Kiveve

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It is a doughy and consistent cream.

As important part of the ancestral culinary art of Paraguay, it has, because of the nature of its ingredients, very high value in calories and proteins. This fact has historic nature and is scientifically refuted.

Origin of the name

The name "kiveve" comes from the Guaranitical term that designates a reddish color. Because the "andai", the main ingredient of the dessert, has a deep orange color, it was given the name "kiveve" (reddish).

In fact, in popular slang, the word "kiveve" is used to name redhead people.

Ingredients

A traditional "kiveve" is made using the following ingredients: pumpkin or "andai", water, salt, oil, onion (chopped very small), milk, sugar, corn flour and fresh cheese.

Preparation

The pumpkin is pealed and boiled in water.

The onions browned in the oil.

The cooked pumpkin is liquefied in a blender machine and are added the milk, sugar, salt and corn flour, the last one has to be sifted over the others. When it is all mixed, this preparation is taken to the fire and cooked, always stirring the mixture, for about 10 minutes or until the corn flour is completely cooked. Finally chopped fresh cheese is added and it can be retrieve from the fire. This dish is served, mostly to accompany beef, roast, "asados" (the Paraguayan version of the American barbecue), etc. Also, it be served alone, or even as a dessert. You can also fry them at 400* F. That will get them very hot and delicious.

Interesting facts

The "kiveve" used to be cooked in clay pots, and most people who have tried both ways of cooking, assure that the taste of the dessert made in them, was far more delicious.

Notes

Also called "ahuyama", the pumpkin ("cucurbita maxima") is an herbaceous annual plant, of long and climbing stems, that has as a fruit, a kind of berry that could present different shapes and forms, it can be elongated or spherical, and its color goes from green to a deep orange or reddish. The pulp is a yellow-orange color, compact, of firm texture and a sweet flavor.

According to some scholars of social history of Paraguay, all the Paraguayan popular gastronomy, which establishes itself as a small family industry after the War of Paraguay against The Triple Alliance (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, between 1864 and 1870), is really abundant in caloric content, because of the situation that overcame to the country after the conflict. In the aftermath of the war, food was limited, groceries were hard to find. So Paraguayan cooking has a high protein content to make up for the scarcity of every day meal.

References

*“Tembi’u Paraguay” JOSEFINA VELILLA DE AQUINO
*“Karú rekó – Antropología culinaria paraguaya”, MARGARITA MIRÓ IBARS
* EVP - Wikipedia
* [http://www.evp.edu.py/index.php?title=Portada Enciclopedia Virtual Paraguaya - Portal]