Arequipa-Style Braise (Estofado Arequipeño)

History

"Estofado" names both a dish and a method: meat braised slowly in a tightly sealed pot. Here a piece of the best beef, a lamb rump, half a hen, a slice of tocino and a chorizo are cut into large pieces and packed into the olla with halved onions, a sprig of parsley, a handful of soaked chickpeas, a lump of butter, two garlic cloves, whole and ground pepper, an ounce of chocolate, a bottle of sweetish red wine (vino tinto abocado), half a bottle of water, six spoonfuls of good vinegar, and — because of the long boil — very little salt and only a little cumin. The pot is covered well and left over low heat for four hours, never uncovered, shaken now and then so nothing catches, until it 'exhala un perfume delicioso, que despierta el mas muerto apetito' — gives off a delicious perfume that wakes the deadest appetite. That is the dictionary sense of the word exactly: an estofado is meat 'cocida a fuego lento en salsa o jugo, en una olla tapada por varias horas' — cooked slowly in sauce or its own juices, in a covered pot for several hours.

The technique is Spanish, and it enters a regional cuisine that carried the colonial braise forward with unusual fidelity. In Arequipa's picanterías — the traditional wood-fired eating houses of the 'White City,' described as 'the modern expression of an ancestral custom' that joins rural life to the table — the everyday repertoire is built on 'Spanish colonial style stews and casseroles cooked on firewood in clay pots', with 'a set list of dishes ... served on each day of the week ... as was common during the Spanish colonial era'. This estofado belongs to that Hispanic-braise register — beef and lamb and hen, chickpeas, cured pork, a whole bottle of red wine — rather than to the rocoto- and ají-forward picantería cooking Arequipa is equally known for, the small plates of 'spicy rocoto seasoned regional delicacies' served with chicha de jora. There is no ají in it at all.

One New-World ingredient does appear: an ounce of chocolate, melted into the braise for depth and color alongside the wine and vinegar. Cacao is native to the Americas and entirely at home in an 1890 Peruvian pot, where the criollo kitchen routinely set native American foods beside Spanish-introduced meats and techniques; nothing in the dish is anachronistic.

The headnote gives the braise its occasion. Beatriz Lloza calls it 'obligado en nuestros dias de repiques' — required on the days of repiques, the bell-pealing festival days — and fit to stand 'entre los primores del más espléndido menú,' among the finest dishes of the most splendid table. That festive framing is the contributor's own, stated in the recipe. It reaches Gorriti's 1890 compilation the way the whole book was assembled — recipes mailed in from across Spanish America, carrying their stories and anecdotes with them. Beyond her city and her name, the source tells us nothing of Beatriz Lloza, and it does not say whether this estofado was one household's formula or a broader Arequipa standard; that is left where the text leaves it.

Ingredients

• 1 piece best-quality beef
• 1 lamb rump (rabadilla)
• 1/2 hen
• 1 slice tocino (fatback/bacon)
• 1 chorizo
• heads onion, halved
• 1 sprig parsley
• 1 handful chickpeas, soaked
• 1 large piece butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• pepper, ground and whole
• 1 oz chocolate
• 1 bottle sweetish red wine (vino tinto abocado)
• 1/2 bottle water
• 6 tbsp good vinegar
• salt
• cumin (cominos)

Instructions

1. Cut the beef, lamb rump, half hen, tocino, and chorizo into large pieces and arrange in the pot.
2. Add halved onions, parsley, soaked chickpeas, butter, garlic, ground and whole pepper, chocolate, red wine, water, vinegar, very little salt, and a little cumin.
3. Cover well and simmer over low heat for four hours without uncovering, shaking occasionally so it does not stick.
4. Uncover and serve once it releases its perfume.