Fanesca

Ingredients

The twelve grains

• 200 geach of chochos, broad beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, sweetcorn, mote, butter beans, rice, lima beans, green beans and melloco

Cod

• 500 gsalt cod, soaked 24 hours
• 1.5 litresmilk

Base

• 500 gpumpkin, diced
• 500 gsambo, diced
• 2onions
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 2 tspground cumin
• 1 tspachiote
• 100 gpeanuts, ground
• 100 gbutter
• 500 mlsingle cream
• salt

To serve

• hard-boiled eggs
• fried plantain
• empanaditas
• chopped herbs
• chilli

Directions

1. Soak the salt cod for 24 hours, changing the water four or five times, then poach it gently in the milk for 10 minutes and flake it, keeping the milk.
2. Taste the cod before you commit it to the pot. Undersoaked salt cod will make the whole thing inedible and there is no correcting it afterwards.
3. Cook each grain separately until just tender, because they take wildly different times and cooked together some would be raw while others had dissolved.
4. Cooking twelve things in twelve pans is exactly why this is made once a year, by several people working at once.
5. Soften the onion, garlic, cumin and achiote in the butter, then add the pumpkin and sambo and cook until they collapse.
6. Blend the squash mixture with some of the milk and return it to a very large pot.
7. Add all the cooked grains, the ground peanuts, the reserved poaching milk and the cream, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
8. Stir often and never let it boil hard. It is thick and full of starch and it will catch on the base within seconds of being left.
9. Fold in the flaked cod at the end and heat it through without boiling.
10. Season carefully, tasting for salt only after the cod is in.
11. Serve in bowls topped with hard-boiled egg, fried plantain, small empanadas, chopped herbs and chilli, all handed round separately.
12. The twelve grains are read as the twelve apostles, and it is eaten in Holy Week and essentially never at any other time of year.

Technique

• The exact twelve vary by household and by region, and arguing about which belong is part of the tradition.
• It is enormous by design. Fanesca is cooked for an extended family and shared with neighbours.
• Sambo is the fig-leaf gourd and zapallo the pumpkin; both go in, and the two textures are different.

Substitutions

• Any twelve beans, grains and pulses you can get, cooked separately.
• Fresh cod poached in milk if salt cod is unavailable, adding salt to compensate.

Variations

• Made without cod for a vegetarian pot.
• With more milk for a thinner soup.
• The coastal version, with more peanut and less dairy.

History

A thick soup combining twelve different grains and beans, salt cod, squash and milk, prepared specifically during Holy Week leading up to Easter in Ecuador, with the twelve grains commonly explained as representing the twelve apostles, giving the dish explicit Catholic religious symbolism layered onto its practical seasonal ingredients. Salt cod in the recipe reflects Spanish colonial-era trade and Catholic fasting tradition, since dried, salted fish was a practical protein source during Lent when meat was traditionally restricted, a practice carried to Ecuador through Spanish colonization beginning in the 1500s. Fanesca is prepared only once a year, in the days immediately before Easter, making it one of the most calendar-specific dishes in Ecuadorian cooking rather than a food eaten with any regularity through the rest of the year.

Frequently asked questions

What is Fanesca?

Fanesca is a soup & stew from Ecuador: holy Week soup of twelve grains, squash and salt cod. A thick soup combining twelve different grains and beans, salt cod, squash and milk, prepared specifically during Holy Week leading up to Easter in Ecuador, with the twelve grains commonly explained as representing the twelve apostles, giving the dish explicit Catholic religious symbolism layered onto its practical seasonal ingredients. Salt cod in the recipe reflects Spanish colonial-era trade and Catholic fasting tradition, since dried, salted fish was a practical protein source during Lent when meat was traditionally restricted, a practice carried to Ecuador through Spanish colonization beginning in the 1500s. Fanesca is prepared only once a year, in the days immediately before Easter, making it one of the most calendar-specific dishes in Ecuadorian cooking rather than a food eaten with any regularity through the rest of the year.

How long does Fanesca take to make?

Fanesca takes 2 hr plus 24 hr soaking of preparation and 2 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 12 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Fanesca?

Yes, within limits. Any twelve beans, grains and pulses you can get, cooked separately. Fresh cod poached in milk if salt cod is unavailable, adding salt to compensate.

What is the most important thing to get right in Fanesca?

Taste the cod before you commit it to the pot. Undersoaked salt cod will make the whole thing inedible and there is no correcting it afterwards.