Goat Meat

Goat. If you're American and reading this, chances are you might have had goat cheese, but never eaten goat itself. It has a strong, bold flavor quite unlike other red meat.

This recipe also requires anatto. Anatto is readily available anywhere you can find authentic Mexican ingredients. It looks a lot like red lead paint powder, and is used to achieve the saffron-like color in this dish (and is quite a bit cheaper than saffron).

This recipe also uses aji amarillo. If this is unavailable, you can substitute jalapeno.

Seco de Cabrito

Marinade Time: 4 hours

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 1/2 hour

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

3 lbs goat meat

1 bottle beer

1 tbsp ground anatto

2 tbsp aji amarillo paste

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1/3 bunch fresh parsley

2 aji amarillo

1 tsp cumin

2 chopped yellow onions

6 garlic cloves

1 chopped tomato

1 lb potato

Preparation:

Cut the goat into 1 inch cubes. Make a marinade out of garlic, anatto, aji amarillo paste, salt, black pepper, and beer. Marinate goat for at least four hours prior to cooking.

In a blender mix cilantro, parsley, onion, cumin, aji amarillo, and 1/4 cup stock and blend until smooth.

Cooking:

In a large pot heat 3 tbsp oil, and fry the goat meat until browned. Add the cilantro blend, and enough water to cover goat, and heat for four minutes. Add the marinade, and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes, and then reduce to simmer and add the potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are soft.

Serve with rice.

This dish is exotic, and the flavor of goat may put off some of the less adventurous, but it's well worth the effort. The original, somewhat garbled recipe, called for yucca. Personally, I'm not sure I'm a fan of the yucca and potatoes seem perfectly Pervuian, but either way it's delicious.

Locro de Zapallo

Squash, peas, and corn... The essential ingredients of the Americas are all represented inthis dish.

You can use jalapeno instead of aji amarillo, if you can't find it.

Locro de Zapallo

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

3 lbs squash, cubed

1/3 cup oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp aji amarillo

1 tsp oregano

3/4 cup peas

3 white potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes

2 cups sweet corn

1/2 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup shredded white cheese (most likely montery jack or white cheddar will work)

3 green olives, pitted and halved

salt and pepper to taste

Cooking:

Heat oil in a pot and then add the onion, garlic, aji amarillo, and oregano. Cook until aromatic. Then add the squash, peas, potato, and corn. Cover, and simmer until squash and potatoes are soft.

Add milk and cheese. Mix until cheese is melted, and pepper and salt to taste.

Serve topped with chunks of cheese, and the olives.

This dish is really quite nice. The olive topping pulls it together really nicely. I'm not entirely certain whether it was originally intended to be squash or pumpkin, though I suspect it doesn't matter which you use.

Pesque de Quinoa

Quinoa is a little known tan or red Incan grain that has recently experienced a surge of popularity after several hundred years of the human race ignoring it. With a wonderful flavor, an ideal protein profile, and all the advantages of cereal grains and non of the disadvantages, you may want to stop by your local health food/natural/yuppie grocery store to try some, in any variety of ways. Ironically, I had a hard time finding English-language Peruvian recipes for it, but I did manage to get this one translated via Google Translate.

Pesque de Quinoa

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa

2 cups milk

1 medium potato, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp goat cheese

Pepper and salt to taste

Prep:

In a strainer, wash the quinoa thoroughly

Cooking:

In a medium pot, sauté onion in butter until soft. Add the quinoa and milk, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and add the potato. Simmer, covered, 30-35 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Remove from heat, and mix in goat cheese, salt, and pepper.

This dish is really easy and wonderful. I definitely recommend trying it.

Macchu Picchu

Mashed green plantains and fish? It sounds like an unlikely pairing, but happens to be delicious.

If you can't find aji amarillo, you can substitute jalapeno. The aji paste can be replaced with chilli paste.

I found this recipe on google, and used google translate to get something....somewhat comprehensible. However, it came out great! I baked tilapia, though I suspect the original recipe would have used blanched shellfish...

Either way, it's delicious!

Majarisco

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 lbs seafood

5 green plantains

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp aji paste

2 diced aji amarillo

1 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

Cooking:

Blanch or grill seafood to soften for a few minutes, then remove from heat.

Slice up and fry the bananas in an oiled pan until soft, then remove from heat and mash.

In an oiled pan, fry the onion, garlic, aji paste, and aji amarillo until soft. Then add the seafood, crushed bananas, and water, and mix over low heat until warm.

Chapter 7 : Peru

Our arrival in Peru revealed a land unlike most of its predecessors. Once the home of the great Incan Empire, Peru remains a hotspot for biodiversity, with more breeds of edible foods indigenous than msot other countries. Peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, tamarillo, quinoa, amaranth, aji peppers, and many varieties of corn are from this diverse country.

We set off quietly into the crowds, surrounded by unknown things; hot yellow peppers, goat meat, and green plantains.

Inca Kola was the most popular soda in Peru, a hazardously yellow carbonated beverage with a strong, bubble gum flavor.

A more pleasant local beverage was Purple Corn Drink, a sticky sweet concoction made from a dark variety of maize.

But the most important thing to watch out for, wary traveler, was aji amarillo, a long, yellow hot pepper. The paste and flesh of this capsicum variety is to be found everywhere in this mysterious country, and while jalapeno makes a reasonable substitute, the flavor of aji amarillo is by far the better of the two.

Next Time: Plantains and fish? Majarisco!

Tree Tomatoes : Red Tamarillo

The Red Tamarillo is a fruit that originates from Latin America, but has been used in world cuisine, though it's not well known. Originally called the "Tree Tomato", it was named the Red Tamarillo to distinguish it and market it.

The flavor, once cut open, is not very sweet for a fruit, fittingly. Katrina found the seeds and the area around them terribly acrid, and the flesh had a more pleasant, mild flavor.

I haven't run across a recipe for preparing these yet, but I suspect it is useful in a variety of dishes as a savory ingredient, or even possibly sweetened. But I'll be honest: it's not a good snack!

Cherimoya

Where: Peru

Mark Twain called this "the most delicious fruit known to men". Certainly, that's a hell of an endorsement he gave to this oddly shaped Peruvian fruit.

Found at a local Meijer, it took several days for it to ripen in a paper bag until it was soft, like an avocado, during which time I daily inspected it to see if it was ripe, and Katrina pointed out it didn't quite seem there yet.

Finally, it softened, and we cut it in half to dig in. The inside was quite odd, with a feathery, almost custard-like texture, and filled with large, black seeds. The flavor was mild, almost faintly tasting of lychee and papaya, but really I struggle to compare it to any other fruit I've had in texture of taste.