Morena Cuadra - The Everything Peruvian Cookbook: Includes Conchitas a la Parmesana, Chicken Empanadas, Arroz con Mariscos, Classic Fish Cebiche, Tres Leches Cake and hundreds more!

PERUVIAN
COOKBOOK

Morena Cuadra and Morena Escard

Founders of PeruDelights.com

Dear Reader,

I was only seventeen years old when I discovered Peruvian food. I was recently married and my husband introduced me to the many wonderful dishes of his childhood; each one accompanied by an interesting anecdote or story. I was in awe of all the new and exotic flavors I had in front of me, but trembled at the idea of preparing any of those incredible dishes by myself. First of all, I knew nothing about cooking, and those beautiful dishes seemed like something only the masterful Peruvian cooks could do with grace.

At the time, I marveled at the freshness of cebiche and the sweetness of the many colorful fruits in the Peruvian markets, all of them so different in size and flavor from the tropical ones I was used to. Every season brought new vegetables and produce, cereals and grains, amazing fish and seafood. Every visit to the market was exciting and educational. And my love and curiosity for these striking ingredients, and for the wonderful way Peruvian people prepare them, has never tired.

If you have picked up this book, chances are you have already tried or heard of the fascinating food Peru has to offer. If you havent, dont worry! The popularity of Peruvian food has been a long time coming, and is finally starting to become a reality.

This has been a fascinating journey, and I hope you enjoy this introduction to Peruvian cooking as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Buen Provecho!

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION EDITOR Mary Beth Dolan

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Lisa Laing

DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Eileen Mullan

EVERYTHING SERIES COVER DESIGNER Erin Alexander

Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

To Enrique Escard V-G, for teaching us to love Peru and its food.

To Eduardo, my son, my inspiration, and my best friend, with unconditional love and gratitude. Your infinite faith in me, and your permanent encouragement no matter what, mean the world to me. Thanks to my parents for being the best role models. Much love to my brothers Eduardo and Roberto, friends and partners in so many adventures. To the best sisters a girl could have: Belinda, Roxana, and Veronica. Thanks to Antonella, for sharing her family recipes for this book. I enjoyed our several hours working together. To my dear cousin Carolina Alvarez, for sharing so many funny conversations over breakfast. Special thanks and love to my personal angel, Sharon Peyus, and her husband, Al, for making me feel like family.

Heartfelt thanks to Peru, and my Peruvian family and friends, for welcoming me and teaching me all I know about this wonderful country. And last but not least, my eternal love and gratitude to my daughter, the other half of this team, and the soul of www.perudelights.com. Youve kept me going with love and care since day one. I couldnt dream of a better partner. You are the best! Love you always.

Morena C.

First of all I would like to thank my mom, my grandmother, and Amelia, the three women I grew up with in the kitchen. They prepared the most delicious and comforting food while sharing beautiful stories that taught me not only about food, but also about life. The recipes and thoughts you so lovingly shared with me will stay in my heart forever.

A big thank you to Alex Smith, Rachel Bowen, Hector and Eduardo Escard (my brothers), Andrea Franco (my sister!), and Ana Flores, for being the steam behind this machine, sharing your time with us so generously, and helping us from the start, when we still had no clue what we were doing. Your knowledge, advice, and inspiration have been invaluable. On that note, thanks to Alexandra Collas (another sister!) for being our very own cheerleader. Your super enthusiastic support never gets old.

Roberto Cuadra, Ximena Llosa, Antonella Delfino, Valentina Cordero, Jorge Tali: Without your rockstar contributions, Peru Delights wouldnt be the same. We hope you will keep sharing your delicious food and great knowledge with us and with the rest of the world for a very long time to come. And Roberto, thank you also for boldly sharing the food of Peru in Central America, and for feeding us your exquisite food every time we come to visit. You are an amazing chef.

Thank you Rob, for proofreading my English writing even when youre tired or have much more important things to do. And thanks, especially, for being the guinea pig for my cooking experiments, and eating them with a smile.

And to Lisa Laing and the team behind this book at Adams Media: Youve made The EverythingPeruvian Cookbook a reality, bringing the wonderful culinary tradition of our country to many homes, and for that, we are extremely grateful.

Morena E.

WITH SO MANY REGIONS, climates, ingredients, traditions, and cooking techniques that vary extensively across Peru, is it possible to really talk about Peruvian food as a united cuisine? A quick look at the difference in looks, clothes, religion, even in language, and the people that inhabit this eclectic land would make anyone question the relation of one culinary heritage to the next.

For example, people on the coast of Peru shy away from eating alpaca meat or the Amazonian worm known as suri. Andeans wouldnt dream of eating all the sweets and desserts that are lusted for in the capital. With so many differences between them, it is clear that it would be better to talk about the many Peruvian cuisines that, put together, make up these endless array of dishes.

There is, however, common ground between them; and it is not just the geographical ground they all share. Probably the biggest, strongest bond that glues Peruvian food together is the way Peruvians feel about it as a whole, whether it is a native from the dry desert along the Pacific Coast, from the river valleys up in the cold Andes, or from the colorful, joyous towns in the deep Amazon jungle. Just as sports or historical triumphs make the people of some countries chant the same song with one loud voice, in Peru, food, and the peoples love and respect for it, is the factor that joins Peruvians together as one, despite their differences. This is far from being a new thing, although the culinary boom of the last few years has ignited an even stronger flame in Peruvian cuisine. Looking back through history, though, food has always been at the center of the life and culture of the people who inhabit this fertile, magical, and mysterious land.