Bolivian recipe
Silpancho
The Cochabamba plate: rice, fried potato, a beef schnitzel pounded thinner than the plate and a fried egg, finished with raw tomato salsa.
Silpancho is the dish of Cochabamba and a lesson in how this cuisine understands abundance: rice, potato, meat and egg on the same plate, and nobody finds that redundant. Here you do not choose a side, you add them up.
What defines it is not the ingredient list but the thickness of the meat: a schnitzel pounded until it is almost translucent and larger than the plate. If the meat is thick, it is not a silpancho.
Ingredients
- 600 g (1.3 lb) beef topside, cut into thin steaks
- 200 g (2 cups) breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs, for breading
- 400 g (2 cups) rice
- 4 medium potatoes
- 4 eggs, for frying
- 2 tomatoes, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 locoto chilli, finely chopped (or 1 jalapeño)
- A handful of parsley, chopped
- 500 ml (2 cups) oil, for frying
- Salt, pepper and ground cumin
Method
Cook the rice loose
Cook the rice with two parts water to one of rice and salt. It should stay separate and dry: in a silpancho the rice is a base, not a creamy side.
Boil and fry the potatoes
Boil the potatoes in their skins until a knife goes through easily, peel and cut into thick slices. Fry until golden on both sides.
Make the raw salsa
Mix the tomato, onion, chilli and parsley, all finely chopped, with salt and a few drops of oil. Let it sit while you do the rest.
Pound the beef until it is translucent
Place each steak between two sheets of plastic and pound it until it is almost see-through and roughly the size of a dinner plate. This extreme thinness is what defines a silpancho and separates it from an ordinary schnitzel.
Season and bread
Season, dip in beaten egg and press firmly into the breadcrumbs so they stick across the whole surface.
Fry fast
Fry in hot oil for one minute per side. Because it is so thin it cooks almost instantly; any longer and it dries out.
Build: rice and potato first
Spread the rice across the plate and cover it with the fried potato slices.
Steak on top, overhanging
Lay the schnitzel over the potato, covering everything. It should hang over the edge of the plate — that is the image of a silpancho.
Egg and salsa
Fry the eggs keeping the yolk runny, set one on each schnitzel and finish with the raw salsa on top. Serve immediately, with the yolk still liquid.
Nutrition
| Calories | 890 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 48 g |
| Fat | 38 g |
| Carbohydrates | 88 g |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between silpancho and trancapecho?
Almost the same ingredients, but a trancapecho goes inside a bread roll and is eaten with your hands, often with a sausage added. A silpancho is served on a plate with cutlery.
Where does the name silpancho come from?
It is generally attributed to Quechua roots referring to something flattened or thin, which describes the meat exactly. The dish as it is known today is from Cochabamba and relatively modern, dating to the mid-twentieth century.
Can I make it with chicken?
Yes, and it is a common variation. Butterfly and pound a chicken breast just as thin and bread it the same way. The result is milder; beef gives the flavour associated with the original.
Can I bake it instead of frying?
The schnitzel, yes — brush with oil and bake at 220 °C (430 °F) for about eight minutes, and it comes out reasonable. The fried potato changes more. This is a fried dish: baked, it is a decent plate that does not taste the same.
How it is served
Straight after assembly, with the yolk still liquid, and llajua on the side. It is lunch food and it will hold you for the rest of the day. The usual drink is a cold fruit cooler, or chicha at the weekend.
Regional variations
The trancapecho is the same thing inside a bread roll — the takeaway version. A silpancho a lo pobre adds fried plantain. In Sucre the meat is slightly thicker and the raw salsa is often left out.
Storage
This is an assembly dish, so it is not stored assembled. The parts keep separately for a day: reheat the schnitzel at 200 °C (390 °F) for five minutes, the potato in a pan and the rice with steam. The egg and the salsa are always made fresh.