Kiveve

Ingredients and preparation

Traditional "kiveve" is made using the following ingredients: a pumpkin or "andai" with a deep orange flesh and sweet flavor, cooked and pureed; sugar, a kind of cornmeal with a consistency between corn starch and corn flour (harina de maíz), and fresh cheese. It's served mildly warm or already cool in a bowl, each commensal pours in milk to taste.

The pumpkin is peeled, cubed and boiled in water. When cubes are tender enough the preparation is pureed with a blender or smashed in its own cooking liquid in the same pot, then sugar is added, and finally corn flour is sifted all over the bland puree in the pot while stirring the mixture in the fire, keep stirring for about 10 minutes, or until the corn flour is completely cooked. Fresh cheese finely chopped is added, stir again for a few seconds and retrieve the pot from the fire. Kiveve used to be cooked in clay pots.

This dish is served as a sweet snack or as a dessert.

Origin of the name

The name "kiveve" comes from the Guaranitical term for 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 identify redheaded people.