Hispanic Heritage · Nicaragua

El Pacífico

Granada · Managua · León · Masaya · Nindirí · Catarina

Explore this kitchen on the animated map ↗

Vigorón

Descubre

Granada offers a memorable introduction to Nicaragua’s Pacific cooking: vigorón, a plate of tender yuca, crisp chicharrón, and tangy cabbage salad. The appeal comes from the meeting of textures as much as the seasoning.

La Gente

Prepare the components separately and assemble them close to serving. Soft yuca catches the dressing while the chicharrón keeps its crunch. A generous spoonful of cabbage makes the plate bright, fresh, and easy to share.

Sabor

The Pacific cooks in sour orange, achiote, pork fat, and vinegar, with garlic under everything and the chile congo, the small fierce Nicaraguan chile, in the curtido and on the table. Corn is the base of most things and the sweetness comes from the plantain. It is a bright, salty, tangy kitchen.

Spice DNA · Acid high · Smoke medium · Heat medium · Herb low · Sweet low

Seasonings to explore

Minced Garlic in Olive Oil. On the chicharrón and in the gallo pinto. Adds a savory garlic base.
Sour Orange Marinade. Naranja agria is the acid of Nicaragua, on the pork and in the nacatamal.
Crushed Red Pepper. For the chile congo in the curtido. Adjust; the congo is small and serious.
Black Pepper, ground. On the pork.
Onion Powder. In the gallo pinto with the fresh onion.
Sazón with Coriander and Annatto. For the achiote in the nacatamal and the indio viejo.

From your market: yuca, pork belly or pork skin for the chicharrón, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, white vinegar, a fresh hot chile, banana leaves, and for the gallo pinto, small red beans, rice, an onion, and a green pepper. Badia does not sell the chile congo.

Cocina

Vigorón

Boiled yuca, crisp chicharrón, and a vinegar cabbage slaw, on a banana leaf. Granada, 1914. Eat it with your hands.

Serves 6

Chicharrón

2 lb pork belly with skin, cut in 2-inch pieces
2 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil, or 4 garlic cloves crushed
¼ cup Badia Sour Orange Marinade, or the juice of 2 sour oranges
1 tsp salt
½ tsp Badia Black Pepper, ground
1 cup water

Curtido

½ head cabbage, shredded fine
3 tomatoes, diced
1 carrot, grated
½ onion, sliced thin
½ cup white vinegar
1 fresh hot chile, sliced, or 1 tsp Badia Crushed Red Pepper
Salt

The yuca

2 lb yuca, peeled and cut in thick pieces
Salt
Banana leaves, passed over a flame

The pork. Toss the pork with the garlic, sour orange, salt, and pepper. Let it sit 30 minutes. Put it in a heavy pot with the water, skin side down, over medium heat. Let the water cook off and the pork begin to fry in its own fat, then lower the heat and cook, turning now and then, 45 minutes to an hour, until the skin is blistered and crisp and the meat is dark gold. Drain on a rack.
The curtido. Toss everything together. Let it sit at least 30 minutes. It should be sharp and a little hot.
The yuca. Boil in salted water until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain. Split the pieces and pull out the fibrous cord from the center.
Build. A banana leaf on each plate. Yuca. Chicharrón broken over it. A heap of curtido on top, with plenty of its vinegar.
Hands only. Drink the vinegar off the leaf when you are done. Nobody in Granada is looking.

Gallo pinto

Cook 1 cup rice. Fry ½ chopped onion and ½ chopped green pepper in 3 tbsp oil with 1 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil and ½ tsp Badia Onion Powder until soft. Add 2 cups cooked small red beans with a little of their liquid and cook 5 minutes so the liquid darkens the pot. Add the rice and fry, stirring, 5 minutes more, until the rice is stained red-brown and the edges crisp. Salt and Badia Black Pepper. Breakfast, with an egg and a piece of queso, every day of a nica's life. Costa Rica makes it with black beans. Nicaragua has an opinion about that too.

Pueblos del Pacífico

Granada · Managua · León · Masaya · Nindirí · Catarina · Diriamba · Jinotepe · Rivas · San Juan del Sur · Ometepe · Chinandega · El Viejo · Corinto · La Paz Centro · Nagarote · Tipitapa · Estelí · Matagalpa · Jinotega