Morena Cuadra - The Big Peruvian Cookbook: 100 Delicious Traditional Recipes from Peru

Copyright 2014 by Morena Cuadra and Morena Escard

First Skyhorse paperback edition 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Mona Lin

Photos by Morena Cuadra

iStockphoto credit: pg

Print paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-3841-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3786-0

Printed in China

Dedication

To my son, Eduardo Escard, with all
my love.

And to Ftima and Joaqun Escard,
my grandbabies, who fill my life with
so much love and joy.

THE RECIPES

T he making of a cookbook involves a communal effort in which many people contribute in more than one way. This book is no exception, and I would like to thank everyone at Skyhorse Publishing, and in particular Tony Lyons, for giving us the opportunity of doing what we love: creating books! Many thanks to Kristin Kulsavage, our editor on this project. It has been a pleasure to work with you throughout this process.

Special thanks and love to Rob Trehy, who made this book possible, and who is constantly encouraging us with cheerful enthusiasm. Thank you for being our official English language proofreader at late hours of the night, and for all the gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches you cooked for us when working tirelessly to meet deadlines.

Thanks to my baby brother, Chef Roberto Cuadra, for sharing with us delicious ideas, recipes, and photos from your wonderful Peruvian restaurant in San Salvador. Your invaluable help and talent has been a key factor in the making of this book, and we consider it to be yours too.

My deepest love and gratitude to my cousins Carolina and Oscar Alvarez, who were part of this, and other previous adventures, since day one. It was a blessing to have the chance to work for several weeks in your beautiful and fully equipped kitchen overlooking the forest. Your home is a cooksand a writersdream. Working there has been inspiring and relaxing, and I couldnt have found a better place for photo shooting my dishes. Thanks for your friendship, continuous love, support, and generous hospitality.

All my gratitude to my dear Peruvian friends and talented chefs, Ximena Llosa, Flavio Solrzano, Paola Cubas, and Hajime Kasuga, for sharing their unique recipes, first in our blog, and now in this book. A big thank you to Manuel Villacorta too, for his creative and nutritious recipes, and all his insights about Peruvian superfoods. You guys rock!

I would like to thank my lovely daughter-in-law, Antonella Delfino, who is now part of Peru Delights, and constantly shares with us her familys kitchen gems and the beautiful pictures she takes of them. While working on this book, Antonella gave birth to my first granddaughter, Ftima, the most beautiful baby in the whole world.

Thanks, as always, to Alex Smith, Rachel Bowen, and Hector Escard, for your first-class technical support, without which we wouldnt be here. And many thanks to the super talented Andrea Franco Batievsky, from Nuhr Studio, for her love and beautiful videos.

Thanks to Charles Lyons for his generous support and friendship, and for bringing Peru Delights to life in his Bright Leaf Pictures videos. Thanks to our fellow Latina bloggers, for their friendship, and for helping us become better bloggers, writers, and businesswomen every day. And a warm and special thank you to all my Peruvian friends and family, who constantly amaze me with their love and support.

Thanks to all PeruDelights.coms readers and followers, many of whom have become real-life friends. It is an honor to share our recipes with all of you, to interact through social media, and to get your kind and encouraging emails all the time. We wouldnt be here if it wasnt for you.

And to my angel of love, Morena Escard, who every single day teaches me something new. Having the chance to work with you is a dream come true. I love you with all my heart.

T he story of Peruvian food through the centuries is a delightful tale full of drama that I, as a modern Scheherazade, would love to share with you in this book. So let me set aside both the glorious and the painful sides of our history first, and focus only on the evolution of flavors that have become the core of our interesting gastronomy.

What makes Peruvian cuisine so enticing and wherein lies its huge attraction? I believe the reason behind its massive popularity are the European, African, and Asian flavors and techniques that have been adopted and blended with the local traditions and ingredients. Our cuisine takes pride in being open and flexible with the food of other countries, and this is why we quickly transform every foreign influence into a complex fusion of foods that burst with taste and soul.

Peruvians have been blessed to live in a country that contains most of the worlds micro climates within its varied geography. This allows for a fascinating array of luscious, colorful, nutrient-packed and sometimes funny-looking ingredients available year-round. Take the Amazon forest. This region alone boasts one of the most exquisite biodiversities in the entire world, and is home to all kinds of exotic fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, freshwater fish from the rivers and lagoons, and wild animals that make stunning dishes.

In the Andes, the extremely cold weather is ideal to grow native cereals like quinoa, amaranth, caihua, and our beloved giant kernel corn. More than 3,000 varieties of potatoes grow in this part of the country, alongside tubers like maca (known as the Peruvian ginseng), olluco, oca, and mashua. This is the land of llamas, alpacas, and all their relatives, which you can see running free up in the mountains, or turned into sturdy dishes cooked in clay pots with chili peppers and black mint. Vibrant pink trouts from local rivers, and frogs from Huancayos lakes are freshly caught and cooked in the moment, the latter sometimes turned into a soup famous for its invigorating properties.