Pique macho is a hearty and spicy Bolivian dish made with beef, sausage, vegetables, and served on a bed of potato chips. It is usually seasoned with onions, tomatoes, chili peppers, salt, black pepper, cumin seeds, and garlic. The dish is traditionally served in generous portions and can be garnished with hard-boiled eggs or olives.
Pique macho is a spicy and hearty Bolivian dish. It is made by mixing beef, sausage and vegetables. The mixture is then piled onto a bed of potato chips. This dish is believed to have originated in Cochabamba, a city found in the Cochabamba Valley in the Andes.
There are two types of meat in pique macho. First there’s the steak, which is usually cut into strips. Some recipes call for the steak to be marinated for at least two hours before preparation. Others simply instruct the seasoning on the meat before it’s cooked. Individuals who spend even a small amount of time comparing recipes will find that there are a number of aspects to this dish that can vary, though most are consistent.
The second type of meat is salchicha, Spanish for sausage. Outside of Bolivia, people commonly use frankfurters as a substitute for this ingredient because the variety of sausage traditionally used is comparable to a hot dog. It is common to find that sausages are cut diagonally.
Three vegetables are needed for the pique macho meat mixture: onions, tomatoes and chili peppers. For the most authentic flavor, the type of peppers that are recommended are Scottish caps, which are comparable to habeneros. It is also highly recommended that all these ingredients are fresh.
Four flavoring items are generally included. These include salt, ground black pepper and ground cumin seeds. Crushed garlic is also generally considered a must-have ingredient. It should be noted that if a person is trying to replicate the dish as close to traditional means of preparation as possible, he will get garlic cloves and crush them himself.
The concoction is served on top of a bed of french fries. These can be cut fresh or frozen. Some people also eat rice with the dish, which is then used to make half of the bed underneath. This, however, is not considered the traditional way. The meat and vegetable mixture is then piled on top of your chosen starch.
Despite the recipe or variations, pique macho is usually served in very generous portions. Sometimes the dish is garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs or green olives. When evaluating the difficulty of preparing the dish, it is commonly considered easy. One of the often encountered challenges, however, is to ensure that the finished macho piqué is neither too wet nor too dry.
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