Best Peruvian cookbook?

[hari mirch]

I am looking to explore Peruvian cuisine. I have a couple of generic South American cookbooks that feature Peruvian recipes, but I'm looking for something specifically Peruvian. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of cookbooks covering South American cuisine give substitutions without mentioning what they are substituting for. In particular the herbs and ajis tend to go undescribed and are replaced with various herbs and chiles available in North America. This is unacceptable in a cookbook - let the reader know the original ingredients and suggested substitutions if they can't get them. As it happens, I'm lucky to live where I can get almost all the Peruvian ingredients frozen, dried, or fresh.

Is there a cookbook that you can recommend? If so, what do you like about it?

[LinMasey]

There is a gentleman on youtube who does the best Peruvian dishes perfectly. As a Peruvian who was raised in the USA by a "non-peruvian food cooking" mother (sorry Mom!) I learned a lot of the recipes from books, but watching this guy cook made it so much easier and more delicious!! He's on Twitter & FB too! http://www.youtube.com/user/pdrdas72 Hope you check him out!

[paulj]

He must be good; he can cut faster than Jaques Pepin. :)

[DougRisk]

Not to thread-jack, but, for the posters here...

Peanuts are a traditional part of the Peruvian diet and landscape. Does anyone here know if they were:
- soaked in water (or acidulated liquid) before they were cooked?
- when cooked, did they prefer boiling to roasting?
- if roasted, was it at a lower temperature over higher temp? (possibly for health reasons)
- if boiled, were they simmered for hours and hours, or for a relatively short period?

Thanks in Advance.

(BTW, I have been reading quite a bit on lone and have found little information on traditional treatment of peanuts. Apparently, little is known about how Incas prepared Peanuts.)

[paulj]

You've probably already seen the Peruvian paragraph under peanuts on Wiki. Apparently by the time the Spanish arrived, peanuts had spread as far north as Mexico. It's archaeological evidence and wild strains that point to probable domestication in Peru/Bolivia (long before the rise of the Inca). My guess is that coastal Indians used them more than the mountain tribes (including the Cuzco Inca).

In modern Ecuadorian cooking peanuts are used in soups and savory sauces. A quintesential mountain Ecuadorian dish is LLapingachos, mashed potato cakes served with Salsa de mani - a sauce made with onion, milk and peanuts (toasted and ground). Milk and ground peanuts are added at the end to several soups (cow foot, and one fish stew come to mind).

Mani Garapiñado is like the Spanish candied almonds - but with peanuts. That's popular from Mexico to Ecuador and beyond.

[DougRisk]

OK, but are the peanuts soaked overnight before they are used?

When "toasted", traditionally, was this done at a low heat (like Almonds and Walnuts) or at a high heat.

I am really curious about these things.

[MelMM]

I can't say anything about in ancient times, but in the books I have the recipes with peanuts in them (which are few) always call for roasted peanuts. Don't know about the temperature. I imagine that in modern times, people are buying their peanuts already roasted.

[DougRisk]

OK, thank you.

[paulj]

The Garapinadas recipes generally call for raw (but shelled) peanuts with the skin. These are washed, and then boiled in the sugar syrup until it reaches the candy stage. This is Spanish influenced dish. I don't know about processing of the peanuts between field and market.

[DougRisk]

OK, Thank you.

I have been trying to get my hands on everything that I can about, say, explorers interacting with the Incas in the 15th and 16th centuries and what they found with respect to Peanuts and I am finding almost nothing.

Peanuts play such a big part of so many societies' diets and so little can be found out about their native treatment. Stuff like that gets to me.

[paulj]

I can speculate about the paucity of information on pre-Spanish use of peanuts:

- if the Spanish had already encounter them in Mexico, use in Peru might not have been novel enough to report.

- there's the whole coast v mountain issue. The ruling Incas spread out from mountainous Cuzco, and the core of that spread was N&S along the Andes. Assuming peanuts grow best a lower altitudes, they may not have figured in Inca record keeping, etc.

- In Ecuador, peanuts are most associated with the coastal province of Manabi. There isn't much of a collective memory in that area of pre-Spanish times. Apart from some isolated jungle tribes, most Indians (by language, culture, dress, etc) are Quechua speaking mountain groups. Peru has similar pattern.

