Carapulcra: Peruvian Pork Stew Recipe With Peanuts & Potatoes - Eat Peru (2024)

It’s no wonder this quintessential Peruvian pork stew has become so popular in the last few decades. The tasty stew made with traditional dried potato, diced pork and ground peanuts is as delicious as it is filling and versatile. And it’s an easy recipe anyone can follow. What’s the story behind carapulcra? There’s a fascinating tale to tell your dinner guests as you serve up steaming plates of this classic Peruvian stew. Let’s retrace the route this dish took from its roots to its current status and then prepare the carapulcra recipe ourselves! Then we’ll get to the juicy recipe.

Origins

Often recognized the Peruvian dish with the most interesting background story, Carapulcra is the result of a blend of preparation methods and ingredients from different places and peoples. The name itself gives us a hint of its indigenous origins. Qala phurk’a means “stew made with hot stones” in both the Aymara and Quechua indigenous languages from the Andean highlands. The preparation is attributed to the Aimara people. It’s though that the original pre-Columbian recipe was stew made with llama or alpaca meat, diced pieces of dried potato and some local herbs and spices for seasoning. All ingredients ended up in a clay cooking pot on top of special pre-heated cooking stones.

The potato is the undisputed staple food in Peru, appearing again and again in different variations.

However, the potato in carapulcra is no ordinary tuber. Dried potato, or as it’s known in Spanish: papa seca, is produced by an ancient process used by indigenous people from the Andes for hundreds of years. Local people dice boiled potato and lay it out in the harsh Andean sun to dry. This serves as a preservation method, greatly increasing the longevity of potatoes. It’s clear how important this process might be in a rural setting like the Andes where refrigerators are unheard of. Papa seca is still popular in this and several other Peruvian dishes because of its pleasant flavor and texture. Quite different from freshly cooked potatoes.

Carapulcra continues to evolve

Carapulcra is a prime example of a Peruvian dish where traditions from different latitudes converge. The dish evolved from its indigenous origins when Spanish conquistadors and African slaves influenced the ingredients and preparation methods. Alpaca and llama meat made way for pork or chicken (sometimes both), meats brought to Peru by the Spanish. African slaves added the now indispensable ingredient of ground peanuts. Other essential ingredients that made their way into the dish are garlic, cumin and dried ají panca chilli pepper, the mildest of the arsenal of Peruvian pepper that plays an important part with its characteristically smoky, warm flavor.

The cities of Ica and Chincha, where many slave workers toiled on cotton plantations, are hubs of the small but important African diaspora in Peru. Carapulcra is largely recognized as the most emblematic dish of the city of Chincha. When ordering carapulcra in Chincha, the pork stew will invariably be accompanied by sopa seca, a spaghetti dish from the region that is cooked dry in its own seasoning. In 2017, a group of Chinchanos supersized by cooked up the biggest carapulcra stew ever. 650 kilos of potatoes fed 3500 people.

Carapulcra was looked down upon by certain higher classes for decades but is now a dish loved by people from across the entire socioeconomic spectrum of Peruvian society. So much so, that the popular Mistura gastronomy fair designated the 10^th of February as the National Carapulcra Day. The motive was the celebration of the fusion of Andean, African and Spanish influences in Peruvian cuisine.

Of course, any day is a good day to make carapulcra. So let’s move on to the carapulcra recipe!