A substantial Peruvian Amazon combination of toasted plantain tacacho with chicharrón, smoked cecina, regional sausage, and fresh cocona chile relish. Plantain provides body, the meats bring smoke and savoriness, and cocona clears the palate just before the next mouthful. It arrives smelling of the hot pan and tends to leave the table strangely quiet.
Turn what you find into an experience you can actually bring to your kitchen.
Cut the cocona into small dice and the red onion into short, thin slices. Finely chop the charapita chile and sacha culantro; handle the chile carefully and avoid touching your face. Mix everything with one quarter of the salt and set it aside while the rest cooks. No resting time is needed: it should reach the plate fresh, tart, and crisp.
Peel the green bellaco plantains and cut them into thick 1.5 to 2 cm slices. Heat the vegetable oil in a wide skillet and fry the plantain in batches for 6 to 8 minutes each, turning until it develops deeply browned patches and is completely tender in the center when pierced with a knife. Remove each batch as soon as it reaches that point; do not fry it until chip-like.
Immediately mash the hot plantain with the pork lard, chopped pork chicharrón, and the remaining salt. Pound and fold for 3 to 4 minutes, until cohesive and firm but still rustic, with visible pieces of plantain and chicharrón. Divide into 8 portions and shape into medium balls, pressing only enough for them to hold together.
Pour off the excess oil from the skillet, leaving only a thin film. Cook the Amazonian sausage over medium heat for 4 minutes, turning to brown several sides. Add the pork cecina and continue for 3 to 4 minutes more, turning both meats; remove the cecina as soon as it is hot, supple, and toasted around the edges, and finish the sausage until piping hot and fully cooked through the center. Do not keep cooking the cecina or it will toughen.
Serve 2 tacacho balls per person with cecina, freshly browned sausage, and cocona relish alongside. The tacacho should stay firm when broken open, the cecina should remain supple, and the sausage should release juices when cut; use the cocona between mouthfuls to bring the plate back into balance. And that is it—there is no need to choose between cecina and sausage here; that is exactly why it is called mixed 😌
