gastrokid

Peruvian-Theme Final Chapter: Arroz Chaufa

Here's another Peruvian dish that draws inspiration from the Chinese immigrant community who adapted their cooking for a South American palette in the way only Chinese expats cooks can.

Essentially it's fried rice with whatever else you want to throw into the mix - normally egg, pork and sometimes chicken. However, because I was serving this along with lots of other dishes I took a minimalist approach, choosing to add just seafood. When it came to the mussels I cheated this time and used ready-cooked ones out of the shell.

You'll need:

2 cups of Spanish/arborio rice
1 red onion, chopped
pinch of saffron
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
dash of cumin
dash of cayenne pepper
2 garlic cloves sliced
1lb medium-sized raw prawns (peeled)
1/2 fresh squid, cleaned and sliced into hoops, tentacles included
1/2lb cooked mussels
One bunch of scallions, topped and tailed and sliced longways
2 handfuls of cilantro, roughly chopped or torn

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan then add the rice and onion. Fully coat with the oil for one minute then add 4 cups of boiling water. Add saffron, salt and pepper, reduce the heat and cover. Cook for 15 minutes until rice is fluffy.

Reserve and set aside to cool.

Have an aperitif (kids that means it's lemonade time).

When cool....

In a wok or large saute pan, heat (medium) the vegetable and sesame oil along with cumin, cayenne pepper and sliced garlic for 2 minutes.

Add the shrimp and calamari and cook for 3 minutes. Next add the chopped scallions. Mix in the rice and the cooked mussels and stir fry on a medium heat for five minutes until the rice is fully heated through.

Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.

- Matthew

Peruvian-inspired Feast Cont.: Lomo Saltado

This traditional stir fry of beef, peppers and potatoes served over rice (starch-heaven) is a staple in Peruvian restaurants.

For my purposes I omitted the potatoes and added chestnut mushrooms and a red onion. Oh, and I upped the meat quotient with a small pork tenderloin.

You'll need:

1 top sirloin steak (about 3/4 lb)
1 pork tenderloin
3 bell peppers (green, red and yellow)
3 garlic cloves
1 red onion
1/4 pound of chestnut mushrooms
3 tablespoons soy sauce

First I sliced red and green peppers, mushrooms, and one red onion. Then I thinly chopped three garlic cloves.

Next I thinly sliced the sirloin steak and pork loin.

In a large non-stick saute pan (or wok) heat olive oil and add the garlic, sauteing over medium heat for three minutes. Next add the peppers and onion. Then add the mushrooms and cook until soft (2 mins).

Add the thinly sliced beef and pork and brown then add the soy sauce. Cook on medium high heat for two minutes then serve with white rice and hot sauce on the side (for the adults most probably).

- Matthew

Ceviche Peruvian Style

 
Ceviche is both incredibly easy and intimidating to prepare the first time. After all, who's going to put their faith in the curing ability on raw fish of lime juice unless you've succeeded in the past?

For this Peruvian-inspired appetizer (for 8 people) I made a 1.5lb medley of fish, including cod, sea bass, salmon and halibut (all cut in one inch cubes) along with cooked shrimp (normally a staple of Ecuadorean ceviche). I placed the fish mixture in a flat-bottomed ceramic dish and then added the juice of three limes, one clove of raw garlic (sliced) and a jalapeno (seeded and sliced). I refrigerated the dish and left it for one hour.

While curing the fish, I boiled one sweet potato and two ears of corn then reserved them and let them cool.

After an hour I sliced the sweet potato into four parts, served the cured fish on top of the sweet potato and garnished the fish with sprigs of fresh cilantro. The corn I broke into four pieces and served with the fish.

A Taste of Peru and a Hint of Ecuador Via Wales

 
It was perhaps a strange dinner party to organise. After all, when it comes to planning ethnic food it sort of helps to have at least a semblance of original ingredients available and that normally means a well-established immigrant community with a specialist food market to cater for them.

Well, Cardiff doesn't have a vibrant Peruvian population, or, at least, if it does, they've managed to survive here without access to their most important ethnic cooking ingredient - the aji pepper.

Aji is the lifeblood of many Peruvian dishes (along with the potato which I'm happy to report at least you can find plenty of in Wales).

Nevertheless I soldiered on with an approximation of traditional Peruvian and Ecuadorean dishes retrieved from the memory of spending time there some, gulp, 13 years ago and a light dusting of Internet recipes.

The accidental beauty of not having a load of aji was that the food was a little under-spiced and so made perfect leftovers for the kids. For the adults I recommend some hot sauce!

Here's the first of the dishes I made for the Peru/Ecuador feast. More to come in following posts

Llapingachos

Nothing too complicated here - these are potato pancakes that I stuffed with haloumi cheese. Haloumi, I hear you ask? Since when did the Middle East enter into South American cooking? Well, Ecuador has a strong Lebanese population but even they'd balk at using haloumi instead of queso blanco. However, it was all I had.

You'll need:

1.5 pounds of potatoes, peeled, washed and quartered for easy boiling.
8 slices of haloumi (or one packet)
2 tablespoons of butter
olive oil

First boil the potatoes until soft then drain, mash, cool, then refrigerate.

Shape the mash into silver dollar-sized pancakes. Make an indentation in the center with your thumb and place the haloumi slice in the middle. Add another thin layer of mashed potato and meld together to form a thin pancake.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a non-stick frying pan and saute the pancakes (four at at time) until golden on one side then flip and repeat.

When all are golden brown, serve.