- Peanuts became a staple in Africa in part because they were similar to another groundnut that they were already growing.

- In the Ecuadorian dishes that I can think of peanuts are more of condiment or seasoning, not a core part of the dish. Manabi is known for 'sal preita', a seasoning made from ground corn, peanuts, salt and other spices.

http://www.stirthepots.com/bourdain/ talks about a coastal town that Bourdain visited, and the common plantain dishes, and this sal prieta.

sal prieta feels like a peanut use that could have dated to preSpanish times. In the mountains, toasted corn and fava beans (habas) were a labor's midday pick-me-up, as was a pemmican like mix of ground toasted corn and raw sugar.

[paulj]

page 307 in The South American Table
http://books.google.com/books?id=LleP...
has a paragraph on peanuts. She points out that common Spanish word 'mani' is of Taino (Haiti) origin. Mexico has a different Aztec derived name. She also mentions toasting to remove the bitter flavor (presumably this modern usage).

Maria Baez Kijac's book is one of the newer, and better, books that covers the whole continent. I have not looked at it from the perspective of how it treats a specific country like Peru.

[DougRisk]

I didn't see this reply back when you posted it...thanks.

[The Dairy Queen]

I was hoping you'd know the answer. That LLapingachos sounds very intriguing! How are the cakes prepared? Fried?

~TDQ

[paulj]

http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/04/07/llapingachos-or-stuffed-potato-patties/
http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/04/07...

[The Dairy Queen]

Wow! Those look amazing. Thank you so much. Lot of other interesting things on that blog, too.

~TDQ

[MelMM]

The Art of Peruvian Cuisine by Tony Custer is one that features some great, higher-end Peruvian cuisine. This book is really expensive. For a long time, I had it on my wishlist, thinking it was an out of print book that was being sold used for outrageous prices. Eventually I realized that it is the price it is because it is being sold as a benefit for a charity. So I ponied up and bought it. This is really good stuff, but a bit "cheffy". Also, not for the novice cook. I just looked at a recipe that called for cooked octopus, but doen't tell you how to cook it. If you want the kind of food you would get at a nice restaurant in Argentina, this is it.

I also have Secretos de la Cocina Peruana, by Emilio Peschiera. This is a slim book, with recipes in English and Spanish, side by side. If you want the kind of food you'd find in an inexpensive Argentine restaurant, this is it. It would help in using this cookbook if you can understand the Spanish version of the recipe. I find the English version a bit vague on a few ingredients. Also, I have seen MSG called for, in a couple of the ceviche recipes. Like the other book, there are things like calling for octopus, cooked, with no guidance for cooking it.

I don't think that I can claim that either of these cookbooks is "best". It just depends upon what you are trying to achieve. Neither is a "hold your hand" kind of book. One is fine dining restaurant recipes, the other is more the type of recipe you would see in an Argentine restaurant in the US. I got both books because I feel that the compliment each other. The Custer book being more "creative" and the Peschiera more "classic".

[paulj]

MSG in Peruvian recipes? Must be authentic. :) It would be dropped in recipes adapted to North American preferences.

http://www.yanuq.com/buscador.asp?idr...
is a recipe for arroz chufa - Peruvian fried rice
Note the use of Ají no Moto. I've seen Peruvian soy sauce in stores, but don't know if it tastes any different.

The online (google) translation looks pretty readable.

[The Dairy Queen]

MelMM forgive my ignorance, but you mention Argentine restaurants several times in your response. I'm just curious why food one might find in an Argentine restaurant would be a standard for judging Peruvian food, other than, obviously, Peru and Argentina are both South American countries, although, not even neighbors. Is Argentinian cuisine heavily influenced by Peruvian cuisine or something? Just curious. And interested. :).

~TDQ

[MelMM]

I mentioned Argentine restaurants because I had a bit too much (Argentine) wine in me and the wrong words were coming out. I certainly meant to say Peruvian restaurants in all instances above. The cuisines are quite different.

[The Dairy Queen]

HA! Okay! I only have passing familiarity with both cuisines, so I thought this is some kind of fascinating phenomenon I needed to know about. But, I am personally familiar with the Argentine wine phenomenon (works with Chilean wine, too, and even French or American wine!), so no need to explain further!

