Cachupa
Cape Verde’s national dish: maize with beans, cassava, sweet potato and meat or fish, cooked for hours. The leftovers are fried the next day with an egg for breakfast (cachupa refogada).
Ingredients
- 500 g dried white hominy corn (soaked overnight)
- 250 g beans (pinto and black-eyed), soaked
- 500 g pork ribs and 200 g pancetta
- 2 chorizos
- 300 g cassava
- 1 sweet potato and 1 piece of pumpkin
- 1/4 cabbage
- 2 onions, 4 garlic cloves, 2 tomatoes and bay leaves
- Oil and salt
How to make it at home
- Cook the maize and beans in plenty of water with bay leaves for 1½ hours.
- Fry the onion, garlic and tomato and add them to the pot with the meats.
- Cook for 1 more hour over a low heat.
- Add the cassava, sweet potato, pumpkin and cabbage in pieces, and cook for 30 minutes more, until it thickens.
- Serve in a deep bowl. The next day, fry the leftovers with onion and top with a fried egg.
The trick: The rich version has meat and fish; the poor one, just maize and beans. Both are good.