Peruvian recipes submitted!
I'm trying to veganize some of Peru's more popular dishes and post the recipes on VegWeb. I've just posted recipes for Lomo Saltado ("beef" stir fry with french fries), Causa Limena (Peruvian potato salad: a delicious and unusual appetizer), and Sarsa Criolla (the tasty fresh onion relish that accompanies almost all restaurant meals). They'll probably pop up for the viewing in a few days.
Peruvian food is salty, celebrates the flavors of its basic fresh ingredients, savory, and not particularly spicy (although Peruvians seem to think it'll be hot enough to melt gringo faces!) It's very good, although foreigners (like me) can find the mixed starches and constant presence of eggs (I'll omit those from recipes at this site) perplexing.
Let me know if there's a Peruvian dish you want me to veganize; I've got a stack of Peruvian recipes and cookbooks and have tasted lots of goodies. I'm more experienced with coastal cuisine than Andean, though, so if it's kiwicha in coffee or peske de quinoa you're craving, I'll have to rely on recipe books rather than experience for the flavor!
;)
Oh that sounds wonderful! Thanks for all the effort!
My pleasure-- I haven't made a causa in forever, and I really want one now. Addictive, though it's unique and not everyone likes it... it's cold mashed potato salad built in layers around veggies!
The highlands are virtually identical, but Bolivia is landlocked, so there's variation along the Peruvian coast (where I lived)-- yes, quite a lot in common! In fact, the whole Andean cultural region wrestles over whose dish this or that really is: cebiche (citrus marinated fish), Pisco (a form of brandy) and Pisco Sours in particular, and various forms of tamale are all bones of great contention. It's hard to identify many dishes as Peruvian, Bolivian, Ecuadorian, or Chilean, and people really get passionate about "owning" recipes! (To me, they're all Peruvian, because that's where I lived.)
The ancient empires that flourished in the region straddled modern-day borders and did a lot of the forging of cultural ties between their component polities. This included the spread of imperial dishes and the sharing of creole cuisines, particularly as women moved between regions (and the Inca notoriously moved young women about for imperial weaving houses and so forth). Then, when the conquistadores, missionary authorities, and colonists brought their own culinary heritage, they fanned out all over the region as well. Plantation, ranch, business migrations (such as the Chinese workers imported for railroad and guano-mining labor) and agribusiness have further differentiated (and, in other ways, homogenized) them in recent years, but growing factors have typically determined the different foods eaten: fuel crops, altitude-and-temperature-sensitive foods, and the availability of (different) meats create variations. Thus the whole Andean cultural region shares many cuisine-related, historical, and cultural features. Every region has its specialties, true, but these micro-regional treats can enjoy a VERY limited geographical distribution.
/rant :-[
Anyway, yeah! Very similar!
Duckalucky, if you haven't looked at this blog yet check it out. She has a lot of peruvian recipes and might save you some trouble.
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/
Duck, dear, I did what you said with the chulpi corn, tossed it in the popcorn pan. It toasted and was good! A few kernels did...well, not so much "pop" as Explode! You could hear the familiar popcorn "rattle" in the pan (I do it the old way, in oil over a flame) and then once in a while this loud BANG as something larger than usual hit the lid!
In any case I will soak some and cook them with other veg, as with chicos, to see if they are interchangeable.
Peruvian cuisine on vegweb...utter, utter, utter blissikins! :D
Vegan1 and MDVEgan: Wonderful links! I have bookmarked that list of veganized Peruvian recipes, and I am impressed-- vegan anticuchos, wow! Yum!
MDVegan: nothing easier than papas rellenas; I'll find a recipe and post a vegan version. People also stuff mashed sweet potatoes ("camotes rellenos"--generally with bland white cheese-- I'm betting vegan mozzarella would do brilliantly) and mashed yuca. I think the recipe is fairly flexible, so if anyone gets any festive holiday ideas about sweet potatoes, go crazy with it!
Saltenas (can't figure out how to tilde) are close to, but not identical with, the form of meat pie that was eaten where I lived (they called 'em empanadas). We lived above a bakery, and every time they made empanadas, we lusted after them; we did eat them sometimes but we limited our meat consumption even in Peru. The fillings for pretty much all Peruvian savoury pies and tamales were the same, though the proportions would fluctuate-- always meat (usually chicken), with onions, achiote, cumin, minor amounts of mild chiles, raisins, olives, and hard-cooked eggs. I think we can work with that: I'll ponder vegan ways of achieving the same flavor/texture profile (the egg is the hard part, and heck, why not just cut-up extra-firm tofu?)
Yabbitgirl: I'm glad the chulpi cancha worked out-- I love it. I am positively addicted to it. My mom used to keep ears of starchy, less tender corn (which we weren't as excited about eating) and dry them out, then push the kernels off them and "parch" them with popcorn for movie nights. Being able to buy the dried kernels in Peru was just childhood bliss for me.