Written by Jill one of our very talented non-blogging members. This is the second of a 2-part series.

Where I was staying outside of Palpa, Ica, we had a woman who came everyday and cooked for us. Her name was Señora Viki, and she was an amazing cook. It’s her food that I remember the most from my time in Peru, so that’s mostly what I’m going to talk about here. We got up at 4:30 and ate a calorie-filled breakfast of eggs, rolls, cheese, jam, yogurt, and oatmeal. We left at 5:00 and were at the site by 6:00. There we worked without stopping or eating until 2:30, and when we got back we had our one big meal of the day. My point is that any food would have been welcome, but Señora Viki always presented beautiful and delicious food, and she was delighted to show us the best of the local cuisine. It was simple, down-to-earth food, but it was filling and extremely flavorful. We’d start with a cool green salad, or maybe cold chicken salad served in half an avocado.

Sometimes she’d prepare a special ceviche with camarones, local freshwater crayfish. (Peru is well-known for its spectacular ceviches and escabeches, but having spent most of my time well away from the coast, I did not eat a lot of seafood.) Next we’d move on to the main course, usually something hot. This is where I first really fell in love with Peruvian food. Señora Viki’s papas rellenas, or stuffed potato croquettes, were really something to remember. I’ve never been able to replicate the creaminess she attained in the potatoes, or the depth of flavor of the filling, which included beef, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, and aceitunas (black olives), among other things. They were just wonderful served with spicy, refreshing salsa criolla. The general procedure is to make the filling while potatoes are boiling, thoroughly mash the potatoes, form croquettes in your palm with the potatoes and filling, dust lightly with flour, then deep fry.

Papas rellenas, or stuffed potato croquettes, with salsa criolla.

A word about that beautiful salsa criolla. It, more than anything else, evokes the taste and smell of Peru to me. Fortunately, it is easy to recreate with common ingredients. Although the recipe that follows calls for ají amarillo, I’ve used half a serrano pepper instead without detriment. Another potato dish I enjoyed is the widespread papa a la huancaína. Boiled yellow potatoes are sliced into quarter-inch pieces and cooled, then topped with a sauce made with chiles (ajíes amarillos), fresh white cheese, onion, garlic, evaporated milk, and thickened with cracker crumbs. It feels decadent and tastes wonderful served at room temperature. Several varieties of corn are offered as part of the meal, and they are different and more flavorful than the standard sweet corn we are accustomed to in the US. It is best in simple preparations.

I had to use sweet corn, but it was still good in a sauce of butter, salt, pepper, key lime juice, and chives.

One day when we got home from the dig, every inch of us covered in fine dirt and grit, the most wonderful smell assaulted me as I walked through the door. I was drawn to the kitchen to find Señora Viki standing over a simmering pot of golden something. I asked her what it was, and that was the first time I heard “ají de gallina.” I have since tried several times to recreate her ají de gallina, that magical, fortifying spicy chicken stew, but have never been quite successful. My attempts are usually good, but nothing next to hers.

Ají de gallina. There’s just no making it look pretty.

Ají de gallina is usually served with rice, boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and olives. This sounds like a strange collection of accompaniments, but take a bite of all of it together and you’ll understand. The creamy nuttiness of the stew, the salty bite of an olive, and the richness of the egg create magic on the palate. If you take nothing else from this article, try the recipe given below.

And now for dessert. Because I always finish with dessert, and it’s an interesting affair in Peru. If you look, you’ll notice that many recipes call for evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. That’s because fresh milk and milk products are hard to come by in most places in Peru, so most desserts are made with shelf stable milk products. This is not, however, a bad thing, as Peruvians have found wonderful ways to work with their available ingredients. Often dessert will be fruit, maybe drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, or maybe avocado mashed with sugar. But when they do make a more complicated dessert, they do it well. Simple everyday desserts might be flan, or arroz con leche. And let me just say right now, the arroz con leche I had in Peru was the best I’ve ever had, and I’ll share with you a really delicious recipe. If, however, you want a dessert that will wow, try suspiro de limeña (“breath of a woman from Lima”). The name is romantic, and the dish—sweetened condensed milk custard topped with port-infused meringue—will definitely evoke sighs. Or for a more casual approach, try alfajores. These cookies are common throughout Peru, and with creamy milky caramel-y manjar blanco sandwiched between two shortbread rounds, topped with powdered sugar, what’s not to love?

