Chuño ✦

Chuño

What it is

Chuño is made in the June frosts of the altiplano: the potatoes freeze overnight, thaw in the sun and are trodden underfoot by day to press the water out, over four or five cycles. It keeps for a decade or more, which is what filled the Inca qollqa storehouses along the royal roads and fed armies on the march.

In the kitchen

Soak black chuño overnight and change the water twice, or the smell stays barnyard rather than earthy. It never softens like a fresh potato: it turns chewy and porous, and belongs in a long-simmered stew where it drinks the broth.

Goes with

Lamb Beef Ají amarillo Onion Garlic Cumin Corn

Same species

Bintje potato Black Krim tomato Bonnotte de Noirmoutier Datterino tomato Eggplant Green tomato

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