Juane

An unwrapped juane with chicken.

The juane is one of the main dishes of the cuisine of the Peruvian jungle and is widely consumed on June 24, the feast of St. John the Baptist (San Juan), hence the name.^[1] The dish could have a pre-Columbian origin, but it is known that after the arrival of the Spanish people to Incan lands, missionaries popularized the biblical account of the beheading of St. John. This dish's name could therefore be, more specifically, a reference to the head of St. John.^[2]

The juane would have been a food usually made for travelers, as they could be stored for long periods without spoiling.

Basic preparation

Wrapped chicken juane

The juane usually made on the basis of rice, meat, olives, hard-boiled egg, spices among others, which is wrapped with bijao (macaw-flower) leaves and then put to boil for about an hour and a half. Instead of rice, cassava, chonta, the mixture of rice and cassava, beans, among other products. Before being wrapped in the leaves, the preparation is bathed with a mixture of beaten eggs to get the "pickup" (ligue in Spanish) of food and not fall off.^[3] The dish is accompanied by the customs of each region of the forest, as some people tend to accompany the tacacho, cassava, or simply boiled bananas.

Types

• Traditional juane
• Special juane
• Chonta juane: Nibbled chonta is added to the mixture of rice.
• Cassava juane: This type of juane is ground cassava instead of rice and filled with fish, especially paiche.
• Avispa juane: Ground pork is added to rice, and thereby prepare the batter, filling with a barrage of fried chicken.
• Nina juane: It is a juane with chicken pieces instead of rice.
• Sara juane: Instead of rice, it takes a mixture of ground raw peanuts, ground corn and chicken broth.

References

1. Zapata Acha, Sergio (November 2006). Diccionario de gastronomía peruana tradicional (1 ed.). Lima, Perú: Universidad San Martín de Porres. ISBN 9972-54-155-X.
2. León, Rafo (2007). Lima Bizarra. Antiguía del centro de la capital. (2da edición. ed.). Lima-Perú: Aguilar. ISBN 978-9972-848-17-9.
3. PERU: Ministerio de la Mujer y Desarrollo Social (2011). Recopilación de Estudios sobre Hábitos Alimenticios de la Población Amazónica (PDF) (in Spanish). pp. 20–21. Retrieved 23 August 2011.