How to make Pachamanca en Tierra (Christmas Eve at the Health Post)

There is no dish more Peruvian, especially Sierra Perú, than pachamanca en tierra.  Normally eaten in May for Mother’s Day, the health post staff decided to make it for the Christmas Eve celebration.  Here is how it is made:

1)      Build an igloo-like house of stones (my sincerest apologies for not having photos of this part.  I suppose we’ll all just have to wait for May) and burn firewood inside for approximately 5-7 hours, or until the stones are red hot.

2)      Slowly take apart the stone house using anything but your hands.  Eventually it will capsize upon itself, at which point you work to create an approximately one layer thick bottom base of red hot stones.

3)      Pour papas (potatoes) and camotes (sweet potatoes) onto the first layer. Cover the potatoes and camotes with more stones and rocks and proceed to place the paper-wrapped meat (chicken, pig, cuy, or rabbit) atop this layer.

 4)      Layer by layer, stone by stone, put on the humitas (sweet tamales), the habas (lima beans), and the choclo (corn).  Cover the towering mound with tarps, then pasto (grass), and finally dirt.  Cover it thoroughly so that no smoke can be seen escaping.

5)      Wait an hour to an hour and a half.  Run around merrily if under the age of six. 

Slowly begin to deconstruct the mountain of rock-cooked food, eating as you excavate each layer.  I highly recommend the camotes and humitas.  The pig’s not bad either.

There’s a couple other key steps involving seasoning the meat that I was not a witness to and hence cannot explain.  It’s fairly essential though, so if you do plan to use the above instructions to make your own pachamanca, I recommend not doing that and instead looking up an actual recipe.

Besos!