Tag: Peruvian
Peruvian Beans
Peruvian Beans
Beans are a staple in Peruvian cuisine. The first known beans in the Americas were found in Peru during an archeological dig, dating back thousands of years. We now know the bean as mayocoba, canary, or Mexican yellow beans. They are kind of similar to a pinto bean, but are creamier in texture. These beans can be used in soups, stews, salads, refried, and as a side dish like in this recipe.Mayocoba beans can be found in any grocery. For this particular recipe, I used dried beans instead of canned. I personally prefer dried over canned because they absorb more of the juices. They are also half the price and don’t contain extra salt. I cooked them in my Instant Pot. They take only 30 minutes without soaking. Peruvian beans will always contain onions, garlic, carrots, some type of pepper, sugar, tomato paste, and a vinegar; sweet and savory with a touch of acidity. These beans can be garnished with cilantro, slices of avocado, a dollop of plain yogurt, or lime wedges. You can also eat these beans as a main course over rice.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 carrot julienned
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 chipotle peppers chopped
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups vegie or chicken stock
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 4 cups mayocoba beans
- 1 tbsp corn or tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp water
Garnish
- avocado sliced
- cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Heat up cooking oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add in the onions and garlic. Cook for 4 minutes.
- Stir in the carrots and bell pepper. Sauté for another 4 minutes.
- Add in the cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle peppers, and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the stock, honey, and red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil.
- Stir in the beans. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Uncover. Make a slurry from the cornstarch and water. Add to the beans and stir. The beans will thicken in a minute or two. Turn off the heat.
Aji de Gallina (Creamed Spicy Chicken)
Aji de Gallina (Spicy Creamed Chicken)
Every time I go Stoned Souping in downtown Denver, I eat at my favorite restaurant, Los Cabos, a small Peruvian joint with absolutely amazing food. I know because I’ve eaten almost the entire menu. They have excellent ceviches, really tender aji de panca spare ribs, Seco de carne, Peruvian chicken and rice, whol roasted fish, and so much more. I was just recently there a week ago. One of my favorite menu items is called Aji de Gallina; spicy creamed chicken. The chicken is shredded and cooked in a spicy creamy sauce. The sauce is thickened with milk soaked bread, walnuts, and cheese puréed with sautéed onions, garlic, and aji amarillo peppers. The yellowish color comes from these peppers, which tastes like a spicy yellow bell pepper. It is hard to find this pepper in this country. You might be able to find it at a Latin grocery store. What you can find is the pepper in paste form. The chicken is traditionally served with boiled yellow potatoes, steamed rice, and is garnished with hard boiled eggs and black olives. Olives happen to be one of the only food items I despise. Please add them in if you are a fan. But you’ll never see them on any recipe on my site.
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 4 slices white bread
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 3 tbsp walnuts
- 3 tbsp queso fresco cheese
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 medium white onion diced
- 1 head garlic peeled
- 1/2 cup aji amirillo paste
- 4 cooked red or yellow potatoes sliced
- 3 hard boiled eggs sliced
Instructions
- Place the bread and evaporated milk in a bowl. Let sit for 15 minutes.
- While the bread is sitting in the milk, poach the chicken breasts in the chicken stock for 15 minutes.
- Remove the chicken breasts and let cool completely. Save the stock.
- Heat up vegetable oil in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add in the onions and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add in the aji amarillo paste. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- While the onions and garlic are cooking, add the soaked bread slices, walnuts, and cheese to a food processor or blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Add the sautéed onions and garlic to the food processor.
- Blend until smooth.
- In the same sauce pan, add in the shredded chicken, the spicy cream sauce, and 2 cups of the chicken stock. Simmer covered on medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Stir in the potatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes uncovered.
- Turn off the heat. Garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs.
Anticuchos (Peruvian Beef Heart Kabobs)
Peruvian Beef Heart Kabobs
In Stoned Soup’s September installment of “How In The Hell Do You Cook That?”, site followers voted between beef heart and beef intestines. Beef heart won with a majority of the votes. So how am I going to cook this thing? I know what it tastes like, but have never personally prepared heart. So this is what I’ve learned from research…Beef heart is very low in calories and fat; about the same as a chicken breast. It is very high in iron, protein, and vitamin B12. The only downside to beef heart is that it is very high in cholesterol. While the heart is an organ, it is also a muscle. It is fibrous unlike liver, kidneys, or other organ meat. I purchased my beef heart at my local Asian market. I bought 2 chunks that equaled about 3lbs. They came untrimmed, which isn’t a problem for me to do. If you purchase a beef heart untrimmed, all of the fat, silver skin, veins or arteries need to be removed. After the trimming, I yielded 1 1/2lbs of lean meat. The best part of purchasing the beef heart is that it’s $1.99lb.I’ve recently been reading up on Peruvian cuisine and culture to add more South American recipes to the website. I just happen to stumble across a beef heart recipe where the heart is marinated and grilled on kabobs. They are called anticuchos and are a huge staple in Peruvian cuisine, dating back to the country’s colonial times. They are also sold as a popular street food in Peru.Making these kabobs is pretty easy once the heart is trimmed. To get maximum flavor, marinate the meat overnight. You can either grill or broil the kabobs. Heart doesn’t need to be cooked for very long. In this situation, it is best medium rare. If cooked more then that, they will be tough. These kabobs only take 4-5 minutes a side, turning out surprisingly tender. Like, really, really tender.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs beef heart trimmed
- 1/2 red onion
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp cumin seed
- 2 canned chipotle peppers
- 3 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Purée in a food processor or blender the garlic, cumin, chipotle peppers, red wine and apple cider vinegars, smoked paprika, and olive oil.
- Set aside in a bowl.
- Here in the pic are 2 chunks of beef heart. Trim them of all fat, silver skin, and any veins or arteries.
- Once trimmed, you will end up with 2 nice pieces of meat.
- Cut the meat into 1 1/2” cubes. Add the heart to the marinade and marinate for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.
- When ready to cook, turn on your oven’s broiler, moving the top rack 6” away. Skewer up the heart with pieces of red onion in between the meat. Place on a broiler pan or on a baking rack.
- Broil for 5 minutes a side.
