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Sekai Gohan

Fritanga: Chuquisaca Pork Ribs in Red Chili Sauce

Chuquisaca-style Bolivian fritanga: fried pork spare ribs in red chili sauce with mote and potatoes on one plate
Steps with photos

Ingredients

Ingredient Amount Role
Mote, peeled corn kernels (mote) 2¼ lb (1 kg) The plain, chewy side. Soaked overnight, then cooked soft
Pork spare ribs (costillas de cerdo) 1¾ lb (800 g) Cut small, seasoned, boiled, then fried
Large potatoes (papa) 4 Boiled in salted water as the second side
Red chili peppers (ají colorado) 6 The color and body of the sauce
Ground black pepper and cumin 3 tbsp Seasoning for the meat and the chili paste
Garlic (ajo) 2 cloves Ground into the chili paste
Parsley (perejil) a little Garnish on the plate
Salt to taste For the meat and the potato water
Oil as needed For frying the ribs and the chilies

Steps

  1. 1Soak the mote overnight

    Put the mote in a large bowl and cover it well with water, leaving room for the kernels to swell. Leave it to soak overnight. Do not drain it in the morning, because the same water goes into the pressure cooker. The kernels are ready when they look fuller and swollen.

  2. 2Pressure-cook the mote without salt

    Tip the mote and its soaking water into the pressure cooker. Do not add salt. Cook it following your pressure cooker's manual and keep the contents below the cooker's maximum fill line. Open it once the pressure has released and bite a kernel. It is done when the kernel is soft and plump all the way through, with a gentle chew.

    Pressure cooker

    Corn foams and swells as it cooks. Never fill past the maximum line marked for grains and pulses. Let the pressure release the way your manual says before you open the lid.

  3. 3Cut and season the ribs

    Cut the spare ribs into small pieces, if the butcher has not done it already. Put them in a bowl and season them with salt and part of the pepper and cumin. Toss with your hands until every piece is coated. The meat is ready when you can see the spice speckled evenly over every cut surface.

  4. 4Boil the ribs and save the broth

    Put the seasoned ribs in a pot and add water just to cover. Bring it to a simmer and cook gently until the pork is fully cooked through to the center and tender at the bone. Lift the meat out and pour the cooking liquid into a heatproof bowl. That broth loosens the sauce later, so keep all of it. The ribs are ready when the meat is no longer pink at the bone and comes away easily.

  5. 5Fry the boiled ribs

    Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the boiled ribs in one layer. Dry them first so they do not spit. Turn them as they color, so every side browns. The browning is for flavor; the boiling is what cooks the pork through. Take them off when all sides are browned.

    Hot oil

    Wet meat makes hot oil spatter. Pat the ribs dry, lower them in away from you, and keep a lid nearby. Keep children and pets back from the stove while you fry.

  6. 6Fry the chilies until they darken

    Wash the red chilies, split them, and scrape out the seeds. Heat a little oil in a small pan and add the chilies. Stir them constantly as they fry. Stop as soon as they turn a deeper red and smell toasted. Burned chili turns bitter and spoils the whole sauce.

    The chili moment decides the dish

    Watch the pan the whole time. This step goes fast, and it sets both the color and the taste of the sauce. Pull the chilies the moment they darken, and make the sauce only from chilies that smell toasted and sweet, never sharp or acrid.

  7. 7Grind the paste and warm it with broth

    Put the fried chilies in a mortar with the garlic and the rest of the pepper and cumin. Grind until you have a thick, even red paste with no large pieces of skin. Scrape the paste into the small pan, add a ladle of the reserved broth, and warm it while stirring. The base is ready when the paste and broth have blended into one smooth, glossy red sauce.

  8. 8Simmer the ribs in the sauce for 15 minutes

    Move the sauce into a wide pot and add the fried ribs. Stir until every piece is coated. Add more broth if the sauce is too stiff to move, and more pepper or cumin if it tastes flat. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then so it does not catch. It is done when the sauce is heavy and thick and clings to the meat instead of running off it.

    Thick, not soupy

    Add broth a ladle at a time and only when the sauce needs it. Fritanga is a coated dish, and too much broth makes a stew. The 15-minute simmer is where the sauce thickens and grips the fried surface of the ribs.

  9. 9Boil the potatoes in salted water

    Put the large potatoes in a pot, cover them with water, and salt it well. Bring it to a boil and cook the potatoes whole while the ribs simmer. Test the thickest one with a fork. They are done when the fork slides to the center with no resistance.

  10. 10Plate with mote, potato and parsley

    Warm the mote in a little of its cooking liquid and drain it. On each plate, spoon the ribs and plenty of sauce next to a mound of mote and a potato. Scatter parsley over the top. The plate is right when the red sauce sits next to the white corn and the potato rather than covering them, so each bite can take as much as it wants.