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Recipe: Pumpkin, ginger & lemongrass soup
I love soup and pumpkin soup has been among my favourites forever. Pumpkin is rich in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. Its sweetness, accentuated by roasting it instead of just boiling it, pairs well with the zing of ginger, lemongrass and lime juice. This recipe is gluten-free and can be made vegan/vegetarian by using vegetable broth and omitting the fish sauce. It’s low in fat (if you don’t add the optional coconut milk) and protein. You can add some cooked chicken or boiled eggs to bump up the protein content.
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Recipe: Salmon with roasted Brussel sprouts, fennel and pesto
This is an easy recipe that combines some of my favourite things: crispy skin salmon, Brussel sprouts and pesto. This is a meal packed with healthy fats, including omega-3 from the salmon and monounsaturated fats from the extra-virgin olive oil. This dish is gluten-free and low in carbs. Feel free to swap the vegetables for your favourite ones or whatever you have available. I used Pecorino cheese (made from sheep’s milk) instead of Parmigiano Reggiano because I prefer its sharp taste, but you can use regular Parmesan. I also left out the garlic – I prefer using roasted garlic instead of raw in sauces but wanted to keep this recipe…
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Recipe: Supercharged Bolognese
This Supercharged Bolognese might look like a regular Bolognese but it’s got a secret ingredient to make it extra nutritious: Feather and Bone’s organic beef mince with organs. You can use your own mince + organ meat blend, of course. Flavour comes, mostly, from the speck (also from Feather and Bone – you can use bacon instead), classic soffritto veggies (onion, garlic, celery and carrot) and red wine (you can use beef broth instead). The other flavour booster most Bolognese recipes don’t include is dried porcini, which adds to the umaminess of the dish. In Perú, ragú-style dishes are always made with dried mushrooms because they are included by default…
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Recipe: Pescado sudado (Peruvian steamed fish)
Pescado sudado is another Peruvian classic dish, very easy to make and very comforting. “Sudar” means to sweat, the name reflects the fact that the fish is cooked by the steam produced by the liquid at the bottom of the pan. The recipe calls for a couple of Peruvian ingredients (ají panca and chicha de jora), which can be found in a few stores in Sydney (contact me if you’re interested), but can be substituted if needed. While this dish is mainly made with fish only, my mum makes a killer version with fish and scallops, and a friend makes one with mussels.
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Recipe: Locro (Peruvian pumpkin stew)
I’m sure there are a million locro recipes out there because it’s fair to say this is an everyday staple in almost every Peruvian household. The way I make it is not the way my mum makes it, nor the way my aunties make it, nor the way my mother-in-law makes it. This is one of the few dishes Alvaro insists on keeping meat-free, with a fried egg (or three) on top. Works for me.
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Recipe: Estofado de pollo (Peruvian chicken stew)
Estofado de pollo is one of those dishes that I used to hate as a kid and now I crave when homesickness kicks in. I think the main reason I dreaded it was that my mum or aunties cooked it too often. I think mum has forgotten my aversion to estofado because she didn’t tease me when I asked for her recipe last time I spoke to her. Turns out that her recipe is simpler than what I imagined, and I managed to make it taste virtually the same. Except that now I like it 🙂
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Recipe: Fragrant roasted chicken with cinnamon pumpkin and broccolini
I’ve been using this awesome recipe for roasting chicken for the past few months. It’s simple and fool-proof, and it gives you the flexibility of using any spices you want. I often use a mix of rosemary and sage salts or a mix of rosemary and lemon salts. This time I used a mix of Moroccan spices and paired it up with cinnamon-y pumpkin and broccolini. Delicious!
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Recipe: Peruvian osso buco
Gastón Acurio is without a doubt the most important Peruvian chef of all times. In his Facebook page he promotes Peruvian restaurants back home and overseas and shares recipes with his followers. Like Peruvian mums, he doesn’t use quantities. He might indicate approximates (e.g. “a lot”, “a pinch”), but you have to figure out exact amounts by yourself. This is not hard to do if you have any experience with cooking Peruvian dishes but can become daunting if you don’t. The first time I made Gastón’s recipe for osso buco I eyeballed the quantities and the result was amazing. I didn’t write the recipe down so I “had to” make…
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Recipe: Cauliflower plov
My introduction to plov, a very simple dish made with rice, lamb and carrots, was in an Uygur restaurant in Sydney. Turns out this dish is traditional also in Uzbekistan and Siberia. I wanted to make a low carb version based on what I remembered from Kiroran Silk Road and my trip to Russia, plus a few recipes from the internet. The result? Well, cauliflower doesn’t absorb liquids as rice does, so it was soupier and less oily in appearance than the real deal. I also used a ton of grated carrots instead of chopped, which made it a bit too sweet for my taste. So I kinda failed in…
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Recipe: Chicken heart anticuchos
This is a tasty way to get more offal in your diet. Heart is a great source of iron, vitamin B12, zinc, and coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which is fundamental for the electron transport chain of mitochondria (the energy-producing cells in your body). Get chicken hearts from pastured chickens if possible (Feather and Bone is a great source) and fire up your grill for this twist on classic Peruvian street food (the original version uses cow’s heart). If you’re not keen on eating heart you can try this version with kangaroo.
