Laylita’s recipes

Fanesca is a very traditional soup from Ecuador and is a special soup or stew because it is only prepared once a year during Easter. Fanesca contains a variety of different grains, some of which are found only in the Andean highlands of South America, and in general it is made with fresh grains, of course it is very hard to find fresh grains in the US and Europe, so they can be replaced with either frozen grains in the case of the fava beans, green peas and lima beans or dry grains in the case of the cannellini beans. Ecuador has an amazing variety of porotos or beans and unlike other places you can get these beans fresh, most of the time in the pods and then you peel them and cook them, the taste of cooked fresh beans is unbeatable.

Fanesca can be made with a lot of different types of beans, habas or fava beans are used pretty consistently for this dish, I used a combination of lima beans and alubias or cannellini beans, but the other choices are limitless, some people prefer to use red beans or a combination of red and white beans, some people add all the grains they can find, I have seen this prepared with lentils, garbanzos, split peas, mote or hominy, among others, so it really varies from one home to another. Sometimes mellocos, which are small and very starchy Andean potatoes, are also added; another key ingredient are chochos, also known as tremoco or lupini beans, these used to be very hard to find but now you can find them either in jars in brine or dried, they have a thick skin and need to be peeled (similar to fava beans, but the skin is a lot tougher). All the grains are cooked separately, except for the chochos or lupini beans, which are added during the last 5 minutes, the rice should be cooked in a lot of water, so that it comes out very tender, it needs to be soft and moist enough to make a puree by mashing it.

Chochos with the skin on

Peeled chochos

A key ingredient to fanesca is the bacalao seco or dried salt cod, it needs to be soaked for 24 hours and doing this properly is very important as you don’t want the salt cod flavor to overwhelm and make the soup bitter. The cod is cooked in milk and then based on how much taste of it you want “infused” in the soup, you can either add the milk and the cod to the soup or you can drain the cod and add only the milk, you then fry the fish and serve on the side or on top of the soup, my personal preference is to have the most subtle taste of salt cod in the soup, so I fry it separately; if you are trying this soup for the first time or are serving this to fanesca virgins then you might want to do this as well. Of course I know some super hard core fanesca fans that not only add the cod, but also add save some of the water it was soaked in and add that to the soup.

This soup can be quite complex to make as it involves several different steps, the good thing is that quite a lot of the preparation can be made in advance as most of the ingredients are cooked separately and added together (and you only make it once a year). The very traditional fanesca is only made with milk, no water should be added, but for a lighter version you can also reserve the broth where the vegetables where cooked and add that in place of some of the milk. Also the soup should be very thick but if you feel it is too thick you can adjust by adding more milk (or broth).

And of course, side dishes are very important and this soup must be served with slices of hardboiled eggs, fried ripe plantains, slices of queso fresco, slices of hot peppers or a good Ecuadorian hot sauce, white onions marinated in lime juice, and empanadas de viento or fried empanadas. These last empanadas are sometimes replaced by masitas or just the empanada dough shaped into small balls and fried. Fanesca is usually followed a dish of Ecuadorian mashed potatoes called molo. Finally, the proportions I have below are for enough soup to feed at least 25 people.

Ingredients:

2 lbs bacalao seco or dried salt cod

6 cups of diced sambo or fresh squash (zucchini), about 2 ½ lbs

6 cups of diced zapallo or squash, about a small sized squash butternut squash

2 cups of shredded cabbage

4 cups of cooked and peeled fava beans

4 cups of cooked corn kernels

3 cups of cooked green peas

2 cups of cooked lima beans

2 cups of cooked alubias or cannellini beans

2 cups of chochos or lupini beans, peeled

2 cups of cooked rice (cooked in abundant water and very tender)

8 tbs butter

1 tsp of achiote

1 cup of diced white onion

1 cup of diced red onion

10 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbs of ground cumin

1 tbs of dry oregano

1 tsp of ground pepper

2 cups of roasted peanuts

12 cups of milk

1 cup of heavy cream

12 oz of cream cheese

1 cup of feta cheese

½ bunch of cilantro or parsley, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Serve with: hardboiled egg slices, fried ripe plantains, empanadas de viento or Ecuadorian fried cheese empanadas, hot peppers slices, aji criollo, curtido de cebolla blanca or white onions marinated in lime juice, and queso fresco.

Preparation:

1. Soak the salt cod in water for 24 hours, changing the water every 6-8 hours, each time the water should be less and less salty, at the end cut the cod into medium sized pieces (if it doesn’t come already cut).
2. Cook the diced butternut squash and zucchini separately, with a barely enough water to cover them, cook until they are very tender, drain the water and place them in a blender or food make a puree.
3. Boil the shredded cabbage with a small amount of water for about 3 minutes, drain and add the cabbage to the squash puree.
4. In a large stock pot or soup pot, heat the butter over medium heat to make a refrito or base for the soup, add the onions, garlic, achiote, cumin, oregano and pepper and cook until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the cooked rice to the refrito and mash it into the refrito with a potato masher to make a thick sauce or puree.
6. Add the squash and cabbage puree and mix well.
7. Add 4 cups of milk and the fava beans, corn, green peas, lima beans and cannellini beans, stir in well and let simmer for about 15 minutes, stir frequently to avoid the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
8. Meanwhile bring 6 cups of milk to boil, add the soaked and desalted cod, and boil for about 10 minutes.
9. Add the milk and cod to the soup or if you don’t want the soup to have the strong salted cod flavor then strain the milk and add only the milk to the soup, reserve the fish, fry it in oil until browned on each side and serve on the side or place a piece of the fried cod in each individual soup bowl.
10. At this point you want to taste the soup and add salt if needed, how much you need will depend on the whether you add the salt cod to the soup or not (as well as how well you soaked and rinsed the cod).
11. Blend the roasted peanuts with 2 cups of milk, add this to the soup, and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
12. About 5 to 10 minutes before serving, add the chochos or lupini beans, the heavy cream and the cheeses, stir to help the cheeses dissolve.
13. Add the chopped cilantro or parsley and stir well. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed.
14. Serve with the pieces of fried salt cod (unless they were already added to the soup), hardboiled egg slices, lime marinated white onions, fried ripe plantains, slices of queso fresco, fried cheese empanadas, and Ecuadorian hot sauce or slices of hot peppers. These can be added on top of the soup or on the side.

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