Locro Criollo Argentino

Ingredients

• 500g dried white hominy corn (maiz blanco pisado)
• 250g dried white beans
• 400g pork belly, skin on, cut into chunks
• 300g smoked pancetta or streaky bacon, in one piece
• 400g beef shin or brisket, cubed
• 2 chorizo colorado sausages
• 1 pig's trotter, split, or 2 pork ribs
• 800g squash such as butternut or crown prince
• 2 large onions
• 1 leek
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 litres water or light stock
• Sea salt and black pepper
• For the quiquirimichi: 100ml vegetable oil or rendered pork fat
• 6 spring onions
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp hot paprika or chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ground cumin

Before you cook

• Put the hominy and the beans in separate large bowls, cover them generously with cold water and leave them to soak overnight
• Peel and dice the onions and slice the leek into rounds
• Peel the squash, discard the seeds and cut half of it into 3cm chunks and the other half into small dice
• Cut the pancetta into thick lardons
• Slice the chorizo into thick rounds

Steps

1. Drain the soaked hominy and beans and rinse them both under cold water.
2. Put the hominy, beans, pork belly, pancetta, beef, trotter and bay leaves in your largest heavy pot.
3. Pour over the 3 litres of water and bring it slowly to the boil.
4. Skim off the grey foam that rises in the first 10 minutes and discard it.
5. Turn the heat down to the barest simmer and cook, partly covered, for 2 hours.
6. Stir the pot every 20 minutes with a long wooden spoon, scraping the bottom, because locro sticks and scorches the moment you neglect it.
7. Check that the hominy grains have split open and gone tender, and give them another 30 minutes if they have not.
8. Fry the chorizo rounds in a dry pan until their fat runs and the edges crisp, then add them and their fat to the pot.
9. Add the onion, leek, paprika and cumin to the pot and stir them in.
10. Add the small-diced squash and simmer for 40 minutes, letting it dissolve entirely and thicken the stew.
11. Add the chunked squash and simmer for a further 25 minutes, so these pieces stay whole.
12. Fish out the trotter and the pork belly, pull the meat from any bones and skin, then return the meat to the pot.
13. Season the locro with salt and pepper, tasting carefully because the pancetta and chorizo have already salted it.
14. Check the texture, which should be thick enough that a spoon stands up in it for a second before falling.
15. Simmer uncovered for another 15 minutes if it is still soupy.
16. Heat the oil for the quiquirimichi in a small pan until warm but well below smoking.
17. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the sliced spring onions, both paprikas and the cumin, and let them sizzle in the residual heat until the oil turns deep red.
18. Ladle the locro into deep bowls.
19. Spoon a slick of the red quiquirimichi over each bowl and serve with plenty of bread.