Arroz con leche. In this version the raisins are soaked in cointreau overnight. Uh, yum.

Alfajores filled with manjar blanco. Alternately, they may be filled with a delicious brown sugar spiced syrup called miel (not honey, in this case).

Now, on to the recipes! All are adapted from The Art of Peruvian Cuisine by Tony Custer.

Salsa Criolla

2 red onions, sliced as thinly as possible
1 Tbls. vegetable oil
1 ají amarillo, seeded and finely chopped (alternately, try serrano pepper)
1 Tbls. vinegar (plain white will do fine)
1 bunch of cilantro (parsley is listed as an alternate, but it wouldn’t be the same)
Juice of 2 key limes (though maybe more; they are smaller here than in Peru)
Salt

Mix well. This is best if left to marinate a few hours. Eat on anything!

Ají de Gallina

1 whole chicken (I add extra breasts as needed depending on how many I’m feeding)
1 medium chopped onion
1+ cloves garlic, minced finely
7 Tbls. ají amarillo paste
½ loaf of sliced white bread with crusts removed
1 dozen black olives, halved
2 C chicken stock (you will need more than this to boil the chicken)
1 ½ C evaporated milk
100 gr. chopped walnuts (I’ve used walnuts, pecans, peanuts, and cashews. All are good)
125 gr. grated parmesan (although a soft fresh white cheese would be more authentic)
½ C vegetable oil
6¬–8 yellow potatoes
¼ C olive oil (although I left this out completely)
6 hard boiled eggs, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the whole chicken (and breasts, if using) in a pot of chicken broth or water until the meat is falling off the bones. Remove and let cool, then shred into bite-sized pieces. Reserve the chicken stock.

Crumble the bread into the carafe of a blender and soak with the evaporated milk. Blend.

In a large pan, heat oil and sauté onion until gold, then add garlic and ají amarillo paste and fry well. Add the soaked bread mixture and cook 10 more minutes, stirring regularly. Then begin to add ladles of the hot stock, stirring each time to incorporate. Once you achieve your desired consistency, add olive oil, if using. Finally, add the chicken, parmesan cheese, and nuts. (Note: the walnuts were not chopped when I ate this in Peru, but finely ground. I used the nut butters from this month’s cooking challenge, and they worked well.) Stir carefully to avoid mashing the chicken. Add more stock to thin if necessary.

Serve hot with rice, potatoes, olives, and hard-boiled egg slices. Yum!

Manjar Blanco

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Combine these in a small saucepan and bring to a low simmer over medium low heat. Stir constantly! If you don’t, it will burn in seconds. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens enough to be spreadable, about an hour (seriously, just keep stirring). Serve on your favorite shortbread or pâte brisée rounds for alfajores, or on graham crackers. Or just, you know, eat it plain.

Arroz con Leche

Note here that I’m giving my amounts for ingredients, which differ significantly from the original recipe. The end result was so delicious, though, that I think mine is better. Feel free to experiment.

2 C rice
5 C water (use as much water as you normally would to cook your rice. I used a 2:1 ratio and it was perfect)
2 large sticks of cinnamon
4 cloves
Peel of ½ a large orange
1 can (14.5 oz.) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
Raisins, soaked overnight in water or liquor (I soaked mine in cointreau)
2 eggs, separated
1 C port (optional)
8 Tbls. sugar (optional with the port)
Ground cinnamon, to decorate

Blanch the orange peel in three changes of boiling water (I skipped this step). Prepare rice as normal, except add the orange peel, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Remove whole spices and peel, then add the evaporated milk, stirring to avoid sticking. Bring back to a boil, then add the sweetened condensed milk and the raisins (I served the raisins on the side for picky eaters). Cook for ten more minutes, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens.

Remove from the heat and stir in the egg yolk, ½ C of port (if using), and a pinch of salt.

Heat the remaining port and sugar together in a small saucepan to form a syrup. Beat the egg white to soft peaks, gently fold in the syrup, then fold this meringue into the pudding. (If not using port, just beat the egg whites without sugar and fold into the pudding.) Pour into serving dishes and garnish with cinnamon. This is fabulous warm, but equally good chilled.

I hope that your curiosity has been piqued, and that you will do some discovering of your own. Peruvian cuisine is definitely worth the effort.

If you’d like to order supplies online, I ordered mine from http://www.amigofoods.com/ with only minor problems. You could also try http://www.labodegaperuana.com/