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The Caribbean · Volume 45, The Arepa Coast, the Hallaca and the Titoté · Cooked by cue

Friche

The Guajira, the Wayuu

Friche, a kid goat cut small with its offal, cooked in its own liquid and then fried in its own fat: a large shallow iron pan of small pieces of browned crisp edged goat meat and dark offal glistening with rendered fat over a wood fire.

Illustration

Víctor Fernández, seventy seven, of the Uriana clan, told Radio Nacional that ancestrally friche is made with the goat's blood. It is served with bollo limpio, a roasted arepa or boiled yuca. The same report names shapurana, a bean soup with goat fat that Fernández calls a disappearing recipe, saawa, toasted ground maize with sugar, uujolu, the maize drink for occasions, and goat in coconut sauce. Friche is cooked by cue in the Guajira: the pot tells the cook when the water has gone. Fernández gave no weights, and the amounts here are the Ministry of Culture's friche for ten.

As tradition built it

Serves 10.

Ingredients

Friche is cooked by cue in the Guajira, the pot saying when its own liquid has gone; the method is the Wayuu cook Víctor Fernández's, and the amounts are the Ministry of Culture's friche for ten.

  • 1.5kg goat meat, cut small
  • 500g goat liver, heart and kidneys, cut small
  • 500ml (2 cups) goat's blood, traditionally
  • to taste salt
  • 3 onions, in some kitchens
  • 6 cloves garlic, in some kitchens

Method

  1. Put the cut goat meat and offal in a pot with salt, and onion and garlic in some kitchens, and no water. Cook on a low fire until the meat has given up its liquid and the liquid has cooked away.
  2. When the pot is dry and the fat has rendered, raise the fire and fry the meat in its own fat, stirring, until it is browned and crisp at the edges.
  3. Where the blood is used, it goes in at the end and is cooked through.
  4. Serve with bollo limpio or boiled yuca and a cold drink.

What a modern chef changes

The same method, with the fat managed

Rung 6

Method

  1. Separate the offal and add it for the last 15 minutes only; the liver toughens in a long cook.
  2. Keep the first stage at a bare simmer with the lid on, so the meat poaches in its own juice before the fat takes over.
  3. Pour off half the rendered fat before the fry, and use it for the arepas on the side.
  4. Finish with lime and raw onion, which the plates in Riohacha carry.
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