112 - How to cook buried meat

The Pachamanca is one of the plates most typical and more difficult of finding of one of the tastiest kitchens of the world: the Peruvian kitchen. His name comes from the Quechua term ‘pasha‘ who means ground, and 'manka', that means pan. Or, it is a meal cooked in a pan of ground or, to be clearer, meats wrapped in banana sheets buried under stones warmed to the fire.

This way of cooking also exists in the island of Chiloé (south of the center of Chile) and probably also in Bolivia. The Peruvian pachamanca makes use in the departments of Ayacucho, Junín, Huancavelica and Huánuco with small local variants. Also it makes use in Lima in playtime and restaurants of the basins of the Loudmouth (I travel Canta), of the Rímac (Chaclacayo, Chosica) and of the Lurín (Cieneguilla).

Here all the information goes to prepare a Pachamanca, part extracted of Wikipedia, part of our curiosity. After sees who cheers up and does the first buried roast.

Ingredients

• Beefs, pig, lamb, chicken and guinea pig.
• Spices: chincho, cilantro and green pepper, or those that you want to put to the meat.
• Accompaniments: popes, sweet potato, yucca, corn, broad beans, fondue. In the Peruvian central saw there are of importance the humitas of clog (ground fresh corn) sweet and salty.

Making

The first thing is to do a handmade stove, a hole in the ground with a base of refractory material (river stones, for example) that absorbs the heat of a fire done above so that the meats are cooked. Any stone is not suitable, it is always necessary to prevent those from having sulfides, since it alters the flavor. Some of them use structures of bricks of chimney or raise a tumulus on ground (to see photos further down).

Warmed “the stove” and removed the embers, the meat proceeds to interfere previously seasoned or macerated and wrapped in banana sheets straight on the stones, or on some sandstone or in metallic salvers if one wants to preserve the embers. The potatoes are placed, yuccas or corn that are going to accompany the meat and then the "stove" closes with sheets, rags, more warm stones and ground, or by means of some another mechanism that closes it hermetically and concentrates the heat. The approximate cooking time is of approximately 90 minutes.

One usually cooks the Pachamanca to share in a big group. The potatoes, the broad beans, the sweet potatoes and the humitas have a tendency along the table, where each one serves to himself what he wants. The meats separate for type and sometimes they are accompanied with japchi (green pepper of rocoto, cheese and huacatay).

To drink? A beer box cusqueña, a bottle (or several) of good grappa or a giant Inka Cola. That is useful.

(Extracted photos of the article about Pachamanca in Wikipedia)