Sancocho de siete carnes, the king of all Dominican hangover cures

Sancocho de siete carnes, the most luxurious hangover cure in the Dominican Republic.

Sancocho de siete carnes, the most luxurious hangover cure in the Dominican Republic.

We already gave you some tips and tricks to get rid of your hangover. But every country has its own traditional dishes to make the process go faster. We like to give you a taste of the international anti-hangover cuisine. This time we present you a Caribbean delight called sancocho de siete carnes, which literally means stew of seven kinds of meat. It’s the ultimate hangover cure in the Dominican Republic, an island where they sure know how to party, soyou bet it’s effective.

The Dominican Republic has partying simply written all over it. The locals are happy people that don’t even search for an excuse to go wild. And that;s not too hard in a place that produces some of the finest rum on the planet. You can imagine that this lifestyle – especially given the warm climate – can lead to serious dehydration and banging headaches in the morning.

That’s why the Dominicans have a large variety of stews, or sancocho’s as they call them. The main ingredient is usually beef, chicken or goat meat. But the godfather of all sancocho’s is prepared with seven different kinds of meat. Usually it’s only prepared at special occasions, when celebrations are even bigger than usual. In other words when the hangover victims feel their worst. Let’s get started…

Ingredients:
Half a kilo of beef (for stews)
Half a kilo of pork (again for stews)
Half a kilo of pork ribs
Half a kilo of chicken
Half a kilo of goat meat
Half a kilo of pork sausage (longaniza)
Half a kilo of bones from smoked ham
Juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon of cilantro (coriander)
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cloves of garlic (chopped up or mashed)
2 teaspoons of salt
4 tablespoons of corn or peanut  oil
3 liters of water
1/4 kilo sweet potato (yam), chopped up in parts of 2,5 cm long.
1/4 kilo of West Indies pumpkin, also cut 2,5 cm long.
1/4 kilo of yautia, cut in the same  size.
1/4 kilo casava, cut in the same  size.
3 plantains, unripe and 2 of them in thick slices.
2 corn cobs, sliced.

Preparation:
Assuming that all that had to be sliced and diced as described above has been done, you start by cutting up all the meat in little pieces. Then put the pork sausage aside and coat the rest of the meat with the lime juice.
Now put the beef  in a large bowl and add the cilantro, oregano, garlic  and 1 teaspoon of salt. Rub the meat to get the spices really in there and let it marinade for half an hour.
After that take a large pot and put in the oil. Bring it to a medium heat and then put in the marinated beef. Cover the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Make sure that it doesn’t burn and add a little water if you must.
After those 10  minutes you can add the pork stew meat and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Remember you can add water every time  you feel it’s necessary.
Now add the goat meat, the sausage, the pork ribs and the smoked ham bones. And keep it to simmer for another 15 minutes. Now add the chicken as the seventh kind of meat and continue for another 5 minutes.
Then finally add all the remaining water to the pot and bring the stew to a boil. When you reach the boiling point, add the yam, pumpkin, yautia and the 2 sliced plantains. Let the stew simmer for another 15 minutes.
Now grate the 3rd plantain to tiny bits and add those to the pot. After that the casava and corn and let it simmer till all the ingredients are properly cooked. In the  meantime stir regularly.
Finally add the extra salt and your sancocho de siete carnes is ready to be served. Usually this dish comes with white rice and hot sauce. A little avocado on the side is also very common. Enjoy and salud!

Micky Bumbar

Check out more tasty hangover cures from around the world

6 thoughts on “Sancocho de siete carnes, the king of all Dominican hangover cures

  1. Woah! I got carnivore indigestion from reading the amount of animal stewing in this recipe. lol 🙂

    p.s. I wish they’d put more meat on pizza

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