Guatita

Ingredients

Tripe

• 1 kghoneycomb beef tripe
• 2limes
• 1 tbspcoarse salt
• 1bay leaf

Sauce

• 200 graw peanuts, or 200 g smooth peanut butter
• 250 mlmilk
• 2 tbspachiote oil
• 1onion, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, chopped
• 1tomato, chopped
• 1 tspground cumin
• 4potatoes, diced
• salt
• black pepper

To finish

• 1 bunchcoriander and parsley, chopped

To serve

• rice
• avocado
• aji criollo

Directions

1. Clean the tripe hard. Rub it with lime and coarse salt, rinse it, and repeat two or three times until it no longer smells of anything much.
2. This is the step that decides the dish. Under-cleaned tripe has a barnyard smell that no amount of peanut sauce will cover.
3. Boil it in fresh water with a bay leaf for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, until tender enough to cut with the side of a spoon, and keep some of that liquid.
4. Cool it, then cut it into strips about 2 cm wide.
5. Cut it after boiling rather than before. Raw tripe is slippery, hard to cut evenly, and it shrinks a great deal in the pot.
6. If you are using raw peanuts, toast them, rub off the skins, and blend them to a smooth paste with the milk.
7. Make a refrito: fry the onion, garlic and tomato in the achiote oil with the cumin until soft and darkened.
8. Add the peanut paste and cook it for 5 minutes, stirring, before any liquid goes near it.
9. Cook the peanut out first. Added straight into liquid it tastes raw and chalky, and those few minutes in the fat are what turn it into a sauce.
10. Add the diced potatoes and enough of the tripe liquid to cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
11. Add the tripe and simmer for another 15 minutes, until the potatoes have begun to break down.
12. Let some of the potato collapse. That is what gives guatita its body, and the sauce should coat the tripe rather than run off it.
13. Stir in the chopped herbs, check the salt, and serve over rice with avocado and aji criollo.
14. It is a coastal Ecuadorian favourite, sold at lunch counters as the main course of an almuerzo with soup before it.

Technique

• Honeycomb tripe rather than the flat kind, which never gets as tender.
• Blanched supermarket tripe cuts the boiling time considerably and is what most people buy now.
• The sauce should be pale gold from the achiote and peanut, not red.

Substitutions

• Smooth unsweetened peanut butter, which is what most home cooks use.
• Beef cheek or shin, cooked the same way, for a version without offal.

Variations

• With a hard-boiled egg on top.
• Thinned out and served as a soup.
• Cau cau, the Peruvian relative, which uses mint and turmeric instead of peanut.

History

Tripe stewed in a peanut sauce with potato, a coastal Ecuadorian favourite eaten with rice and avocado.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guatita?

Guatita is a main from Ecuador: tripe stewed in peanut-potato sauce, served with rice. Tripe stewed in a peanut sauce with potato, a coastal Ecuadorian favourite eaten with rice and avocado.

How long does Guatita take to make?

Guatita takes 30 min of preparation and 2 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Guatita?

Yes, within limits. Smooth unsweetened peanut butter, which is what most home cooks use. Beef cheek or shin, cooked the same way, for a version without offal.

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

Cut it after boiling rather than before. Raw tripe is slippery, hard to cut evenly, and it shrinks a great deal in the pot.