Pique Macho (Bolivian Beef and Sausage over Fries)
Bolivia's great sharing platter from Cochabamba: crisp fries piled with seared beef and sausage, then onion, tomato and hot locoto pepper, finished with zigzags of mayonnaise and mustard. Reduce the sauce onto the meat in the pan so the fries stay crisp, and serve the moment it is plated.
Ingredients
- Beef · Sirloin, rump or flat iron, cut in 2cm cubes500 g
- Sausage · Chorizo or frankfurters, sliced on the bias200 g
- Potatoes · Floury, cut into 1cm chips800 g
- Frying oil · At least 3cm deep in the pot
- Salt · Season the beef and the chips separately
- Black pepper · Coarsely ground
- For the pan sauce
- Onion · Thickly sliced, it should stay crunchy1 large
- Tomatoes · Cut in big wedges so they hold shape2 medium
- Locoto chillies · Or any hot fresh chilli; keep the seeds for more heat2
- Garlic · Minced3 cloves
- Ground cumin · The base aroma of Bolivian cooking1 tsp
- Soy sauce · Common in Bolivian kitchens too1 tbsp
- Lager beer · Beef stock works instead100 ml
- To finish
- Hard-boiled eggs · Halved2
- Mayonnaise · In a squeeze bottle for the zigzag
- Yellow mustard
- Ketchup · Optional; many places use all three
- Green olives · Optional4
Steps
- ⏲ 15 min
Cut the potatoes into 1cm chips, soak 10 minutes in cold water, then dry them completely. Wet chips spit in the oil and never crisp.
- ⏲ 7 min
Blanch the chips in 160°C oil for 5–6 minutes — cooked through but still pale — then lift out and cool. This first fry is what lets them survive the sauce later.
- ⏲ 10 min
Hard-boil the eggs, peel and halve them. Slice the onion thickly, cut the tomatoes into big wedges, and slice the chillies on the bias.
- ⏲ 8 min
Season the beef cubes with salt and pepper. Get a pan very hot and sear them deep brown, in two batches — crowded beef steams instead of browning.
- ⏲ 4 min
Add the sausage to the same pan and brown it in its own fat, then the garlic and cumin for 30 seconds only. Burnt cumin turns bitter.
- ⏲ 5 min
Pour in the beer and soy sauce and reduce over high heat until the pan is almost dry. Skipping this is what drowns the chips — it decides whether the dish works.
- ⏲ 3 min
Fry the chips again at 190°C for 2–3 minutes until deep golden. Drain and salt them.
- ⏲ 1 min
Turn the heat off and toss the onion, tomato and chilli through the pan for 30 seconds in the residual heat. They should be warmed, not cooked.
- ⏲ 2 min
Spread the chips on a platter, spoon the meat and sausage over, then pile the vegetables on top. Tuck the egg halves and olives around the edge.
Zigzag mayonnaise and mustard over the top and serve immediately. This is a platter several people attack with forks — five minutes standing and the chips go soft.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- The original improvisation: in Cochabamba it is often built from leftover grilled meat rather than freshly cut beef — that is how it started, as a late-night bar dish made from whatever was left.
- With charque: rehydrated dried beef (charque), shredded, gives a much deeper savoury note.
- Chicken pique: thigh meat makes a lighter version children will eat.
- With cheese: some places crumble fresh white cheese over the top at the end.
- Salsa criolla on the side: onion and tomato macerated 5 minutes in lime juice and salt cuts through the richness.
- Sweet potato chips: the sweetness plays well against the locoto heat.
Tips
- Double-fry the chips, 160°C then 190°C. Single-fried chips collapse the instant the meat juices touch them.
- Reduce the sauce in the pan, onto the meat. Ladling liquid over the chips ruins them within five minutes; the pan should look almost dry before you plate.
- Add the vegetables off the heat. Crunchy onion and tomato are what carry the weight of fried potato and beef — cook them and it becomes an ordinary stir-fry.
- Locoto is the point of the heat. The Bolivian chilli is fruity as well as fiercely hot; if you substitute, leave a few seeds in to make up for the lost aroma.
- Warm the platter first. Three components at three temperatures cool fast on a cold plate.
- The name means "macho spike" — the heat is the boast. It is a relatively modern dish, traced to a Cochabamba restaurant in the 1980s, and it is now Bolivia's best-known thing to share over beer.
Sign in to edit.
edits: 0 ·Edit history