Yaguarlocro

Ingredients

The offal

• 800 glamb or sheep offal
• tripe, heart, liver and lung
• or what your butcher can supply
• cleaned thoroughly
• see the safety notes

For cleaning the offal

• coarse salt
• white vinegar or lime juice
• plenty of cold running water

The blood

• 300 mlfresh lamb blood
• from a butcher, ordered ahead
• see the safety notes
• or 250 g frozen blood, thawed
• 1onion, finely chopped
• salt and cumin, to season
• oil, to fry

The soup

• 1.2 kgfloury potatoes
• peeled and cut into chunks
• 2onions, finely chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoonground cumin
• 1 teaspoonachiote paste
• or 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 litreswater or stock
• 250 mlmilk
• or 200 ml cream
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• 1avocado, sliced
• 1onion, sliced and pickled in lime
• chopped coriander
• ají criollo, chilli sauce
• lime wedges

Directions

1. Rinse it repeatedly under running water. Rub it hard all over with coarse salt. Rinse and repeat the salting three times. Soak it in water with vinegar or lime. Soak it for at least a full hour. The cleaned offal should smell neutral.
2. Work in a sink you can disinfect. Use a separate board and separate knives. Keep it away from all other food. It must be kept cold from collection. Check what applies where you are. Never take blood from an uninspected animal. Use it immediately once thawed. Never refreeze blood once it has thawed. Strain it before use through a sieve.
3. Wash equipment in cold water first. Hot water sets blood protein onto surfaces. Cut the cleaned offal into small pieces. Tripe takes the longest by far. Boil the tripe first on its own. Put it in a pot with cold water.
4. Add a little vinegar and some salt. Bring it to a boil and skim the foam. Drain it and discard that first water. Rinse both the tripe and the pot. Cover it with fresh water again. Simmer it for about ninety minutes. It should become completely tender. Drain it and keep the cooking broth. Those need about forty-five minutes.
5. Simmer them until tender as well. Liver needs only brief cooking. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft. That softening takes about ten minutes. Add the crushed garlic and the cumin. Add the achiote paste for colour. Cook the mixture for two minutes. Use floury potatoes rather than waxy ones. Waxy potatoes stay in firm cubes.
6. Add some potato whole and some grated. Add the water or the reserved broth. Bring the whole pot up to a simmer. Simmer until the potatoes are soft. That takes about twenty-five minutes. Mash some of them against the pot side. Add the tripe, heart and lung.
7. Simmer them together for fifteen minutes. Add the liver in the last five minutes. Add it near the end, over a low heat. Do not boil it hard after adding dairy. Stir the dairy through very gently. Season with salt and black pepper. Taste it carefully at this stage. Offal soups need generous seasoning.
8. Heat a little oil in a frying pan. Add the very finely chopped onion. Cook it until soft and golden. Season it with salt and cumin. Stir it constantly as it cooks. Keep breaking it up as it sets. Use a wooden spoon to crumble it.
9. Cook it until it is dark and crumbly. It should look like coarse dark crumbs. Cook it right through completely. There must be no wet or liquid part left. Taste it and adjust the salt now. It should be strongly seasoned. Ladle the soup into deep bowls. Make sure each bowl gets offal and potato.
10. Spoon the fried blood over the top. Do not stir it into the soup at all. Lay slices of avocado on top of that. Add pickled onion on top as well. Scatter chopped coriander over. Serve ají criollo on the side. Serve lime wedges on the side as well. Leftovers keep two days refrigerated. Freeze it without the dairy if you can. Add milk when reheating instead.

Technique

• This dish uses offal and fresh blood, both of which spoil fast and need real care. Buy commercially cleaned offal where you can — tripe holds digestive contents and carries bacteria including E. coli, and cleaning and thorough cooking are both required. If cleaning it yourself, rinse, salt-rub and rinse three times, then soak in water with vinegar; it should smell of nothing. Use a separate board and knives and disinfect everything afterwards, since cross-contamination is the real hazard.
• Fresh blood must come from a licensed butcher, ordered ahead, kept cold and used within a day. In some countries its sale is restricted — check what applies where you are. Never take blood from an uninspected animal, thaw frozen blood only in the fridge, use it immediately and never refreeze it.
• Wash blood-covered equipment in cold water first. Hot water sets the protein hard onto surfaces.
• Cook the offal in stages. Tripe needs about ninety minutes and must have no rubbery resistance left; heart and lung need forty-five; liver needs five minutes at the very end, since overcooked liver turns grainy and bitter.
• Use floury potatoes and add some grated. The grated potato dissolves and thickens the soup, which is the point of a locro; waxy potatoes stay in firm cubes and leave it thin and watery.
• The blood is fried separately and crumbled on top, never stirred into the soup. It must be cooked right through with no wet part left, and it should be strongly seasoned, since it sits on a mild soup.
• Do not boil the soup hard after the milk goes in. Dairy splits and curdles.
• The avocado is essential rather than a garnish. Its coolness and texture are what balance the rich soup and the crumbly blood, and with the lime-pickled onion that contrast is the whole presentation.
• The dish uses the whole animal because that reflected real economics — the valuable cuts might be sold and the offal and blood stayed at home. That pattern appears worldwide.
• Yawar is Kichwa for blood and locro is a thick Andean soup found across Ecuador, Peru and Argentina in different forms.

Substitutions

• Commercially cleaned tripe replaces home-cleaned offal and is considerably safer.
• Whatever offal your butcher can supply works; tripe, heart, liver and lung are the traditional mix.
• Frozen blood replaces fresh and is easier to obtain.
• Paprika with a pinch of turmeric replaces achiote paste for colour.
• Cream replaces milk for a richer soup; add it off the heat.
• A version without blood is made and is simply a lamb offal locro, which is a different but legitimate dish.

Variations

• Locro de papa, the plain Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup, is the mild relative eaten far more widely.
• Caldo de patas, a soup of cow’s foot with hominy, is another Ecuadorian offal dish.
• Some cooks stir a little of the blood into the soup as well as topping it, giving a darker broth.
• A version with more milk and cheese is richer and paler.
• Argentine and Peruvian locros are quite different dishes under the same word, based on maize and squash.
• Some restaurants serve the blood on the side so diners can add their own.

History

Yawar is Kichwa for blood; the Andean soup uses the whole sheep, with the blood fried separately and crumbled on top.

Frequently asked questions

What is Yaguarlocro?

Yaguarlocro is a soup & stew from Ecuador: potato soup with lamb offal, topped with fried blood and avocado. Yawar is Kichwa for blood; the Andean soup uses the whole sheep, with the blood fried separately and crumbled on top.

How long does Yaguarlocro take to make?

Yaguarlocro takes 1 hour plus soaking of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Yaguarlocro?

Yes, within limits. Commercially cleaned tripe replaces home-cleaned offal and is considerably safer. Whatever offal your butcher can supply works; tripe, heart, liver and lung are the traditional mix. Frozen blood replaces fresh and is easier to obtain. Paprika with a pinch of turmeric replaces achiote paste for colour. Cream replaces milk for a richer soup; add it off the heat. A version without blood is made and is simply a lamb offal locro, which is a different but legitimate dish.

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

Work in a sink you can disinfect. Use a separate board and separate knives. Keep it away from all other food. It must be kept cold from collection. Check what applies where you are. Never take blood from an uninspected animal. Use it immediately once thawed. Never refreeze blood once it has thawed. Strain it before use through a sieve.