Vori vori

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces1.4 kg
• Corn flour300 g
• Fresh salty cheese — grated250 g
• Onions2
• Sweet pepper1
• Tomatoes3
• Carrot1
• Egg1
• Annatto1 tsp
• Oregano1 tsp
• Parsley30 g
• Vegetable oil50 ml
• 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

   Brown the chicken pieces with the annatto on every side.

   15 min

2. 2

   Add the onion, pepper, tomatoes and carrot and stew until the vegetables soften.

   15 min

3. 3

   Pour in two litres of water, salt it and simmer forty minutes over a low heat.

   45 min

4. 4

   Mix the corn flour with the grated cheese, egg, oregano and a pinch of salt.

   8 min

5. 5

   Add a couple of spoons of hot broth and work it into a firm dough that holds its shape.

   8 min

6. 6

   Roll walnut-sized balls, compacting each between your palms.

   15 min

7. 7

   Drop the balls into the boiling broth, leave them five minutes unstirred and cook twenty. Scatter with parsley.

   25 min

About the dish

The dumplings are rolled tight and small, the size of a walnut. Large ones stay raw inside and loose ones fall apart in the broth within a minute.

The cheese in them is dry and salty. A wet one gives up water, the dough softens and there is nothing left to roll.

They go into the boiling broth one by one and are not stirred for the first five minutes. The dough has to set on the outside before a spoon touches it.

Worth knowing

• — Test the dough with one ball. If it disintegrates in the broth, add flour; if it stays hard inside, add a spoon of broth.
• — The broth has to be boiling when the balls go in. In a bare simmer they sink and stick to the bottom.
• — The soup thickens as it cools: the flour gives up starch. When reheating, let it down with water rather than boiling it again.

Nutrition

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

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

38 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

46 g

More from Paraguay

• Sopa paraguaya — A dense corn and cheese bake with onion which, despite its name, is eaten with a fork.
• Chipa — Bread rings of cassava starch and cheese, with no wheat and no yeast.
• Mbejú — A starch and cheese flatbread set in a dry pan without a drop of water.