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Many South American gourmets consider Peruvian cuisine on par with French, Italian, Chinese or Indian. The versatility of geography and pre-Inca, Inca, Spanish, Basque, African, Sino-Cantonese, Japanese, Italian, French and British gastronomic heritages of immigrants contribute to ingenious “fusion” preparations.
The Peruvian cuisines overall combine the flavours of four continents – Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.
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In the 15th century the Inca Empire had a well-developed agriculture, terraced fields, and irrigation systems.
Francisco Pizarro landed in what is today Peru, with 13 people on horses, and claimed an empire of 12 million for Spain. The plundering of riches accumulated over centuries took a few centuries, enriching the coffers of Spain, filled the deep pockets of conquistadors, and wasted huge amounts through petty theft.
Incas mostly grew potatoes fro stews, and cultivated 1000 varieties. Now there are 2000.
Pizarro introduced potato to Europe in the 16th century, but French agronomist Parmentier who correctly recognized its nutritional value popularized it. Incas also cultivated quinoa (they called it the mother grain).
Frost prone crops were panted on plains, and gradually, others on slopes, potatoes up to 1000 metres altitude.
During the first century-and-a-half of their stay in Peru the Spanish introduced European court life and established extractive industries for metals and minerals.
One could safely claim the fusion of Spanish and Inca cuisines to be the first of all that followed, and to this day continues in North America, particularly inte U.S.A.
Goats, chicken, beef, and lamb were cooked alongside with alpaca, guinea pig, hare and fowl. Rice, wheat, and barley were introduced along with olives, oils, vinegars, fruits and vegetables.
Pickling and frying were two new cooking techniques Incas learned from the Spanish.
The Iberian Peninsular cuisine is itself an amalgam of Mediterranean influenced legacy of Moors who occupied a large part of Spain for almost eight centuries, introducing spices like cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and a variety of desserts.
Spanish were also responsible for the introduction of sugar cane to Peru.
Convents in and around Lima invented many of the sweetmeats still popular and an Eurocentric pastry culture with African overtones stille exists.
Peru declared its independence July 28 1821 and the last Spanish soldiers left the country in 1824. The inspiration of declaration of independence came from the French revolution.
San Martin allowed free entry to Europeans, and by 1857 there were an estimated 20,000 non-Spanish living in Lima, including French, Scots, English, Germans, Italians, Scandinavians, and Mediterranean people.
The most dramatic culinary change came in the 19th and 20th centuries with the arrival of Chinese, who were brought in as workers in sugar plantations and cotton fields, and to collect “guano” for export. Chinese brought with them ginger, snow peas, soy sauce, seeds of various vegetables and fruits.
At the beginning of the 20th century the first Japanese arrived and introduced the notion of artistic food presentation of which they are masters.
The Spanish influenced the descendents of Quechua Indians who lived in Peru for millennia over five centuries, Chinese for one-and-a-half and Japanese for one.
Today, bright young chefs cerate new dishes, but the original “fusion cuisine” evolved due to geography, history and politics.
In Peru there are five distinct cuisines – the Coast and the cuisine of Lima, Central Coast, Northern Coast, Andes and Jungle.
The ceviche (see sidebar for recipe) with its many variations is a fine example of regional adaptation, generally served with camote (sweet potato).
The chupe de camarones is one of the most popular coastal cuisine specialties consisting of crayfish, potato, milk, and chilis.
The cuisine of Lima and Central Coast is broader and uses a lot of potatoes, beef, vegetables, chilis, chicken, and rice. Sancochado (beef and vegetable stew), empanadas (meat turnovers), aji de gallina (chili chicken), escabeche criollo (pickled fish) and chicharones are some of the most popular specialties.
Moorish and Spanish cooking, African traditions and East Indian gypsy food habits influenced the cuisine of the Northern Coast. Here goat stew, may be substituted with chicken or beef, stews made with dried meat, bananas, yucca, aji and ceviches.
The cuisine of the Andes is based on potatoes, maize, other tubers, alpacas, guinea pigs, lamb and pork.
The cuisine of the Jungle uses whatever is available, including freshwater fish, cassava, and a range of vegetable soups.
Peruvian desserts are mostly of Spanish origin – nougat, ice creams, jelly-based desserts, picatrones and suspiro Limeno, a milk based dessert.
The most famous alcoholic beverage is pisco, a powerful distillate derived from fermented Muscat grape juice, followed by beer and wine.
Chicha or Chicha de Jora is an ancient corn-based, aromatically infused mildly alcoholic beverage popular with natives.
Frequently used Peruvian ingredients:
Achiote is a Peruvian, terracotta-coloured plant with a distinctive peppery flavour resembling nutmeg. Mostly used in stews and sauces.
Limon is lime. In the USA it is called key lime. Limon tastes similar to lime but is juicier and generally used salsas, in dipping sauces, marinades and to “perk up” soups.
Papa seca (preserved dried potatoes) used mostly in stews.
Pisco is a distillate for fully fermented Moscat grape juice, and used for pisco sour.
Aji Amarillo is the most commonly used pepper. It has a hot fruity flavour and also available in paste form. Aji Amarillo is relatively mild and can be used a garnish.
Aji limo is a multicoloured miniature, extremely hot pepper, mostly used for ceviches.
Aji mirasol is the dried version of aji amarillo and used to make a paste for colouring stews, and rice.
Rocoto a fiercely hot medium sized round pepper.
Yuca (a.k.a manioc, cassava) is a starchy tuber extensively used in all Peruvian cuisines. It can be used instead of potatoes, fried, pureed or in croquettes.
Camaron Freshwater crayfish is a delicately flavoured crustacean that may be sautéed or boiled and included in soups, or served as appetizer with an appropriate dipping sauce.
In North America they are available in large urban centres in Latin American grocery stores.
CEVICHE
800m grams sea bass or flounder fillets
I red onion thinly sliced.
1 red aji limo (mild pepper) diced
I yellow aji limo
Juice of 16 limes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Cut fish into bite-sized pieces. Mix with onion. Wash and drain well. Season mixture with aji and salt. Toss in limejuice and few cubes of ice. Let it sit for 30 minutes, preferably longer up to 90 minutes.
Serve with boiled sweet potato and corn.
ESCABECHE
900 grams of white fish fillets
1 clove of garlic crushes
½ cup oil
½ each red and green pepper diced
1 red onion thinly sliced
¼ cup white wine
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp cumin
flour as required
salt and freshly ground pepper
Place heavy bottomed pan on fire, pour in oil, and when hot, dredge fillets in flour a fry to golden colour. Remove fish. In the same pan sauté garlic, cumin, oregano and pepper. Add the vinegar and rest for five minutes. Pour over fish and serve with boiled parsleyed potatoes, and tomato slices.
Fårikål (lamb in cabbage) is a traditional Norwegian dish, consisting of pieces of lamb’s meat with bone, cabbage and whole black pepper. In fact it has been voted the national dish for Norway. It has its own fan club and they have a special day in September which is the day of the fårikål (the last Thursday in September).
white sauce
We start with some ingredients. We have a big form, so it goes with a lot of minced meat. Cook minced meat with chopped garlic. Then put in the pasta sauce and grated carrots.
