Patarashca

River fish from the Peruvian Amazon wrapped in bijao leaves with sacha culantro, sweet pepper, onion, and charapita chilli, and cooked directly on the coals

Origin: Iquitos & the Peruvian Amazon

From the journey of Culantro.

Patarashca is cooking at its most direct. A whole fish or thick pieces of one, from the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon, are packed with a chopped mixture of sacha culantro, onion, sweet pepper, garlic, and ají charapita, wrapped in the broad green leaves of bijao, tied, and laid straight on the embers. The leaves char on the outside and the fish steams inside in the juices of the herbs, and the parcel is opened at the table. The name is usually explained from a Quechua verb for folding, which describes the wrapping, though the derivation is given more often than it is demonstrated. The fish changes with the river and the season: paiche, the giant arapaima, doncella, boquichico, or whatever came in that morning. What does not change is the herb. Sacha culantro, the forest culantro of the Amazon, is the dominant flavour of the parcel and the reason it tastes of the region rather than of fish and smoke alone. The same bijao leaf wraps the other great dish of the Peruvian selva, juane, the rice parcel eaten on the feast of San Juan on 24 June.

Ingredients

Fish

  • 4 fillets of firm river or white fish, about 200 g each (or 1 whole fish)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp lime juice

Herb Mixture

  • 30 g sacha culantro (culantro) leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 sweet red pepper, finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 3 ají charapita, or 1 small hot chilli, finely chopped
  • 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin

To Wrap

  • 8 bijao or banana leaves, softened over a flame

Method

  1. Season the fish with the salt and lime juice.
  2. Mix the sacha culantro, onion, sweet pepper, garlic, chilli, tomato, oil, and cumin with a pinch of salt.
  3. Lay two leaves crosswise for each parcel, put a spoonful of the herb mixture in the centre, then a piece of fish, then more of the mixture on top.
  4. Fold the leaves over into a tight parcel and tie with strips of leaf or string.
  5. Cook the parcels on a grill over hot coals, or in a heavy dry pan, for 10 to 12 minutes a side, until the leaves are charred and the fish is cooked through.
  6. Open at the table and serve with boiled yuca or plantain and a squeeze of lime.

Notes

Banana leaves are the easiest substitute for bijao and give a similar grassy perfume. In an oven, bake the parcels at 200°C for 20 minutes on a tray.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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