Curanto

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Curanto is a traditional food of Chiloé (an island off the Chilean coast) that has spread to the southern areas of Chile and Argentina. It is traditionally prepared in a hole, about a meter and a half (approx. one and a half yards) deep, which is dug in the earth. The bottom is covered with stones, heated in a bonfire until red.

Curanto served in Valdivia, Chile

[edit] Preparation

The ingredients consist of shellfish, specific types of fish, meat, potatoes, potato bread, chapaleles, and vegetables. The quantities are not fixed; the idea is that there should be a little of everything. Each layer of ingredients is covered with gunnera (Chilean rhubarb) leaves, or in their absence, with fig leaves or white cabbage leaves. All this is covered with champas and wet sacks, creating the effect of a giant pressure cooker in which the food cooks for approximately an hour.

One can also prepare curanto in a large stew pot that is heated over a bonfire or grill or in a pressure cooker. This stewed curanto is called pulmay in the central region of Chile.

[edit] History

It is believed that this form of preparing foods was native to the "chono" countryside and that, with the arrival of the southern peoples and the Spanish conquistadors, new ingredients were added until it came to be the curanto that is known today. However, there are some who claim that the curanto is more evidence to suggest the theory that asserts that there was contact between America and Polynesia in the pre-Columbian epoch, given that almost all Polynesian cultures have similar cooking methods known variously as "imu", "umu", "lovo", or "hangi".