Arroz de carreteiro

As tradition built it

Arroz de carreteiro

Serves 4 to 6. About 1.5 hours, most of it unattended soaking and simmering.

Ingredients

• 400g charque (dried salt beef), soaked and desalted
• 2 tbsp lard or oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 300g long grain rice
• a small handful, chopped spring onion, to finish

Method

1. Soak the charque in several changes of water, ideally overnight, to remove excess salt, then boil until tender and shred it into pieces.
2. Fry the onion and garlic gently in the lard until soft.
3. Add the shredded charque and fry briefly to bring out its flavour.
4. Stir in the rice, coat it in the fat, then add water and simmer as for any pilaf style rice, until the rice is cooked and the charque has flavoured it through.
5. Finish with sliced spring onion and serve straight from the pot.

Notes

No source found for this chapter gave fixed gram or litre quantities for a traditional version; the recipe above is a workable, cookable version built from documented composition and method, not a claimed original ratio.

What a modern chef changes

Charque made properly at home, since it is not reliably available to buy in Britain.

Rung 5.

Method

1. Cure your own charque rather than substituting bacon or a supermarket dried beef: salt a piece of flank or brisket heavily, rest it in the fridge for several days to firm and season, then dry it in a dehydrator at a low setting until it has the dense, chewy texture of the real thing, a fraction of the time genuine sun drying takes and a far closer result than any shortcut.
2. Finish the desalted, shredded charque separately in a hot pan until the edges catch, adding it back to the rice only at the very end, so the contrast between the caramelised meat and the softer rice survives plating rather than turning uniform in a single pot.