Soups

Soups

Perú makes much of soups, and the people of the sierra often substitute a broth or thick meat soup for a whole meal. The following are edited highlights rather than an exhaustive listing. Soups are normally taken towards the middle of the day, which - as the introduction shows - can correspond to urban almuerza (lunch) or rural desayuno, a late, full breakfast after work. The middle classes drink soup as an introduction to the main course in the evening, but country people would often see this as a full evening meal in itself. sopa criolla
Stone Soup
Ingredients:

This is a traditional field soup, heated by putting fire-warmed pebbles in the serving dishes. If your domestic circumstances prevent you slaughtering the family guinea pig, use pork. South African biltong is a good source of air dried meat.

Soak the dried potatoes in water overnight. Make a small wood fire and heat the stones in this. They should be in the heart of the fire for at least 30 minutes to get really hot.

Begin by frying the garlic, pimento and onion in oil, and then add water and the chopped chicken and veal. Boil until the meat is cooked, and then add the potatoes referred to above. These will take a further 15 minutes to cook. Meanwhile, chop the guinea pig into small pieces and fry it, adding the result to the soup. Add the herbs and stir for a further ten minutes. Separate into dishes, and add one of the heated stones to each. This creates dramatic bubbling, and adds a taste of wood smoke to the soup.

Sopa Wantán
Ingredients:

Elsewhere, we have discussed the Peruvian chifa cuisine. The wantan comes from this tradition, and is a meat-filled pasta parcel extremely similar to a ravioli, which can be used in its place. Cau Choy and Chinese cabbage can be found in most supermarkets or specialist shops.

Finely chop the liver and braise it, before covering it with water and bringing it to the boil. Add the chopped pork and chicken. Once these are cooked, strain the broth, retaining the liquid, and mince the meat. Reunite the two, and add the chopped roast dusk and pork. Add the chopped cabbage and cau choy. When the mixture is boiling, add the wantan and seasoning. The soup is best served with chopped spring onions.
Caldo de Cabeza
Ingredients:

This is not for everyone as it looks gruesome, but it is a staple of the sierra. Yellow potatoes are a mountain variety with a texture similar to those sold in Western supermarkets as salad potatoes.

An open wood fire is used to singe the sheep's head, removing all traces of hair. The result is hosed down to remove any charring and then split from-to-back with an axe. (Something new for your kitchen range.) The chunks are now immersed in water in a large pot and boiled for 90 minutes with the chopped potatoes, skimming off any foam that forms. The other ingredients are added once it is cooked. Serving is a delicate matter, in that afficionados want the head on a plate, whilst the tender-hearted prefer a more delicate, strained version. Add the mint just before serving.

Parihuela
Ingredients:

This is a traditional fish soup, entailing a wide range of ingredients, including shark and machas or sea slugs. Precisely what goes into it varies with season and intent. De-head the fish and add these to the mussels and crab in a pot with some water. Boil for around an hour, stirring to break up the bones and shell. Stain off the liquid and reduce this, adding the herbs to it at the end of its cooking period. (Discard the fish heads.) Pick through the shell fish and discard the bonier bits, returning the rest to the reduction. Add the remaining fish and cook slowly, stirring to break up the flesh as it cooks. Thicken with potato starch at the last moment before serving, and serve with a dressing of chopped Spring onions.

Sopa del Nativo
Ingredients:

Fry the garlic and chillies, adding the finely chopped meat and brown it. Pour on the meat stock and bring to the boil. Dice the potatoes and add them, seething while the potatoes cook. Add the noodles and milk. Once the noodles are cooked, whip in the egg and serve topped with crushed french bread.

Sopa Cholo
Ingredients:

This is a coastal mainstay, to be found on sale in any provincial town. It is often eaten in the middle of the day, after a hard morning in the fields. It is more of a stew than a soup.

Cut the chicken and red meat - but not the pork - into large pieces, cover with water and boil gently for around an hour, removing froth. Soak the bread in water, adding garlic, onion, pimento and seasoning before heating this to a thick blend. Mix with the meat and add chopped tomato. Meanwhile, boil the peeled, chopped yuca and fry up the pork, cut into small pieces. Add these, the hard boiled eggs and the olives to the soup, stir and stand for ten minutes before serving.
Seven Meat Soup
Ingredients:

This more of a stew than a soup, and much favoured in the South of the country. It is simply prepared: boil up all of the meats in water for around an hour, then add the flavourings and rest before bringing to the table in a bowl for serving. It is often extended with several handfuls of barley, and softened with either white cheese or milk. Personally, I would add fried onions, but that is not the local practice.

Cheese Cauchi
Ingredients:

The garlic, chilli, onion and tomatoes are fried in oil. The milk, water and beans are added and brought to the boil before the wetted potato starch is stirred in to thicken it. Once thick, the diced cheese is stirred in and cooked until it melts. This is often decorated with sliced pimento.

Chairo
Ingredients:

Air dried meat is called chalona or cecina. The most accessible similar product in the West is South African biltong.

Begin to boil the meat with the chalona and whole chillies. Separately, fry down the onion and crushed chilli, stirring it into the broth when this is well-cooked. Stir in the chopped carrots and potatoes, dice the cabbage and the pumpkin and add these somewhat later, then stir in the beans. Finally, when the potatoes are soft, add the pre-wetted potato starch to thicken the soup. Serve with a topping of grilled chopped chilli.

Fish Chilcano
Ingredients:

This soup is a basic ingredient for many other seafood-based recipes. It can also be eaten on its own, usually with cold boiled potatoes. Begin by placing the fish in a pot, accompanied with salt, pepper, the garlic and red chilli, lemon juice, the chopped onion and the parsley. Add the water and bring to the boil until the meat is well cooked. Serve with a boiled potato in each dish.

