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Chairo
La Paz, Bolivia
A fortifying Andean soup from the high Bolivian altiplano around La Paz, built on the single ingredient that defines the region's genius for survival at 4,000 metres: chuño, potatoes freeze-dried by an ancient Aymara technique of leaving them out on the frigid plateau to freeze at night and be trampled and sun-dried by day, drawing out the moisture until they become black, rock-hard nuggets that keep for years. Rehydrated, the chuño lends chairo its unmistakable earthy, smoky, almost mineral depth. The soup simmers chuño and fresh potato together with lamb and beef, dried corn (mote), wheat berries, peas, fava beans, and a sofrito of onion, garlic, and yellow ají, into a thick, sustaining one-pot meal made for the thin cold air. Chairo is everyday Aymara comfort food and a fixture of La Paz markets and family Sundays, a dish that tastes of the altiplano itself. The chuño at its heart is a 2,000-year-old food technology that fed the Inca empire, yet remains baffling and unknown to most of the outside world.
Ingredients
- 400 glamb, cubed
- 300 gbeef with bone
- 150 gchuño (freeze-dried potato), soaked
- 3 mediumfresh potatoes, peeled and diced
- 100 gdried white corn (mote), pre-soaked
- 80 gwheat berries, pre-soaked
- 100 gfava beans, peeled
- 100 ggreen peas
- 1 largeonion, finely diced
- 3 clovesgarlic, minced
- 1 tbspyellow aji paste
- 1 tspcumin
- 1 tspfresh oregano
- 2 tspsalt
Directions
- 1
Soak the chuño in water for several hours, then squeeze out the moisture and break or grate into small pieces.
- 2
In a large pot, brown the lamb and beef, then add the onion, garlic, cumin, and yellow aji paste and fry into a fragrant sofrito.
- 3
Cover with plenty of water and bring to a boil, then add the pre-soaked mote and wheat berries and simmer for about 45 minutes.
- 4
Add the chuño and fresh potatoes and continue cooking until everything is tender, about 30 minutes more.
- 5
Stir in the fava beans and peas and simmer until soft.
- 6
Season with salt and oregano, mashing a few potatoes against the side of the pot to thicken the broth.
- 7
Serve hot in deep bowls, ideally with a spoonful of fresh llajwa chili sauce on the side.