I was obsessed with recipes for suspiros awhile back. Do either of your books have a recipe and have you tried it? And how about empanadas? I am similarly obsessed with empanadas (and the similar Bolivian pastry, salenas. There's supposed to be a tilde over that "n" but I don't know how to do that).

I wish we'd do a South American COTM one of these days. Maybe one of these days when I'm actually able to cook, though.

~TDQ

[paulj]

Every Spanish speaking country has its version of empanadas, since the name just means 'in bread' or something like that. Perhaps the oldest version is the double crusted pie sold to pilgrims passing through Galicia.

A search on Yanuq for 'empanadas' turns up various recipes, including an Ecuadorian deep fried one with a fresh cheese filling, and a bake Peruvian one with a meat, egg and olive filling.

[The Dairy Queen]

Thanks for that. I'm still curious about what recipes appear in in her cookbooks.

~TDQ

[MelMM]

Now that I'm home from work and have the books in front of me, I can answer your question.

First, the Custer book:

No empanadas in the strictest sense (involving pastry), but if you are willing to think in broad terms, there is a recipe for a Peruvian version of wontons and eggrolls. Think even more broadly, and there is a stuffed yuca dish. The yuca is mashed, mixed with egg yolk, rolled into discs, filled with an octopus & shrimp filling, rolled up and fried. There are several interesting tamales. For instance a black tamal, colored with squid ink, and stuffed with crawfish tails. There are also stuffed potatoes, and a couple versions of tacu tacu that are filled with seafood. So no, no empanadas, but several starch-around-a-filling type things.

As for suspiros, if you are thinking of them as an individual meringue, it is not here either. However, there is a very interesting recipe (have not made it), called Suspiro de Limeña. It's a caramel custard, topped with a meringue that is flavored with a port wine syrup. The photo shows it served in individual portions in a martini glass. If you are interested, just ask, and I will summarize the recipe for you.

Now on to the Pescheira book:

No empanadas here. The only tacu tacu is the basic unfilled classic, but there is one tamal recipe.

The Suspiro de Limeña appears in this book as well. Very similar preparation, but the recipe is harder to follow because exact amounts for some ingredients are not given. For example, both books call for a can of condensed milk. But only the Custer book tells you what size can (14 oz).

I'm really glad this thread came up and that you asked this question, because it has caused me to look through the two books more thoroughly and more critically than I had in the past.

[The Dairy Queen]

That suspiro sounds very similar to the one I've been looking for, except that when I tried it, it was a mound of meringue covered in custard (the Custer one is the reverse.) Before you do a lot of work to paraphrase the recipe, does this look like it?

http://blog.peruvianconnection.com/fo...

All of those stuffed pastry recipes sound amazing! I wish this book weren't so expensive. I'd love to do it as a COTM.

~TDQ

[MelMM]

That is the exact recipe!

It would be a fascinating COTM, but I agree that the price makes it unlikely that it would be chosen. I do think that the book is worth getting, as expensive as it is. The proceeds go to charity.

[The Dairy Queen]

I decided I had to have this book. His website looks incredible!

~TDQ

[chefematician]

Can the cookbook be in Spanish? I have one that I love; my FIL picked it up the last time he was in Peru. It's called "Peru mucho gusto." The recipes are great (no ingredient substitutions) and there are lots of gorgeous full-color photographs.

[wattacetti]

You can start with something like Antonio Custer's "Art of Peruvian Cuisine" and go from there.

http://www.artperucuisine.com/

[paulj]

Have you looked at recipes online?

My impression is that there aren't a lot of herbs and ajis to deal with. The ones that I seen and bought in Latino shops include:
Huacatay - a 'black mint', most readily available as a paste in a jar
aji panca - a mild dried pepper, available whole dried, powder, or paste
aji amarillo - yellow hot pepper, again dried, paste or sauce, or maybe frozen
rocoto - v hot, red or yellow, mainly canned, frozen or paste

http://www.tienda.com/food/new-world-...

Even if a book has made substitutions, it shouldn't be hard to reverse those changes. If, for example it uses a mild Mexican pepper like ancho, you use aji panca instead.

[paulj]

By the way, the substitutions can go the other way - using Peruvian aji in place of Mexican chiles for example. Aji panca makes a good base of chili. Aji amarillo would work nice if you want a yellow color to your sauce or salsa.