Cachupa
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 pounds of smoked bacon finely cubed
- 1 onion diced
- 2 large carrots diced
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Bay leaves optional
- 3 tomatoes chopped
- 1 cup dried red kidney beans soaked overnight (or use 1 can of white kidney beans)
- 1 cup white kidney bean soaked overnight (or use 1 can of white kidney beans)
- 1-2 large cans hominy to taste
- 1 chorizo or churico sausages sliced
- 1 buttercup squash 2 cups, largely cubed
- 1 sweet potato largely cubed
- 1 medium sized yucca cassava (1 ½ cups), largely cubes
- ¾ cup 3/4 pound cubed ham
- 1 cup 1 pound cubed brisket
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 4 cups chopped kale
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Water veggies, or chicken stock as needed
Instructions
Cook Dried Beans
- Pour off the water with your dry red and white kidney beans soaked in.
- In a pot, add your dry white and red kidney beans that have been soaked overnight and fill with water so the beans are fully submerged.
- Boiled beans until tender, which may take about 45 minutes to an hour. Top with more water if necessary and make sure the lid you are using allows for steam to escape the pot while the beans are boiling.
- When the beans are tender and fully cooked, set aside until ready to add to your stew.
Make Stew
- In a large separate pot place on the stove on low-medium heat. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pot and add your diced bacon that has been cubed to just about a cm.
- Cook on low to medium heat to render the bacon fat and stir constantly until the bacon is evenly browned.
- Add your diced onions. Sautee your onions until translucent.
- Add your minced garlic, Bay leaves and carrots to the pot and saute until the carrot begins to soften.
- Add your diced tomatoes and saute for about 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes start to stew. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
- If your brisket is raw, take 1 pound of brisket, whole, season with salt and pepper and add your pot with your stewed veggies.
- Top your pot, with your brisket with water or stock until the brisket is fully submerged.
- Cook on low for 2 ½ hours until brisket is done. Remove the brisket from the pot, and when cool enough to cut, cut your brisket into cubes and set aside.
- While your brisket cooks for 2 ½ hours prepare your other veggies like dicing your sweet potato, quash etc.
- To your pot, add drained cans of hominy. Add more hominy if you want more corn to your stew. You can always start with one can, and add the second can after seeing what the ratio of ingredients of your stew looks like. I prefer more corn.
- Add your boiled beans, drained to your stew.
- Add your starches, your chopped sweet potato, chopped squash, chopped yuca. I prefer to have them largely chopped because they tend to “get lost” in the stew if they are too finely chopped. An inch cubed is the smallest I would cut these. Add water or stock as needed
- Add your chopped ham, your chopped cooked brisket, your sliced sausage and mix well and cook for an additional 30-40 minutes on low stirring occasionally making sure to scrape the bottom so it does not burn. Really it will burn because of all the starches to stir periodically and try not to break up the starch in your stew while doing so.
- Add your tablespoon of paprika and adjust the seasoning of salt and pepper to taste.
- When the stew is almost ready, add your chopped kale and mix in and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. If you decide to use another leafy green like collard green for example, I would add them in after taking out your brisket to give the collards enough time to cook down.
Notes
This recipe is an amalgamation of starches, proteins and so long as the basics are there, hominy and beans, the rest can be adjusted to preference. This dish can easily be made vegetarian but this rendition here is a typical presentation of Cachupa.