Curanto en olla

Ingredients

• Mussels1.5 kg
• Clams1 kg
• Pork ribs800 g
• Chicken — in pieces800 g
• Smoked sausage400 g
• Potatoes800 g
• Flour — for the cakes200 g
• Onions2
• Dry white wine250 ml
• Cabbage leaves8
• Coriander40 g
• Lard60 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Scrub the shellfish through several changes of water and discard any that are already open.

   20 min

2. 2

   Boil half the potatoes, mash them and work them with the flour and lard into firm chapalele cakes.

   30 min

3. 3

   Line the bottom of the pot with two layers of cabbage leaves.

   6 min

4. 4

   Lay the shellfish in as the first layer, add the wine and cover with more cabbage leaves.

   10 min

5. 5

   Arrange the ribs, chicken, sausage and onion as the second layer and cover with leaves again.

   10 min

6. 6

   Put the whole potatoes and the cakes on top, cover with leaves and close the lid tightly.

   8 min

7. 7

   Cook over medium heat for an hour without opening it. Serve in layers, with the broth from the bottom in separate bowls.

   65 min

About the dish

A true curanto is cooked in a pit on heated stones under nalca leaves. Pulmay is the pot version, and on Chiloé it counts as legitimate rather than a shortcut.

No water goes in at all. The shellfish open and give up their sea water, and everything cooks in that — a litre of liquid appears by itself.

The layers go in a strict order: shellfish at the bottom, meat in the middle, the potato cakes on top. Their liquid rises as steam and the top layer finishes on it.

Worth knowing

• — Never lift the lid. Steam is the only thing cooking the upper layers, and what escapes does not come back.
• — Discard any shellfish that have not opened after cooking. That is a safety rule rather than fussiness.
• — The broth from the bottom is the best part of the dish. It is poured into bowls and drunk separately, as on the Chiloé coast.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

880 kcal

Protein

68 g

Fat

42 g

Carbs

58 g

More from Chile

• Pastel de choclo — A bake of meat filling under a lid of ground sweetcorn, with an olive and an egg inside.
• Empanadas de pino — Baked pastries with a meat filling, an olive and an egg. Chilean food for 18 September and for any Sunday.
• Completo — A hot dog under mounds of mashed avocado, tomato and mayonnaise, coloured like the Italian flag.