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The Andes · Volume 46, The Two Milks, the Azotea and the Covered Pot

Cazuela de mariscos

Tumaco

Cazuela de mariscos, corvina, clams, caracol, crab, shrimp, squid and piangua in a broth thickened with blended green plantain and coconut milk: a wide clay cazuela seen from above, filled with a thick pale orange coconut and plantain broth in which float rings of squid and of caracol.

Illustration

A seafood stew of corvina, clams, caracol, jaiba, shrimp, squid and piangua in a broth thickened with blended green plantain and the thin coconut milk. Vilma Ramírez, fifty four, ceramicist and flower decorator, who led the Tumaco group's work, gives it for ten, the shellfish going in by their cooking times, the shrimp last. Aura Castillo of Buenaventura, born in Tumaco, taught by her great-grandmother, "no cambiar nunca de sazón" (never change the seasoning), makes one that brought a customer back the next day with twelve more. The garlic, pepper, herbs and salt are to Ramírez's taste, so those lines read "to taste".

As tradition built it

Serves 10.

Ingredients

  • 225g (half lb) corvina, in rings
  • 225g (half lb) clams, whole
  • 225g (half lb) caracol, in rings
  • 225g (half lb) jaiba meat
  • 225g (half lb) shrimp, whole
  • 225g (half lb) squid, in rings
  • 225g (half lb) piangua, in rings
  • 2 coconuts, pressed for the thin milk
  • 1 green plantain
  • 3 tbsp refrito of azotea herbs
  • 1.4 litres (6 cups) water
  • to taste garlic
  • to taste pepper
  • to taste chiyangua
  • to taste chirarán
  • to taste salt

Method

  1. Season each shellfish separately with salt, garlic and pepper: rings of caracol, fish, piangua and squid; shrimp and clams whole.
  2. Boil the water with chirarán and chiyangua.
  3. Blend the thin coconut milk with the plantain in chunks and pour it gently into the boiling water, stirring; add the refrito of azotea herbs.
  4. Add the seafood in order: caracol, piangua, clams, corvina, squid, and the shrimp last.
  5. Add more thin milk, cook a few minutes until the shrimp is done, rest it and serve.

What a modern chef changes

Each shellfish given its minute

Rungs 2 and 6

Method

  1. Cook the thickened broth to the texture of single cream before any shellfish goes in, and hold it at 85 degrees.
  2. Add the caracol and piangua 8 minutes before serving, the clams and fish at 5, the squid at 3 and the shrimp at 2, by the clock, which is the order Ramírez gives by hand.
  3. Press the plantain through a chinois after blending so the broth is smooth.
  4. Finish each bowl with the thick milk and a leaf of chiyangua.
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