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Quinoa Chicha (Andean Quinoa Drink with Fruit and Herbs)
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Quinoa Chicha (Andean Quinoa Drink with Fruit and Herbs)

QuinoaAncientAndes (Peru); modern recipe from EcuadorDrinkWhole grainVegetarian

Cook 60 min · Serves 10

Please note: As the source gives it, the drink stands covered for 48 hours. With its sugar and fruit it begins to ferment, as Andean chicha does, so it may carry a little alcohol. The source does not say whether the fruit is peeled or chopped, or whether the quinoa is rinsed first.

Make

Ingredients

  • quinoa — 2 cups
  • water — 3 litres (1 litre to cook the quinoa and fruit, 2 litres for the spiced syrup)
  • hierba luisa (lemongrass) — 5 sprigs
  • lemon verbena — 3 sprigs
  • allspice — 1 tbsp
  • cloves — 4
  • pineapple — 1 cup
  • cinnamon sticks — 3
  • naranjilla (lulo) — 1 cup
  • passion fruit juice — 1/2 cup
  • brown sugar — 2 cups

Method

  1. Pot one: pour 1 litre of water into a pot and add the quinoa, the passion fruit juice, the pineapple and the naranjilla. Let it cook for an hour, then take it off the heat and leave it to cool.
  2. Pot two: put 2 litres of water on to boil with the brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, lemon verbena and hierba luisa.
  3. The moment pot two comes to the boil, switch off the heat, cover it and leave the spices and herbs to steep.
  4. Give pot one a good stir, then strain pot one and pot two through a sieve and combine the liquids.
  5. Pour the strained drink into a container with a lid and leave it covered for 48 hours.
  6. Pour over ice to serve.

From the old texts

“The Indians also make a beverage of the quinua, as they do of the maize”
In the original Spanish
De la Quinua hazen los Yndios breuage para beuer como del Mayz,pero es en tierras donde ay falta del Mayz.
The printed pageThe printed page
Primera parte de los Commentarios reales, que tratan del origen de los Yncas, reyes que fueron del Peru ... escritos por el Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega (ed. author Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca (1539-1616); printer Pedro Crasbeeck), Lisboa (En la officina de Pedro Crasbeeck), 1609, p. fol. 207 verso - the recto of this leaf (n440) is headed 'COMMENTARIOS REALES. 207'; this verso is headed 'LIB. VIII. DE LOS'

Garcilaso de la Vega, 'El Inca', Comentarios Reales de los Incas (Royal Commentaries of the Incas), Part I, Book VIII, ch. IX (1609 (Lisbon)), Book VIII, Chapter IX ('Of maize, and of what they call rice, and of other grains'), pp. 357-358 of vol. II of the translation, translated by Clements R. Markham — read the translation.

Which grain: “Chenopodium Quinoa.” (Clements R. Markham, translator's footnote 2 to Garcilaso, Book VIII ch. IX, vol. II p. 357 (Hakluyt Society, 1871); also Markham's note to Cieza (1864) p. 143)

Amounts and times: the old text gives none, so they are from International Cookbook for Quinoa: Tradition and Innovation, PDF p. 182 (printed p. 153).

Tips

  • From the source: FAO marks this as an 'innovative recipe' by Chef Galo Villa (Ecuador); Garcilaso describes the old practice, the quantities and method are the chef's.

Recipe from Garcilaso de la Vega, 'El Inca', Comentarios Reales de los Incas (1609), Book VIII, written in our own words.