The Humble Potato Is Exalted in the Mountains of Peru

CHAHUAYTIRE, Peru — Gumercinda Quispe is a descendant of Peruvian Incas and here, high in the Andes, more than 12,500 feet above sea level, she has prepared a nourishing, spicy potato soup, quacha chuño.

She has made it with both fresh potatoes and chuño, the dried, hard white potatoes that are still prepared just a stone’s throw away. The ancient preservation process includes soaking them in an icy stream, stomping them by foot to remove the skins and drying them in the sun.

I love potatoes. They are not a staple in my native India, as they are in Peru. In India, they are a beloved, cheap treat. Cooked in thousands of different ways, almost always creatively burnished with selective spoonfuls from a treasure chest of seasonings and spices, potatoes are served in every town and village at mealtimes and as chutney-augmented street snacks. I wanted to learn more about potatoes here in the land of their birth.

In the little mountain village of Chahuaytire near the town of Pisac in southern Peru, Quispe and I sat down at a table close to the warm, sooty hearth in the rustic restaurant where she works. The sun was shining bright outside, and the sky was a clear, cold blue.

“Put some sauce in the soup and drink from the bowl,” she said, motioning to the verdant uchucuta sauce she had prepared. “Uchu” means “chilies” in the Quechua language of the Incas, and “cuta” means “ground.”

The sauce, a mouth-smackingly good fresh chutney to this Indian, is not just hot from one of the dozens of chilies native to Peru but sour from limes that came with the Spaniards, and deeply aromatic from huacatay and other wild herbs that grow in the mountains.

There was a time when Incas used only wild Peruvian herbs, but today, after centuries of Spanish influence, they go to the market and buy an asnapa, a bouquet of herbs that could include the New World huacatay but also gifts from the Old World like cilantro, mint, oregano, parsley and tarragon.

Potatoes come in every texture and color. You can see them in the markets: reds, blues, purples, yellows and pinks, sometimes ringed with two colors when sliced open. The texture of some varieties can be changed by putting them out in the sun for a few days before cooking them. This turns them softer and silkier.

Some are shaped like a puma’s paw; others, an alpaca’s nose or a cat’s claw. Native to the Andes in Peru and northwest Bolivia, potatoes were domesticated more than 10,000 years ago. And yet new varieties are being discovered all the time.

Potato banks — like the one in the Pisac region of the Andes that stores seeds in a climate-controlled vault for 1,300 varieties of potatoes — are always searching for new varieties, as are dozens of creative Peruvian chefs on the lookout for wild and unusual indigenous ingredients.

Freeze-drying the potato for chuño was just one method used to increase its life after harvest. Running or walking was the chief mode of transportation for most ancient Andean peoples (certainly the Incas); they could easily carry dried potatoes with them and make a quick stew with local herbs, chilies and water from a mountain stream whenever hunger called.

Dried potatoes in Peru come in many forms. They can look like pebbles — hard and smooth, in white or purple. They can look like large gravel, with different colors. But they can also be soft, tasting and smelling as funky as fermented bean curd or ripe cheese. Each has a different flavor and texture.

The Inca guide who traveled with me through the Andes still hikes carrying dried potatoes (sometimes in a powdered form) and llama jerky, essential ingredients for a soup he considers a part of his cultural inheritance.

Potatoes were given superb treatment wherever I traveled. At the Sumaq Hotel in the town of Aguas Calientes, there was pastel de papa, a meltingly soft potato cake with layers of thin-sliced potato, bacon and cheese.

Papa a la Huancaina, which originated in the town of Huancayo in the central highlands and is considered by many to be Peru’s national dish, was everywhere, including the cafeteria at Machu Picchu. Boiled, sliced potatoes and boiled, sliced eggs were placed on top of lettuce leaves with some olives strewn about, and dressed with a Huancaina sauce that brought the dish together. Its main ingredient was the long, aromatic orange chili, aji amarillo.

Perhaps my favorite dish of all was causa. Like lasagnas, causas are layered terrinelike dishes, generally served cold, although room temperature can also work for some of them.

Instead of pasta, potatoes — mashed and seasoned with an aji amarillo paste, lime juice, olive oil and salt — are the most important element in a causa. They can provide one, two or even three of the layers in the dish. The other in-between layers could include seafood salad, vegetable salad, chicken salad or, as in the Amazon region, pork-and-onion salad made with the addition of the fiery, round charapita chili.

Whichever way it is served, causa is always soothing — and refreshingly delicious. For the hotter regions of Peru, it is just as cooling and satisfying as that warming soup is in the Andean mountains.

