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Recipe: Peruvian-style split peas with ham
Split peas (“arvejitas partidas”) are fairly common legumes in the Peruvian diet. They’re cheap, tasty and very nutritious. Enjoy these Peruvian-style split peas with ham with garlicky rice and a fried egg for a hearty meal. In Perú we mostly use green split peas but feel free to use any kind you can find (i.e. yellow or read). Mum used to cook them with bacon but I used ham in this recipe. You can obviously omit the meat if you’re a vegetarian. If that’s the case, I’d suggest you use smoked salt and/or a pinch of smoked paprika for that smokey flavour you’ll be lacking. Finally, if you don’t have…
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Recipe: Garbanzos con acelga y chorizo (chickpeas with silverbeet and chorizo)
Last week I posted a recipe for the “regular” version of garbanzos con acelga (see recipe here). Garbanzos con acelga y chorizo is a tasty variation which includes the popular Spanish sausage for the meat eaters out there. Before you start, a few notes on ingredients: Last but not least, as with any stew, this tastes better a day or two later.
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Recipe: Garbanzos con acelga (chickpeas with silverbeet)
Garbanzos con acelga (chickpeas with silverbeet) is a traditional Spanish stew. This recipe is gluten-free, high in fibre and vegan if you use vegetable stock. Like many other dishes from Spain, this one has been adopted and adapted in Peruvian cuisine. We tend to make it with ají panca instead of tomato paste, and serve it with rice instead of bread. My unorthodox contribution is that squeeze of lemon juice at the end to add brightness. Most importantly, the vitamin C from the lemon will help you absorb the non-haem iron present in the chickpeas and the silverbeet (a.k.a spinach in Australia). Last but not least, as with any stew,…
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Recipe: Peruvian hot chocolate
In Perú there’s no such thing as Christmas in July. Instead, we eat and drink all the wintery Christmas stuff in the middle of summer. The large Christmas eve dinner of roasted turkey (or suckling pig), applesauce and/or mash, Russian salad, rice, etc. is followed by hot chocolate and panettone. Peruvian hot chocolate is made with blocks of bitter cooking chocolate that are simmered with spices and then mixed with evaporated milk and sugar. It is not a “light” beverage by any stretch of imagination. However, when the weather cools down, our bodies crave hot beverages that provide energy and comfort. Hence, I’ve created a version of Peruvian hot chocolate…
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Recipe: Choritos a la chalaca (Peruvian mussels with salsa)
Choritos a la chalaca is a typical Peruvian appetizer/bar food. “Choros” = mussels (it also means thieves in slang) and “chalaca” is a type of salsa similar to pico de gallo. Chalaco or chalaca is a person (male or female) from the port of Callao, where I was born. The main difference between “salsa chalaca” and pico de gallo is that the former includes corn and rocoto, a super spicy Peruvian chilli. Peruvian corn and rocoto are hard to find in Sydney, so I used sweetcorn and birds eye chilli. The best way of eating choritos a la chalaca is to grab the shell by the tip and drop the…
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Recipe: Low sugar pisco sour
Today is pisco sour day. The Peruvian national cocktail is celebrated on the first Saturday in February every year since 2005. I published my standard recipe a couple of years ago. I mentioned in passing that you could use water and stevia instead of syrup but did not give any quantities. This year I decided to make myself a low sugar pisco sour using Raw Earth stevia & monk fruit sweetener. A few notes on ratios and ingredients, rehashed from the original article: Finally, even though this drink is low sugar (even “keto”), it doesn’t mean it’s inherently healthy. It is lower in calories and sugar than the original version,…
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Recipe: Lúcuma smoothie
I wrote about lúcuma a while ago (check article here). Just like other foods hailing from the Andes, it is considered a superfood in the first world. For us, it’s just fruit. One of the most common forms of consuming lúcuma in Perú is as a smoothie (called “jugo de lúcuma con leche”), which is naturally thick and sweet. The powder, which is available outside of Perú, doesn’t have the sweetness or texture of the fresh fruit. The solution: frozen banana. You can use any type of milk you like (I used unsweetened almond milk). You can also add some unflavoured protein powder if you’re having it post-workout.
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Recipe: Pisco sour
This year I decided to put the last bottle of pisco I had in my cupboard to good use and made a round of pisco sour to celebrate with friends. Generally speaking, there are three types of pisco: quebranta (the least aromatic), mosto verde or Italia (the most aromatic) and acholado (a mix of both). Quebranta and acholado are the better ones for making cocktails. I used the classic ratio of 3:1:1:1 (pisco to egg white, syrup and lime juice), although some prefer a 4:1:1:1 ratio. I made a test run with water and stevia instead of syrup and found it less sweet and quite enjoyable. If you make your…
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Recipe: Menestrón
The Peruvians took the minestrone recipe, brought with the Italian migrants, and turned into it menestrón. The Peruvian version is heavier on the basil and almost never features tomatoes. It’s also big on the carbs, not only featuring beans (sometimes a few different kinds) but also pasta (often penne). I grew up loving my mum’s and auntie’s, and I crave it when it starts getting chilly in Sydney. I make my version with no beans nor pasta, and often use whatever veggies I have available. This time, for example, I couldn’t find turnip, so used radishes instead.
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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…
