Ica carapulcra with papa seca and pork

Toast the dried potato.Toast all 440 g papa seca in a wide dry pan over low heat for 6 minutes, moving it often. Transfer to a bowl rather than letting it scorch. The pieces smell gently toasted and show no dark burned patches.

Soak the papa seca.Cover the toasted papa seca with exactly 1200 ml water and soak, covered in the refrigerator, for 8 hours. The pieces are swollen, moist through their surfaces and less brittle when squeezed. Keep the soaking potato at 4 °C or below.

Rinse and cut the ingredients.Pour off the soaking water, rinse the swollen potato with the reserved 500 ml water and drain it well. Dice the onion, mince garlic, cut pork into 3 cm cubes and grind the toasted peanuts. No gritty dust remains on the potato, and the pork pieces are of similar thickness.

Brown the pork.Heat 26 ml oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown 690 g pork for 9 minutes, turning the pieces, then lift them into a clean bowl. The surfaces develop brown patches and release from the pot without tearing. Browning colours the surface but does not prove the centre is safely cooked.

Soften the aromatics.Reduce the heat to medium and stir the 180 g onion and 20 g garlic into the pot for 9 minutes, scraping up the browned deposits. The onion is softened and the sharp raw garlic smell has eased.

Cook the ají paste.Stir in 72 g ají panca, 35 g ají mirasol, 3 g achiote and 2 g cumin. Cook gently for 8 minutes, stirring so the paste never catches. The seasoned paste becomes glossy and aromatic, with no raw chilli smell.

Simmer the stew.Return the browned pork, add the drained papa seca, 1050 ml water and 10 g salt. Bring to a simmer in about 7 minutes, cover loosely and cook over low heat for 75 minutes; stir along the base every 10 minutes. The potato pieces yield to a fork, pork breaks apart under gentle pressure, and the sauce has thickened rather than dried out. Check a thick pork cube with a clean probe; use at least 74 °C as a conservative in-pot target.

Finish with roasted peanuts.Mix in 80 g ground roasted peanuts and simmer for another 10 minutes. Confirm a thick pork cube has reached at least 74 °C; switch off the heat when the sauce coats a spoon. The sauce clings to the back of the spoon and a thick pork cube measures at least 74 °C. Peanuts are an allergen. Do not use colour alone to judge pork safety.