🇵🇪 Peru · Peruvian Andes (Ayacucho, Cusco, Puno)
PatascaAndean hominy and tripe soup
A thick Peruvian highland soup of mote (hulled maize or hominy) cooked slowly with beef tripe (mondongo), pork feet or other meat, seasoned with mint and finished with a dressing of onion, garlic and chile.
Origin and history
Patasca is a hearty soup of mote and tripe, associated with the Andean highlands of Peru, where winters are cold and where it is popular in Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno. Peru.info says it is often served as a hearty breakfast at fairs and festivities. Its name likely comes from the Quechua phatasqa, meaning cracked or split, like the mote that bursts as it cooks. Comida Peruana calls it an emblematic dish made since ancient times, a claim that is not dated.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 3 h
- Hands-on
- 45 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb (about 2 1/2 cups) peeled white mote (hulled hominy), soaked in cold water overnight, drained
- 250 g9 oz beef tripe (mondongo), washed well, cut in 1 cm (1/2 in) cubes
- 250 g9 oz beef brisket or chest, cut in cubes
- 250 g9 oz pork chops or pork shoulder, cut in cubes
- 250 g9 oz lamb loin or shoulder, cut in cubes
- 1 cow's foot (pata de res), cut in pieces by the butcher; the Kosmos Peru recipe says 1 cow leg
- 3 liters3 quarts water
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp ají panca paste (or ají amarillo paste)
- 4 large potatoes, peeled, in large chunks
- 2 tsp each fresh oregano and mint (hierbabuena), chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped scallion (cebolla china), to finish
- salt, black pepper, lime and rocoto or ají sauce, to taste / to serve
Method
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1. Boil the soaked, drained mote in plenty of fresh water for about 1 h 30 min, until the kernels split open; set aside with its water.
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2. Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat and brown the tripe, brisket, cow's foot and pork in batches; remove them to a plate.
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3. In the same pot cook the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, add the ají paste and cook 5 minutes more, stirring.
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4. Return the cow's foot, tripe and brisket, add salt, pepper and the 3 liters of water, and simmer for 1 hour.
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5. Add the lamb and the remaining pork and cook 30 minutes more, then taste for salt.
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6. Add the cooked mote and the potatoes and simmer about 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the broth is thick.
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7. Stir in the mint and the rest of the oregano, ladle into deep bowls and top with scallion, with lime and ají sauce at the table.
Notes
- Quantities follow the Kosmos Peru recipe (about 4 servings; 500 g mote, 250 g each of tripe, lamb, beef chest and pork, 3 liters of water), which adds a lot of meat; Comida Peruana's version uses 1 cup of hominy, 150 g of each meat, ground ají panca, mint and a topping of blended jalapeño, and simmers it only about 45 minutes.
- Mote is sold peeled in Latin markets; canned white hominy is a shortcut (add it with the potatoes, not at the start), though the texture is less burst-open.
- The tripe, cow's foot and the long simmer give the broth its body; Kosmos Peru says some cooks add a ram's head, a variation, and recommends the classic ingredients for the authentic version.
- Also called sopa de mondongo, because of the tripe (Kosmos Peru). Peru.info says the soup is also called mote soup and is often a hearty breakfast at fairs and festivities, popular in Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno.
Adapted from Kosmos Peru, Recipe: Sopa de Patasca and Comida Peruana, Peruvian Patasca.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.