Chicha Morada

What's that purple stuff they're drinking?

...it's Chicha Morada!

Chicha Morada is a classic Peruvian drink with a base made from purple corn.  Matt likes to order it at Peruvian restaurants in Santiago as a treat.  I always thought the recipe would be intimidating since the drink looks and tastes so exotic to me.  However, Matt was undeterred and decided making it at home was worth a shot after conducting some online research.  It turned out surprisingly tasty!!!

The complete list of ingredients (all of which are easily found at Santiago's La Vega market):

• 800 grams of dried purple corn
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 6 whole cloves
• the skin from 1 pineapple
• the peel from 2 apples
• the juice from 4 lemons
• 1 cup sugar

Deconstructed Chicha Morada

A fun view of our pineapple

Step 1: Boil the purple corn, cinnamon, cloves, pineapple skin, and apple peel in 3 liters of water for 45 minutes.

It smells good!

Step 2: Strain the resulting purple liquid and set it aside.  Pour another fresh 1.5 liters of water over the same ingredients.  Boil for 45 for minutes.  

By the end of this second round of boiling, the corn grains should be beginning to split open and show the white starch inside.  This means they're done.  Out of curiosity, we tried eating the corn.  It was quite starchy, especially considering it had already been boiling for an hour and a half.  We thought it was tasty but vowed not to eat more for fear of a stomach ache.

Step 3: Add the new purple liquid to the previous batch.  Then, pour in the lemon juice and sugar to taste.

Step 4: Serve chilled with a cubed apple garnish (much like sangria) 

The final product!