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RECIPE:

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients:

4 white chuños (dried potatoes), each about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large (6 to 7 ounces) onion, peeled and chopped

6 to 7 large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped fine

1 large stick of celery, diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

1 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped very fine

8 1/2 to 10 cups water or unsalted chicken stock (if using salted stock, adjust salt in Step 2)

1 3/4 pounds russet potatoes (2 to 4 potatoes, depending on size), peeled and cut roughly into 1-inch dice

1/2 pound peeled pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into 1-inch dice

2 1/4 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves

3 tablespoons chopped basil leaves

1/4 pound feta cheese, cut into 1/3-inch cubes

3 ounces spinach leaves, stems trimmed away and each leaf halved or quartered

Uchucuta sauce, for serving (see recipe)

Preparation:

1. The evening before you cook the soup, wash the chuños and soak them in a large bowl of warm water, enough to cover it by several inches. Leave for 12 hours. Drain the chuños the next day, wash them off again and cut each potato into 8 to 10 parts. In a large pot, combine the chuño pieces with enough cold water to cover by several inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until the chuños are puffed up and softer, about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Put the oil in a large pot (at least 6 quarts) and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onion and garlic. Stir and cook for 3 minutes. Add the celery and carrot. Stir and cook 3 minutes. Add the ginger and stir a few times. Put in the drained chuños, 8 1/2 cups water or stock, the russet potatoes, pumpkin or squash, salt, herbs and feta. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat to low and cook gently for 30 to 40 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

3. Add the spinach, stir and cook, covered, on low heat for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender but have not turned to mush. Check the salt. Thin the soup out with water or stock if it is too thick. It should be drinkable from the bowl.

4. Put 2 teaspoons of uchucuta sauce into each bowl of hot soup and stir it in. Add more if desired.

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Yield: About 1 1/2 cups

Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 loosely packed cup flat-leaf parsley leaves

2 loosely packed cups cilantro leaves

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh oregano leaves

1 loosely packed cup fresh mint leaves

2 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves

2 tablespoons lime juice plus a little more, if needed

2 to 3 fresh, hot green chilies, chopped (see note)

1/4 cup chopped feta cheese

2 tablespoons peanut butter, preferably organic and freshly made

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Preparation:

1. Wash the parsley, cilantro, oregano, mint and tarragon in deep water. Lift out of the water but leave some clinging to the leaves. Put in a blender with the lime juice, 4 tablespoons water, the chilies and the feta. Blend, pushing down with a rubber spatula as needed.

2. When you have a smooth blend, add the peanut butter and salt. Blend again to mix thoroughly. Check the balance of salt, heat and sourness. Add more herbs, chilies or lime juice if needed.

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Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 30 minutes, plus 1 hour for baking potatoes

Ingredients:

For the potatoes:

1 1/2 pounds Idaho potatoes (2 to 3 large potatoes)

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

2 tablespoons aji amarillo paste (see note)

4 teaspoons lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon seeded and very finely diced fresh hot red chili

1 tablespoon very finely chopped cilantro leaves

For the shrimp salad:

24 medium shrimp (about 3/4 pound), peeled and deveined

1 clove garlic, minced and mashed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

A pinch of cayenne

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons finely diced inner celery stalks

1 teaspoon lime juice

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

For the avocado salad:

1 avocado, ripe but not mushy

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

For final assembly:

A small pat of unsalted butter for greasing ring molds or cans

Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Preparation:

1. Make the potatoes: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and prick the potatoes with a fork. Bake directly on the oven rack for 1 hour.

2. Peel potatoes while still warm (hold with a fork, if necessary) and put the potatoes through a ricer 3 times.

3. Put the mashed potatoes on a board and treat them like dough. Add the salt and knead it in. Add the amarillo paste and knead it in. Do the same with the lime juice and then the oil, incorporating them in slowly. Add the red chili and cilantro to give flecks of red and green. Knead some more and roll into a smooth cylinder, about 5 inches long and about 3 inches or less in diameter, depending on your mold. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. This can be done several hours or even a day ahead of time.

4. Make the shrimp salad: Pat the shrimp dry. Cut each shrimp in half, crosswise, and put in a bowl. Add the garlic, salt, cumin and cayenne. Mix well.

5. Put oil in a medium frying pan and set on medium-high heat. When hot, add the shrimp. Stir and fry until they just turn opaque, about 3 minutes. Remove them to a clean bowl. Add the celery, lime juice, mayonnaise and cilantro. Mix well, taste for balance of flavors, and set aside.

6. Make the avocado salad: Peel the avocado, remove the pit and cut it into 1/2-inch dice. Put in a bowl. Add the lime juice and mix well. Add the salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix well and set aside.

7. Assemble the dish: Grease 4 ring molds or clean soup cans with butter. Cut the cylinder of refrigerated mashed potatoes, crosswise, into 4 parts (about 1 1/4-inch thick each) and make them about the same diameter as your mold. Make sure the edges are clean with no cracks. Drop a patty down each mold and tamp it down gently with the bottom of a glass.

8. Divide the avocado salad into 4 parts and drop a part down on the top of the mashed potato in each mold, spreading it out evenly. Press down lightly with the glass again. Divide the shrimp salad into 4 parts and drop one part each neatly over the avocados, again, spreading it out evenly. Press down lightly. Lift off the mold or can, garnish with the cilantro sprigs and serve.