Hispanic Heritage · Venezuela

Los Andes

Mérida · Ejido · Tabay · Mucuchíes · Apartaderos · Tovar

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Pisca andina

Descubre

Venezuela’s Andean pisca is a warm, gentle soup built around potatoes, milk, and fresh herbs. It offers a quieter counterpoint to the richly sauced dishes elsewhere in this journey.

La Gente

Simmer the potatoes until tender, then follow the recipe’s sequence for dairy and eggs. Gentle heat matters here. A little fresh cilantro or green onion at the end makes the bowl fragrant without masking its delicate ingredients.

Sabor

The mountain cooks mild and warm. Butter, milk, smoked cheese, potato, and the green of cilantro and cebollín. Garlic carries the savory side. Black pepper is the only heat unless the trout is on the table, and then the garlic and a little chile do the work.

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

Seasonings to explore

Minced Garlic in Olive Oil. Into the butter with the green onion for the pisca, and all over the trout. Adds a savory garlic base.
Black Pepper, ground. Fresh-ground, in both dishes.
Onion Powder. With the fresh cebollín.
Cilantro flakes. Fresh is the mountain way; this is for the morning you have none.
Crushed Red Pepper. For the trout al ajillo, if you want it picante the way the roadside places in Mérida make it.
Oregano, whole. A pinch on the trout.

From your market: white potatoes, whole milk, butter, a smoked cheese or a firm queso blanco, eggs, cebollín or green onions, cilantro, and if you are going all the way, two fresh trout. Badia does not sell the queso ahumado of the páramo. Nothing does, outside the páramo.

Cocina

Pisca andina

The breakfast soup of the Venezuelan Andes, the Mérida way, with milk. Leave the milk out for the Táchira way. Both are correct in their own house.

Serves 4

4 cups chicken broth
4 large white potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tbsp butter
4 green onions, chopped, whites and greens separate
1 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil, or 3 garlic cloves minced
½ tsp Badia Onion Powder
½ tsp Badia Black Pepper, ground
Salt
1 cup whole milk
4 eggs
1 cup smoked cheese or firm queso blanco, cubed
¼ cup cilantro, chopped

Potatoes in broth. Bring the broth to a simmer and cook the potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes.
The butter. In a small pan, melt the butter and cook the white parts of the green onions and the garlic until soft and fragrant, 2 minutes. Add to the pot with the onion powder, pepper, and salt.
The milk. Lower the heat. Pour in the milk and let it warm through without ever boiling. A boiled pisca breaks.
The eggs. Crack the eggs into the pot one at a time, spacing them out, and cover. Poach 3 to 4 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft.
Finish. Add the cheese so it warms and softens without melting away. Cilantro and the green tops of the onions over everything.
Serve in deep bowls, one egg each, with a wheat arepa and black coffee. Then go outside. It is still cold.

Trucha al ajillo

The trout of the Mérida rivers, in garlic. Ten minutes.

Season two cleaned whole trout inside and out with salt, Badia Black Pepper, and a pinch of Badia Oregano. Fry in 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp oil over medium-high, 4 minutes a side, until the skin is crisp and the flesh flakes. Lift them out. In the same pan, lower the heat and cook 2 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil with a pinch of Badia Crushed Red Pepper for one minute, until the garlic is just gold. Add the juice of a lime and a handful of chopped cilantro, and pour it over the trout. Yuca or potatoes on the side. A gocho would have both.

Pueblos de los Andes

Mérida · Ejido · Tabay · Mucuchíes · Apartaderos · Tovar · Bailadores · San Cristóbal · Táriba · Rubio · Capacho · La Grita · San Antonio del Táchira · Colón · Trujillo · Valera · Boconó · Timotes · Jajó · Carache