Chugchucaras From Ecuador

Info

Chugchucara is a typical dish from the Latacunga region. It is made with pork, and different vegetables from the region and regions nearby. We must remember that Ecuador is one of the countries with a greater variety of fruits and vegetables, and this makes that all its dishes be of a special richness. As we know, the Andes region is where the potato comes from and that there are hundreds of different species of this vegetable grown by the Incas and then continued being used in that region. Incas learned how to freeze potatoes and to preserve it for many years.

In this dish we have: pork, with corn, bananas, potatoes, and eggs.
You shouldn’t leave Ecuador, and mostly Latacunga, without having tried this dish! Nobody knows who prepared this for this first time, or when, but eating this very flavored dish it’s a tradition in Ecuador.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound of pork meat
1pound of sweet potatoes (or bananas, or both if you choose), cut into small pieces
1 pound of cooked corn, cut into slices and fried
1 pound of potatoes cut in small pieces
½ half a pound of pork skin
½ pound peppers
1 egg per person
Cumin, garlic, pepper, salt
2 cups of water
¼ cup of oil
4 lettuce leaves

Preparation:

Put in a pan the water, the pork meat, cut in small pieces, add the flavors, and the piece of pork skin. And when the water dries out, add the oil, so that at the end the pork gets fried.

Once taken out the pork, in the same fat that remains in the pan, fry the potatoes and the sweet potatoes.
Serve in the dish, over a lettuce leave, all the preparation, the pork and the fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, and slices of corn.
On top of each dish, a fried egg!
Delicious, served with a very cold drink!