lorax

A Volquetero, which literally means a "dump-trucker" or "dog's breakfast" is a tasty snack dish invented in Puyo, Ecuador. Preparing one from scratch is a bit time consuming, but if you make a large batch of chifles and toasted corn, it's actually quite fast and easy to make it again.

For a two-person dish, you need:
About 1/4 lb of Chochos
About 1/4 lb of Tostado
About 3-5 plantains worth of Chifles
A regular tin of Tuna in water
1-2 limes
Finely diced red onion and tomato

1. The Chochos (Lupines)

This is lupines or lupini beans - if you've got fresh ones, boil them to make sure all of the bitter is out. If you're using canned, drain and rinse them well.

2. The Tostado (Toasted Corn)

You need large-kernel, partially dried yellow or white corn for this. It's widely available in Latin American food stores, or if you're actually in Latin America you can often find it pre-prepared as Tostado. If you're starting from scratch, put a little sunflower oil in the bottom of your big copper pan, add a couple of cloves of garlic, and toast the corn over low heat, stirring constantly, until the corn turns a deep brown and the kernels split. Salt this final product generously.

3. The Chifles (Plantain Chips)

These are fine plantain chips. I prefer Chunki-huasi (Hua Moa) or Orinoco plantains for this, although you can use whatever you like. Heat a pan of sunflower oil over medium heat, then peel the plantains and use a potato peeler to shave the chips off of the fruit directly into the oil. Chifles are cooked when they take on a rich, gold-orange colour, at which point you should scoop them out of the oil and allow them to drain.

4. The Volquetero

Begin with a large plate. Heap the chochos on. Cover these with the tostado, and finally a layer of chifles such that the other ingredients are invisible. Top with the finely sliced onion and tomato, then squeeze a lime over the whole thing. Finally, open and drain the tuna and spread the meat over the top.

Eat it with spoons, and hot sauce as you wish.

Bob

THANKS!!!Another one to try, you should open a restaurant!

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Jack Daw

Senkju. I hope to put it to a flavor test one day. On my homegrown naners.

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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lorax

Yeah, yeah, we've been through the whole "I'm not moving to the US" thing, especially not to just cook you guys dinner! It's too bleeding cold up there.

I should mention, since I didn't above, that really fresh chifles are slightly chewy. You have to let them sit for about a day if you want nice crunchy ones. You can also, of course, flavour your oil with whatever - Achiote give you slightly spicy, reddish chifles, and cinnamon oil with ripe plantains makes them dessert chips (although you don't want that in a Volquetero.)