Shrimp Chilcano
Ingredients:

Prepare the chilcano of fish (as above) before starting on the shrimp soup. The shrimps are lightly steamed, and set aside. The chilcano is brought to heat and the other ingredients added. The soup is placed in bowls, into each of which two of the shrimps are added by hand.

Crab Chilcano
Ingredients:

The crabs are dropped in boiling water and left to simmer for one hour, stirring to break up the articulation of the crabs. The other ingredients are chopped and then added, and after some ten minutes of further simmering the soup allowed to stand for a further ten minutes. It is normally served with a cold boiled potato in each bowl.

Mussel Chilcano
Ingredients:

Wash the mussels and then boil them for an hour. Strain the mussels, retaining the stock, and remove any grit that may have built up in each one. Add lemon juice and the coped onions to he stock, together with the parsley and salt. Bring to the boil for ten minutes and return the mussels. Serve hot.

Chirimpico
Ingredients:

Maize beer (chicha de jora) is a thick alcoholic porridge, prepared with seeds from the pepper tree. One could get the same effect with a mixture of white pepper, pollenta and Western beer. This soup is usually served with boiled choclo maize cobs and yuca.

The mince is first boiled and then strained. It is then fried in hot oil, the chilli and pimento. Once cooked, the beer is added to cover the mixture, plus the herbs. The purple chilli (ají morada) is available from Mexican food outlets in the US. This is crushed and stirred into the soup just before serving. This is quite piquant, to the quantity used depends on individual taste.

Shrimp or prawn Soup
Ingredients:

The garlic, onion and tomato are fried in hot oil, and then quenched in water. Bring to the boil and add the choclo, usually cut in discs, the green peas, the potatoes and the rice. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked and turn down the heat. Add the shrimps, the oregano, the salt and the pepper and simmer gently until the shrimps are cooked. Beat the eggs and the milk together, and stir the soup vigorously as you pour them into it. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Dried bean soup
Ingredients:

Soak the beans overnight and discard the remaining water. Add fresh water and bring to the boil until they soften. Again discard the water. Add the finely-chopped meat and cover with water, bringing to the boil. Chop the potatoes, and add them to the mixture. Add the chalona and simmer. While this is cooking (45 minutes) fry the garlic, chillies, pepper, cumin and onion. Stir this in, and then add the sweet pumpkin, chopped into medium-sized pieces, and the finely chopped or crushed carrots. Once these are cooked, add the noodles and the remaining herbs. Simmer very gently until the noodles are cooked. You may need to top up with boiling water if the noodles prove very absorptive.

Sopa de Pallares
Ingredients:

Fry the fish, and tip it into a saucepan. Then fry the onion and garlic until golden, and add this and the salt and pepper to the fish. Add the water and the vegetable stew, the choclo cut into discs, the pumpkin and the rice. Pour on water and bring to the boil. When the rice is cooked, beat the eggs with the milk and oregano, and pour in while stirring quickly. Serve hot.

Friday Soup
Ingredients:

Catholics frequently treat Friday as a meatless day, hence the name. Boil up the fish offal and the mussels, filtering off the water and cleaning out the mussels before placing them back in it. Separately, fry up the onions, garlic, tomato, pimento and add to the soup. Add the yellow chilli and the seasoning. Add the potatoes, peeled and diced and boil until lightly cook, then add the noodles and simmer until these are done. Stir in the cheese and when it is dissolved, serve hot.

Red wine Chupin
Ingredients:

Use a hard-fleshed fish, which should be cut into bite-size pieces. Puré the tomatoes and add to the fish. Meanwhile, fry the garlic and Spring onion, the latter lightly. Add these to the mixture and put in the wine, herbs and seasoning. Bring to the boil, stirring frequently and stand off the fire for half an hour. Serve warm, with a topping of grated parmesan and parsley.

Menestrón
Ingredients:

Soak the beans overnight and discard the liquid. Boil up the beans, meat and green vegetables, adding the potatoes about halfway through the cooking time, diced. The noodles are added 10-15 minutes before serving. Crush basil, oil and garlic together in a mortar and add to the soup. Serve with a thick layer of grated parmesan and rings of choclo maize.

Patasca
Ingredients:
Mondongo is cow or calf's belly, used in the preparation of numerous dishes including the traditional cau cau. Boil the potatoes separately, as these will be cut into small pieces and added to the finished soup. Dice the beef, add water and seasoning; boil until partially cooled. Add the mondongo, continue to cook and then add the maize flour, already wetted to a paste. As soon as the mixture begins to set, remove from the heat.

Separately, fry the onion, tomato and garlic and stir these into the mixture. Add the herbs. Simmer gently for around 30 minutes, adding boiling water if the mixture becomes too thick. Stir in the potato and serve, dressed with parsley or chilli.

Potato broth
Ingredients:

Fry the crushed garlic in butter and add the chopped spring onion and mint. Add water to taste and bring to the boil, adding the peeled and chopped potatoes. Once these are cooked soft, add the cheese and dissolve it. Finally, whisk the eggs and pour them slowly into the soup, beating as you do so. The soup is usually served hot, topped with crushed parsley.

Mutton soup
Ingredients:

This is prepared much as the above recipe: fry the garlic, add the finely chopped meat and fry as well. Add chopped potatoes and water and boil slowly for around 90 minutes. Add the flavouring ingredients tot he end of the coking period, and serve garnished with mint.

Chicken soup
Ingredients:

Boil the finely-chopped chicken for five minutes, then add the chopped and peeled potatoes, celery and crushed carrots. This is boiled for a further five minutes before adding the noodles. The herbs are added just at the end of the cooking period, and the soup is rested for ten minutes before serving.