Serves 6
This purple dessert is made with the same water used for chicha morada, with the addition of dried fruits, sweet potato starch, and extra sugar. You want it to be slightly thick but still runny. If you add more thickener than needed, the texture will resemble gelatin, which is not what we are looking for.
3 pounds purple corn
3 cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 pineapple, peeled and chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored
1 quince, peeled, cored, and chopped
9 cups water
½ cup prunes
½ cup dried apricots
½ cup sweet potato starch (or potato starch)
1½ cups sugar
1 lime
Ground cinnamon
1. Break the dried corn in several pieces.
2. Put in a heavy saucepan along with the cloves, aniseed, cinnamon sticks, pineapple peels, apple, quince (peel and core included), and water.
3. Bring to a boil over high heat, and cook for 15 minutes. Turn the heat to low and cook partially covered for 1½ hours.
4. Strain, reserving the liquid and discarding the solids.
5. In the same saucepan, put the purple liquid, 2 cups chopped pineapple, chopped apple, prunes, apricots, and sugar. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to medium, and cook for 20 minutes to soften the fruits.
6. In a bowl, dissolve the potato starch in a little water and add to the saucepan, stirring constantly. Cook for 5 more minutes.
7. Turn off the heat, and add the lime juice. Stir.
8. Serve in ramekins or glasses, sprinkled with ground cinnamon.
I like to add dried cranberries, cherries, and blueberries to this dessert instead of the traditional prunes. Peruvian food purists would never forgive this sin, but I think these fruits enhance the flavor of any mazamorra morada.