Fricasé

Fricasé is a pork stew from La Paz, Bolivia, simmered in a spicy red chilli sauce and usually served with dried potato and hominy.

Locally it is called fricasé paceño, because paceño means someone or something from La Paz, the Andean city where the stew is most closely associated. It is a filling dish built on an everyday cut of meat, with the sauce doing most of the work.

What it really is

Pork is cut into pieces and simmered until tender in a sauce built from red chilli, onion, garlic and cumin. The chilli gives the stew its colour and heat, while the cumin, onion and garlic add depth. Potato cooks in the pot with the meat and softens into the sauce. Cuts with some fat and connective tissue, such as shoulder, suit a long simmer because they turn soft and moist rather than dry.

The traditional companions are chuño, a dried potato of the Andes, and mote, boiled hominy-style corn. Both are served alongside the stew.

How it's served

• Hot, in a deep bowl, with the pork and sauce together.
• With chuño (dried potato) and mote (boiled hominy-style corn) on the side.
• At the heat the kitchen chooses, since the red chilli sauce ranges from mild to hot.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the meat: pork, and the cut if you know it, such as shoulder or leg.
• State the heat: say whether the red chilli sauce is mild, medium or hot.
• List the sides as separate items: mote and chuño, so the plate and the price are clear.
• Mark it as pork, so it is never sold as vegetarian.
• The classic recipe has no major allergen, but ask whether the sauce is thickened with flour or bread, which would add wheat.