La Pachamanca

Usually, I dislike it when people here ask me the question: What is your favorite Peruvian dish? This is partly because I like a lot of the food here and partly because I can never remember the Spanish names for most of the dishes. But, after my taste-bud-exploding experience yesterday, I now secretly hope everyone will ask me the question so I can excitedly tell them: Pachamanca!!!


The origins of this meal is Pre-Incan and it is very popular in the Andes. It is a lot of work to make it but, as we say here in Peru, vale la pena (totally worth it!) The saddest part about this photo/video diary is that you cannot smell or taste anything. And that is truly a travesty. My best advice to you is that you make friends with a Peruvian mountain man and invite him over for dinner so he can bring this deliciousness to your table.


Let us begin at the very beginning:

Esteban is smiling because he knows the joys of
Pachamanca yet to come.
So, you might as well start smiling too! 

In the kitchen we begin by preparing the hormitas. We will
make sweet ones and cheesy ones and fold the husk in either
a roll or a triangle depending on what kind it is.

They look kind of like a tamal and, of course, since the
women taught me their technique, I can teach you too.
Tip: don't get too greedy and overstuff them because
then all the dough will get squashed on the rocks....

You were probably wondering what kind of rocks I was
talking about... well, here is our "oven." You better make sure
you are ready to sweat because these rocks are hot!!

After the rocks have been heated by the fire for 45 minutes
and are hot enough to be white in color, with we will remove
them one by one. We then have to clean out the ashes and
prepare the hole for our food. Be careful - these rocks
are so hot that some of them are breaking/shattering.

Now we begin to layer our food. First the potatoes and yuca.
You may want to get a good pair of gloves. Ronald's were
nearly 20 years old and had more holes than material. His
hands were not too happy about that. 

We add a few more stones and then the meat rubbed
in a herb and chile sauce! Yes, it will cook all the way through.  

Keep adding stones and food! This time the hormitas and the bananas.
We'll also add more husks around the sides to keep steam from escaping.

Our last layer will be the abea beans. They are the test
because if they are done, everything below them
is cooked too. But really, my abuelita (grandmother)
is the real judge. If she says they are done, they are done.
Also, you need to add more herbs around the
side to prevent the heat from escaping.

Time to cover it up and let her cook! Pass
the banana leaves please...

And, the plastic covering....

And, the dirt.... grab a shovel!

We add a cross for effect and then we wait.
Like Esteban, I am sure you are waiting with eager expectation.  

An hour and a half later(!),we are ready to unbury our prize.
Slowly now, we don't want to get dirt in our food...

Dig in but don't burn yourself - we need to separate
all the food according to type while avoiding the
still crazy hot rocks.

Don't worry. I am helping too.
Also, this is a good time to sample the goods :)

This is the heaping plate of food I was given.
And, I am really happy about it. Yum, yum, yum.