Category Archives: Recipes

Peruvian Recipe #12: Anticucho

By ryan | Published: 14 Nov

For four portions you will need:

Ingredients - The Marinade:

Let’s concentrate on the most important part, the marinade sauce. For this you’ll need:

  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed.
  • ½ cup of white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • ½ tablespoon red paprika
  • 1 whole Peruvian Panca chilli. Or use any strong red chilli as an alternative and add a tablespoon of Spanish pimenton powder.
  • Salt and pepper
  • 8 BBQ skewers (bamboo or wooden)

The Meat:

Half a beef heart or the equivalent weight in chicken, beef steak or lamb.

The Salsa and Garnish:

Finely chopped or liquidized yellow chillies, spring onions, salt and pepper and the juice of 1 lime.

Preparation:

1. Cut your meat in bite sized cubes 4cm x 4cm x 1 cm.

2. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and then mix in the meat. Ensure the marinade covers it fully and cover it with clingfilm. Let it marinade in the fridge overnight.

3. Pierce the meat with a skewer; preferably previously soaked-in-water bamboo or wooden skewers. It should be 3 to 4 pieces of meat per skewer. Don’t throw away the marinade as we will us ethat to baste the Anticuchos while they cook.

4. Get the charcoal or wood BBQ going and once ready put your Anticuchos on the BBQ. With a brush baste with the marinade while they cook. In Peru we make a brush from the sweetcorn husks and this seems to work perfectly to baste the Anticuchos while they cook.

5. Cook on each side for 4 minutes,. The meat should be tender, smoky, slightly pink (beef and lamb only- chicken should be fully cooked) and not overcooked.

6. You can garnish it with sweet corn and halved boiled or fried potatoes.

7. That’s it! Wow, that was easy. Now you have a new barbecue recipe full of history and tradition in no time.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Peruvian Dish of the Week: Anticucho

By ryan | Published: 14 Nov

Anticucho is more than a skewer with marinated meat.

It is a tradition.

It brings memories of cold nights outside football stadiums, sometimes even more memorable than the match itself. You get it at footie matches as well as at fine dining restaurants. It’s something you ate as a child without questioning what it was made of. It is yet another example of a rich culinary amalgamation of cultures, from pre-Inca Peru via Africa. It’s that unique smoky smell of cumin and chilli that emanates from old coal grills. Perhaps more importantly, it is the main source of income for many legendary Anticucho ladies, also known as Anticucheras, who set up their carts every night at eight in the same street corner, and have managed to raise families and send their kids to university through hard work and brilliant food – representing the Peruvian vision of progress better than anyone.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Peruvian Recipe #11: Suspiro de Limeña

By martinceviche1 | Published: 3 Mar

If you love sweets, this is your holy grail, your nirvana, your sugary Olympus. If you don’t love sweets, please cover your eyes, reading this recipe might make you feel a bit uncomfortable. Bear in mind this is going to take a while. For 5 servings, you’ll need:

  • 4 small eggs
  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 1 cup of port wine
  • 1 can (405g) of condensed (sweet) milk
  • 1 can (405g) of evaporated milk
  • 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

 

1. Put a saucepan on low heat, add both milks and let them boil until they caramelise and become ‘manjarblanco’. We are looking for this kind of texture. This might take a long time, but it’s something that can’t be replaced with pre-made dulce de leche.

2. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

3. Take the saucepan out of the hob and add the yolks and vanilla extract.

4. Bring the saucepan back to the hob for about five minutes.

5. Grab another saucepan and put it on medium heat. Add the port wine and sugar, what we are trying to create here is some kind of syrup, so keep the saucepan hot until the sugar disolves.

6. Whisk the egg whites and add the syrup. Keep whisking until it cools. Once it does, we have our meringue ready to serve.

7. Serve the brown manjarblanco first and the white meringue on top. Sprinkle some ground cinnamon on top, and we’re done!

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peruvian Dish of the Week: Suspiro de Limeña

By martinceviche1 | Published: 1 Mar

Perhaps the most poetic dessert in the world, with an untranslatable title that could be interpreted as “Sigh of a Limenian” or its derivative Suspiro a la Limeña as “Sigh a la Limenian”. Either way, its connotations of sweetness and delicacy are perfectly suited to the mixture of Dulce de Leche (known in Peru as ‘manjar blanco’) and meringue, which make this the most palatable and alluring dessert in Peruvian cuisine.

The dessert itself existed since the early 1800′s, resembling the many moor-derived Spanish sweets brought by the conquest. But it wasn’t until the early 20th century, when poet José Gálvez Barrenechea and his wife Amparo Ayarez re-christened it, that it would gain a whole different meaning. Suspiro a la Limeña looks spectacular, but its taste is far beyond imagination. However, it should be approached with caution, as it can so delicately intense than having more than one portion could result in an overdose of sweetness. Tempted? Sigh no more and check back soon for our own recipe.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Recipe #10: Peruvian Green Tamales

By martinceviche1 | Published: 25 Feb

The best green tamale comes from the northern city of Piura, the third South American city founded by the Spanish conquerors, also known as ‘the city of eternal heat’. Well, heat is optional for this recipe. What isn’t optional is the elusive ‘choclo’ (a maize of many varieties), the main ingredient of the tamale, without whom this recipe would be almost impossible. For 8 tamales we need:

  • 8 big corns (alternatively you can use corn flour, but the taste will be extremely different)
  • 1 medium sized onion chopped into small cubes
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • Yellow chili (which you can buy here, here and here, for this recipe it’s better to have the pre-made sauce)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4oz (1 cup) of liquidized Coriander
  • 8 Banana leaves
  • 8 seedless black olivescut into fours
  • 2 hard boiled eggs cut into fours
  • * Optional: 130g of chicken or pork meat.

For the ‘salsa criolla’ garnish (a type of onion salad), we will need:

  • 2 medium-sized red onions
  • Lemon
  • Parsley
  • Vegetable oil
  • Salt and pepper

1. Grate the corn kernels and blend them using a food processor. You can add a bit of water if it gets too dry.

2. *if using meat, fry it on a pan with butter and chop it into cubes.

3. Fry the onion and the garlic. Add a bit of chili or chili paste.

4. Add the hard boiled eggs and black olives to the mix

5. Quickly add the corn blend and the coriander, let the flavours mix on medium heat until the mixture becomes thick. You can always add water if it’s too consistent.

6. Now place the corn mixture into a banana leaf (make sure it’s not too full). If using meat, place it in the middle.

7. Close the banana leaf as you would with a small parcel. You can tie it with a strip of the same leaf or even rope!

8. Boil water in a large saucepan and carefully place the tamales. Let them boil for 20 minutes.

9. It’s traditional to garnish tamales with ‘salsa criolla’. Just cut red onions in thin slices and put them in a bowl. Add salt, pepper, lemon, chopped parsley and enjoy!

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments