Locro

Method

1. 01

   Soak8–12 hours, overnight

   Cover the corn and beans with cold water, 8 to 10 cm above the food. Room temperature unless the kitchen is hotter than 25 °C / 77 °F. Drain in the morning.

   The smell should be clean and slightly sweet. If the soak is foamy and sour, dump it and start the beans over.

   They hydrate from the outside in. A short soak leaves a hard heart, and violent boiling then bursts skins and still leaves chalk.

   Soak dried corn and beans for 8–12 hours in cold water covering them by 8–10 cm. Refrigerate if the kitchen is above 25 °C / 77 °F. Drain in the morning; discard a sour, foamy batch. If using canned hominy instead, rinse it, skip its soak and add it only in the last hour.

2. 02

   Render and brown20–25 min

   Set the pot over medium heat and add the panceta. Let it shed fat and take colour, 8 to 10 minutes — blond edges toward gold, not dark crackling. Scoop the pieces out if they are already crisp; they go back in.

   Add the pork cubes and brown them, in batches if you must, 6 to 8 minutes per batch, until opaque with caramel on the corners. Salt lightly as they go. Add the chorizo last, 2 to 3 minutes, just until the paprika fat runs. A hard skin now is a cork later.

   Maillard on the pork is one of the few browned flavours in a stew that otherwise steams, and that fat is the medium for the onion and paprika.

   Render panceta over medium heat for 8–10 minutes until golden; remove if crisp. Brown pork cubes in batches for 6–8 minutes each, salting lightly. Add chorizo for 2–3 minutes until it releases paprika-colored fat. Reserve the meats.

3. 03

   Onion, garlic, paprika8–10 min

   Leave 2 to 3 tablespoons of fat in the pot and save the surplus for the ají. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic for 30 seconds, until it smells sweet.

   Take the pot off the heat for ten seconds, then stir in the paprika and cumin for thirty seconds. Paprika burns in a hot dry pan and then the stew tastes like dust.

   Paprika's flavour is fat-soluble. Dumping it into water later is colour without perfume.

   Leave 2–3 tablespoons fat in the pot and reserve extra for the table ají. Cook onion with a pinch of salt for 6–8 minutes until translucent, then garlic for 30 seconds. Remove from heat for ten seconds; stir in paprika and cumin for thirty seconds without scorching.

4. 04

   Load and cover5 min

   Return the meats. Add the drained corn, drained beans, squash, salt, pepper, and the bay if you are using it. Pour on 2.5 L of water or stock, then more until the food sits under 3 to 4 cm of liquid.

   It will look too watery. The corn and beans will drink, and you will smash.

   Bring it to a boil, then immediately drop to a low simmer — a lazy break of bubbles, 90 to 95 °C / 195 to 205 °F. A rolling boil blows the beans apart before the corn is tender.

   Return meats; add drained corn and beans, squash, salt, pepper and optional bay. Start with 2.5 L water or stock, then add enough to cover by 3–4 cm. Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer, 90–95 °C / 195–205 °F.

5. 05

   The long simmer3–4 hours

   Lid ajar. Stir every 20 to 30 minutes, scraping the bottom once the squash starts to collapse. Skim dirty foam at the beginning, but not every slick of paprika fat — you need that fat.

   At 90 minutes the beans should yield to a tooth and the corn still has a chalky core. At 2 hours the squash is soft enough to smash. Do not smash yet if the corn is hard — the liquid becomes a purée that then scorches while you wait on the maize.

   Between hour 3 and hour 4 the corn goes from edible to a kernel that compresses. That is the window. Add hot water only if the bottom is catching; cold water knocks the simmer down and tightens the meat.

   Collagen needs time above roughly 80 °C / 176 °F to become gelatin, and corn starch leaches slowly. You cannot rush both at a boil without wrecking the beans.

   Simmer with lid ajar for 3–4 hours. Stir and scrape the bottom every 20–30 minutes; skim initial foam. Beans may soften at 90 minutes and squash at 2 hours, but do not mash until the corn compresses easily, usually between hours 3 and 4. Add hot water if needed to prevent catching.

6. 06

   Smash for body5–10 min

   When the corn is tender and the pork yields, mash about a third of the squash and a handful of beans against the wall of the pot. Stir.

   The liquid should go from brothy to opaque and heavy, and coat a spoon. If it still reads as soup, smash more. If it reads as porridge, loosen it with hot water.

   Taste the salt now. It should taste seasoned, with paprika in the fat and a sweet bottom from the squash.

   When corn and pork are tender, mash about a third of the squash and a handful of beans against the pot wall. Stir until the broth coats a spoon. Mash more if soupy, or add hot water if too thick. Taste and adjust salt.

7. 07

   Rest in the pot15–20 min

   Off the heat, lid on. The starch sets a little and the fat rises. Skim a few spoonfuls of clear fat for the ají if you did not save it earlier.

   Locro is better 20 minutes after you thought it was done, and better still the next day.

   Remove from heat, cover and rest 15–20 minutes. Reserve clear fat from the surface for the ají if you did not save it earlier.

8. 08

   The ají, at serving3 min

   Warm the 60 ml of pot fat until fluid and fragrant, not smoking — about 80 to 90 °C / 175 to 195 °F. Off the heat, stir in the paprika until brick red. Add the scallion and a pinch of salt, plus the optional hot ají.

   It should smell of paprika and green onion, and stay spoonable.

   Each bowl gets locro, then a spoon of ají at the table. If you stir all of it into the pot, the scallion wilts and the paprika dulls.

   Warm the 60 ml reserved fat to 80–90 °C / 175–195 °F, without smoking. Off heat, stir in the paprika for the table ají, then scallion, salt and optional hot ají. Spoon over individual bowls, rather than stirring it into the whole pot.