron pot or frying pan. Add the flour and salt and stir.
- Once the mass has come together, keep stabbing at it with a wooden spatula until it breaks into crumbs.
- Serve with a fried egg.
Notes
Quantities sourced to a Paraguayan home cook's own recipe, low to moderate confidence.
The recipe is Vidal Domínguez Díaz's, in ABC Revista; it lists 250ml of water without saying when it goes in. Comidasparaguayas.com makes a soft dough with the water first, fries it as one block in margarine or oil, browns both sides, breaks it up with a wooden spoon, and cooks the pieces 10 minutes over a low heat.
What a modern chef changes
A more controlled fry, and the accompanying cocido treated with the same cold-extraction logic as tereré
Rung 5
Method
- Fry at a genuinely held, stable oil temperature rather than a variable domestic hob flame, for an even, non-greasy crust across every piece.
- Serve alongside a properly extracted cocido, understanding that its toasted, near-burnt character is a deliberate flavour choice, not a mistake, and that the same yerba mate chemistry that governs tereré's cold extraction (Rung 5) governs how bitter or smooth a hot cocido reads.