What is cuchuco?
If you do not know this term or have never heard of this recipe, I tell you that cuchuco is a food, which consists of corn, barley, or wheat grain, which is peeled and chopped or semi -ground and It used to make soups. This soup is very traditional in Colombia, and to be more specific, in the mountains of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá.
In this case, the soup that we will prepare will be the cuchuco soup, a soup that contains meat substance, peas, carrots, potatoes, and other ingredients that make this soup a delight to the palate.
I still remember the first time I tried this soup, I was tiny, and we were visiting where some relatives of my dad, it was like two in the afternoon when they were serving lunch, for my eyes it was something extraordinary. When I tried it, I wouldn't say I liked its taste.
After that, it took me some time to try a soup like that again. Until at some point we went to lunch at a restaurant, my father ordered his lunch, and I didn't hear that He asked. And after a while, he put me to taste his soup, without telling me anything.
To my surprise, it was cuchuco soup, and it was delicious, from that moment, every time I have the opportunity to prepare it. I do it since it is a delightful soup with great benefits.
So I hope you are encouraged to prepare it at home, in the most delicious way that exists and tell us what your experience with this soup was. Let's cook.
I recommend you prepare chorizo rice or beef ribs broth.
Original recipe in SpanishCuchuco FAQ
More soups
- Mute santandereano — the other Santander corn soup.
Cuchuco is a grain that has been hulled and coarsely cracked, somewhere between whole kernels and flour. It gives the soup its thick, slightly grainy body. The word names the ingredient, not the dish: a soup made with it is also called cuchuco, which is why the same term covers both.
Only the grain. Cuchuco de maíz uses cracked corn, cuchuco de trigo uses cracked wheat, and cuchuco de cebada uses cracked barley. The vegetables, the pork and the method stay the same. Corn gives the sweetest, softest result; wheat holds its bite longer and makes a heartier soup.
Look in Latin grocery stores, where it is sold as cuchuco de maíz. If you cannot find it, coarse-ground yellow cornmeal (grits, not fine cornmeal) is the closest substitute, though the texture comes out slightly smoother. Avoid masarepa: it is precooked and turns to paste in the soup.
Pork spine (espinazo) is the traditional choice and the reason the broth tastes the way it does: the bone and marrow give it body that a lean cut cannot. Beef ribs work too. Whatever you use, keep it bone-in, because the bone is doing half the work.
Yes. A pressure cooker cuts the first stage roughly in half, but in a regular pot the grain and meat simply need longer. Keep it at a low simmer and check the grain rather than the clock: it is ready when it has swollen and softened but still has some texture.
The grain has not released enough starch yet. Cuchuco thickens as it cooks, so a thin soup usually means it needs more time, not more grain. It also keeps thickening as it cools and sits, which is why leftovers are noticeably denser the next day.
In Boyacá and Cundinamarca it is common to eat this soup with a whole banana on the side, taking bites between spoonfuls. It sounds odd outside Colombia, but the sweetness plays against the salty pork broth. It is optional and it is not part of the recipe itself.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup cuchuco (cracked corn) (sold as cuchuco de maíz in Latin stores; coarse grits are the closest US substitute)
- 6½ cups water (about 1.5 liters)
- 4 pieces bone-in pork spine or beef ribs (about 1½ lb / 650 g; keep the bone, it makes the broth)
- Fresh cilantro, chopped, to taste (the leaf, not the seed)
- ½ onion, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, grated or diced
- ½ cup green peas
- ½ lb potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 225 g; waxy potatoes hold their shape better)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- If you bought whole corn, grind it coarsely first; cuchuco sold ready-made already comes cracked. Put it in a bowl, cover it with plenty of water and leave it to soak overnight.
- The next day, drain the corn in a strainer and rinse it about three times, until the water runs clear instead of cloudy.
- Put the corn, the water, the pork spine or beef ribs, the cilantro and the onion into a pot. Season with salt.
- Cook for 60 minutes, or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. By the end the grain should have swollen and started to soften.
- Add the potatoes, the carrot, the peas and the garlic.
- Taste and adjust the salt, then simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes more, until the potatoes are breaking at the edges and the soup has thickened. If it still looks watery, give it longer: cuchuco thickens with time, not with more grain.
- Serve straight away, with a little more chopped cilantro on top.
Comments
No Comments