Ajiaco celebrates a key crop within the Andes Mountains area, the place greater than 4,000 potato varieties are grown. There are three sorts on this soup. Cookbook writer and meals stylist Mariana Velásquez makes use of russets to face in for Sabanera potatoes, which virtually dissolve into the broth, giving it physique. Yukon Golds and tiny creamer potatoes substitute Pastusas and Criollas—the previous lends a golden hue and the latter a candy, virtually buttery taste. Guascas—a aromatic herb also referred to as galinsoga, gallant soldier or potato weed—imparts a barely bitter style unmatched by anything, Velásquez says. (Search for it dried on-line or within the few Colombian markets within the U.S.; you too can discover it recent at farmers’ markets.) The soup takes her again to her childhood in Bogotá. She remembers one Friday every month being “Ajiaco Day” at her all-girls faculty. “They’d convey the bowls of broth to every of us after which place the avocados, corn, rooster, capers and cream within the heart of the desk,” she says. “It was essentially the most particular lunch and all of us liked it.”
