Soups and stews of different kinds are found all over Colombia, specially in the mountains of Cundinamarca and Boyaca departments — a department is our equivalent to a state — because of the high altitude and predominantly cold weather. I attribute my health and strength as a child to my mom’s hearty soups and stews.
The first stew I asked my mom to make for me was a “cocido” — cocido literally translates cooked. A cocido is a lunch alternative not to take lightly: even if you have a tiny bit of each one of the components, these are so many that you will end up with a very generous portion.
My mom’s meat choice for her cocido is a beef cut called “muchacho” — disturbingly, muchacho translates young boy, fortunately it is obtained from a cow’s thigh— but other versions might cater pork, lamb, or a combination of one of these with bacon or “chorizo” — sausage.
Cocido’s rich, wonderful flavor is obtained by simmering the meat with a tomato and onion “guiso” and the rest of ingredients for a long time — anywhere from one and a half to three hours. Some of these ingredients are tubers almost exclusively found in this region: cubios, ibias, and chuguas — don’t ask, I have a hard time even trying to differentiate one from another… I can tell you that they’re not starchy and taste really good. The rest are more mainstream: corn on the cob, potatoes, green peas in their pods and gigante or broad beans. The stew is accompanied with white rice.
Love it, love it, love it! Even though I can’t possibly fit any more food in my body for the rest of the day when I have this for lunch..
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