Corn carato
A refreshing Lara drink of cooked and ground corn, lightly fermented and sweetened with panela, cinnamon and cloves. Refreshing, thick and nutritious. A tradition of Tocuyo households.
Ingredients
- 500 g (1.1 lb) yellow or white corn
- 2 liters (8½ cups) water
- 300 g (10.5 oz) grated panela (to taste)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 cloves
- 1 lime (juice)
- Ice for serving
Step-by-step preparation
- Wash the corn very well. Cover with plenty of water in a pot and cook until tender (~2 hours).
- Strain and reserve the cooking water.
- Blend the cooked corn with a little of its water until you get a thick cream.
- Strain the cream through a fine sieve or cloth, pressing to extract the liquid.
- Mix the resulting liquid with the reserved cooking water.
- In a small pot, heat 200 ml (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) of that mixture with the panela, cinnamon and cloves until dissolved. Strain and return.
- Cover with a cloth and let it rest at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours so it ferments lightly. (It shouldn't go too far: just a hint of acidity.)
- Refrigerate. Before serving, add the lime juice and stir.
- Serve very cold over ice.
Corn carato is one of the oldest drinks in the Tocuyo gastronomic repertoire. It is an adapted pre-Hispanic drink: the indigenous communities of the region prepared similar drinks of fermented corn, and the Spanish settlers added the panela and the spices.
A slightly alcoholic drink
The 8–12 hour fermentation gives it an acidic touch and a minimal degree of alcohol (less than 1%), similar to that of mild Andean chicha. If you let it go longer, it becomes proper corn chicha, with more alcohol.
For a mild carato, the short fermentation is enough.
Variations
- Rice carato: same technique with cooked rice.
- Carato with milk: milk is added at the end—a more Christmas-like version, similar to Andean chicha.
- Carato with pineapple: blended with pineapple peel at the end.
When it is drunk
- Hot afternoons in the Tocuyo valley.
- Accompanying arepas, empanadas or pastelitos.
- At patron-saint festivals and velorios de cruz (cross wakes), as a drink without strong alcohol for all audiences.
Storage
In the fridge, 3 days maximum. After that, fermentation advances too far and it turns sour.
Other Tocuyo recipes
Tocuyo acemita
The flagship bread of El Tocuyo and the entire central-western region of Venezuela. A dark, aromatic bread made with wheat flour, panela (raw cane sugar), anise, cinnamon and nutmeg, shaped into a ring or U.
Plato fuerteRooster olleta
An iconic dish of El Tocuyo and Carora. A thick stew of old rooster slow-cooked with beef, pork, smoked ham, chorizo, pickles and toasted wheat flour. A traditional Christmas dish and special-occasion fare.
SopaTocuyo mute (Lara mute)
Tocuyo mute is the iconic tripe (mondongo) soup of Morán Municipality and all of Lara state. Its name comes from the Quechua "mut'i" (peeled corn). A Sunday lunch in El Tocuyo with tripe, beef shank, peeled corn, chickpeas, cassava, yam, taro, pumpkin, plantain and fresh seasonings.