Chipa 101

Fresh, hot chipa (CHEE-pa) is a delicious traditional food in Paraguay. Because making it is a labor-intensive process, it’s usually left to the businesses that make it along bus routes and hop on the buses to sell it. A bus ride isn’t complete without a woman balancing a huge and heavy basket of it on her head somehow managing to climb onto a bus and squeeze through the center aisle to sell it to passengers unable to resist its aroma. And I’ve had trips on buses ruined when my bus is too full (which is a serious accomplishment) for the chipa lady to hop aboard.
While Paraguayans tend to leave chipa making to the experts most of the time, Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the big exception. It seems that the majority of Paraguayan families make chipa on the Wednesday of Semana Santa to share with neighbors and then eat on Holy Friday. For the families I know, it’s the only thing they eat on Holy Friday in acknowledgement of the requirements to fast and abstain from meat (but not lard here). Because most families make chipa at the exact same time, I was only able to make it with my host mom. Fortunately, our chipa turned out super delicious, and I was proud to share it with our neighbors. On Holy Friday, we only ate chipa. Alongside, we drank cocido, which is a drink made by stirring hot charcoal into sugar and yerba to caramelize/burn them and then boiling it all for ten minutes or so. Yes, it has to be carcinogenic. Regardless, it’s tasty and makes two-day-old chipa easier to eat.
Making chipa requires forethought, as it contains a lot of eggs and cheese. Families begin to save eggs and cheese up to a month in advance in order to have enough. It’s also usually baked in a tatakua, which is an igloo-shaped brick oven. While my host mom and I made and shaped the chipa, my host dad used firewood to heat up the tatakua. From start to finish, it was a three-hour labor of love.
Ingredients (for approximately 140 chipas):
1 kg of lard (ours was from the pig my host family butchered in February)
1.5 kgs of butter
30 eggs
4 kgs of cornmeal
5 kgs of manioc/mandioca/yucca starch
2.5 kgs of aged Paraguayan cheese
20 grams of anise
Whey as needed (we used about two cups)
Salt to taste (we used about three tablespoons)
Directions:
In the biggest mixing container available, blend together the lard and butter until well-combined and fluffy.
Add eggs a few at a time, mixing well by hand. After all eggs are added, mix for at least ten more minutes.
Add half of the cornmeal, a few cups at a time, and combine well.
Mix in the cheese, being sure to leave some bigger pieces.
Add the remaining cornmeal and the manioc starch, mixing well. The dough will be pretty crumbly and in small pieces but will compact if pressed.
Crush the anise by hand and mix in with the salt.
If the dough doesn’t compact when pressed, add the whey a bit at a time until it does. Let the dough rest about ten minutes.
Take out about a pound at a time and roll it into a log about three inches in diameter. Cut the log into three inch chunks, and shape as desired.
Bake in a tatakua or in a very hot oven (maybe about 450 degrees F) for about fifteen minutes, or until the chipas are lightly browned. Enjoy! Chipa is best when fresh and delicious accompanied by a cup of steaming cocido.