Mbeju
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It's a starch cake (starch is a food reserve polysaccharide that supplies about 70 or 80% of the calories consumed by humans around the world), although in its preparation are allowed another ingredients as the fariña (manioc flour).
It's a solid sample of the Paraguayan gastronomy, vastly rich in calories. According to some scholars of social history of Paraguay, all the Paraguayan popular gastronomy, which establishes itself as a small family industry after the War of Paraguay against The Triple Alliance (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, between 1864 and 1870), is really abundant in caloric content, because of the situation that overcame to the country after the conflict. In the aftermath of the war, food was limited, groceries were hard to find. So Paraguayan cooking has a high protein content to make up for the scarcity of every day meal.
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[edit] Origin of the name
The name "mbejú" (also written "mbeyú") comes from the language of the original inhabitants that populated most of Paraguay at pre-Columbian time and means "cake". The Guarani is today, with constitutional strength, one of the two official languages of Paraguay, which defines itself as bilingual and multi-cultural.
[edit] Ingredients
To make a traditional mbejú are needed: starch, corn flour, egg, pork fat, thin salt, fresh cheese and milk.
To make a variety named "mbejú avevo" (the Guarani phrase for "inflated cake") are used the same ingredients mentioned above but with the pork fat, the eggs and the cheese in larger quantities.
To make the "mbejú de fariña" the starch flour is replaced by manioc flour.
[edit] Preparation
The starch is amassed with an amassing stick to then be sifted and weighed. The fat and the crumbled cheese are added. The mixture is whipped until it gets creamy. Eggs, salt and milk are added as the whipping continues. Finally are added the starch and the corn flour, mixing everything using the hands until having a thick powder-like preparation.
A greased frying pan is let at the fire, to get a very high temperature. A layer of the mixture of about 1 and half centimeters is put in the pan, squeezing the borders with the back of a spoon. It is cooked for a few minutes, moving the pan so it cooks evenly without burning the center. Helped by a lid of the pan, flip the mbejú on the other side, finishing the cooking the same way mentioned above.
[edit] Interesting facts
The mbejú is bound to the Guarani mythology, making it one of the most ancient recipes of this culture.
It is part, next to the chipá and the sopa paraguaya of the so-called "tyra", a Guarani term that names every food consumed to accompany the "mate cocido", milk or coffee, or just prepared to be an addition to other dishes.
It used to exist about 16 ways to prepare it. Nowadays, 11 are identified.
[edit] References
- “Tembi’u Paraguay” JOSEFINA VELILLA DE AQUINO
- “Karú rekó – Antropología culinaria paraguaya”, MARGARITA MIRÓ IBARS
