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Recipe: Kombucha chilcano
This is a healthier twist on the traditional cocktail chilcano de pisco. I use kombucha instead of ginger ale to lower the sugar content. I’m not sure if the alcohol negates the beneficial probiotic effects of the kombucha but it sure tastes great. I used ginger & lime kombucha this time, but any ginger-flavoured kombucha will do.
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Recipe: Mixto completo (sort of)
Another sandwich recipe? Really? Yeah, we still got a lot of protein bread in the freezer. Peruvians took the French classics croque monsieur and croque madame and made the poor person’s versions mixto and mixto completo. These generally contain jamón inglés (regular leg ham) and Edam cheese. The completo (equivalent to the croque madame) has a fried egg. These are normally buttered and put in a sandwich press. Another option is to heat it on a flat grill iron (or pan). When using this method, it’s common to cut a whole on the top slice of bread with a small glass or cookie cutter and pour the egg in the…
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Recipe: Pan con aceitunas
Recently I wrote about craving sandwiches from my childhood. Today’s sandwich is even simpler: it involves only three ingredients but tons of memories. I recommend using botija olives (I’ve bought them in Tierras Latinas, Flemington Markets and Loving Earth in the past) but any flavourful black olive would do. Pro-tip: next time someone you know goes to Perú, tell them to bring some olives (and lúcuma and maca), they’re way more expensive over here. Once again, this sandwich features the high-protein low-carb gluten-free protein bread.
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Recipe: Triples in protein bread
I don’t crave bread often but when I do it’s usually in relation to childhood memories. Among other sandwiches, we grew up eating triple, which is very popular back home although there’s nothing typically Peruvian about it. Its name refers to the three different fillings that are separated by four (FOUR!) slices of bread. Yep, Peruvians eat lots of carbs, that’s why we’re all “doughy”, as Robb Wolf would say. I’ve come across a couple of great commercially-available bread options that we use once in a while. One of them is protein bread, that is gluten-free and low carb. The good news is that we haven’t noticed any ill effects…
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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.
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Recipe: Lúcuma coconut mousse v2.0
This is a revamped version of the lúcuma coconut mousse I posted a while ago, this time with the added benefit of the probiotic cultures in CO YO and the collagen in gelatin.
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Recipe: Arroz con pato (Peruvian duck with rice)
Yes, rice. Not cauliflower rice, but real rice. Although I consider white rice a relatively safe starch, I don’t eat it very often because it can stuff up my digestion and make me chubby. After 3+ years of not cooking rice, Alvaro asked me to make arroz con pato (literally “duck with rice”) for his birthday.
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Recipe: Sancochado
Today is Peruvian Independence Day! Time to celebrate with a Peruvian recipe! Soups in Peru are a big deal. There are restaurants specialised in particular kinds of soups, and some of them are known for their hangover curing properties. Today is Peruvian Independence Day and I celebrate with a soup recipe. While most of the soups have a pretty standard recipe and are fairly simple to make, there are no rules when it comes to sancochado. The simplest versions are cooked on weekdays in ordinary households (my aunties cooked a killer one every single Friday of my life), and the most elaborate are prepared with dozens of ingredients served buffet-style…
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Recipe: Carapulcra (Peruvian pork and potato stew)
This is very weird. I have hated this dish for most of my life. My mum and aunties are so nice that they actually cooked a different dish for me whenever they made carapulcra. When I went to cooking school my friends really trusted my palate and made me test their version before presenting them to the instructor for marking. I knew they were really well made but I still hated them. Last year Alvaro, Gladys, Vicky and I went to a Peruvian festival and I tried their carapulcra. I liked it. A lot. I liked it so much that I bought a bag of papa seca (dried potatoes, the…
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Recipe: Chicken and mussel aguadito with cauliflower rice
Aguadito is a typical Peruvian soup. It means something like “soggy”, not a very appealing name, but it describes the dish perfectly: in essence it’s a watered-down version of arroz con pollo. I’m convinced that one of the reasons there aren’t too many obese people in Perú is that we tend to eat more home-cooked meals. Parties are no exceptions, and it’s not uncommon that the brave people who stay until the next morning are rewarded with a bowl of aguadito. For the record, I’m lame and tend to bail fairly early from parties, so I’ve never enjoyed a bowl of “morning after” aguadito. Aguadito is often made with chicken…
