Food from Afar - Cusco

About an hour plane ride away, Cusco has a much more antique feel than Lima. Brick and tan buildings splay out via cobblestone streets from Plaza de Armas (the Main Square) into the hills. You can feel the altitude from the moment you step off the plane. Every hotel, tourist shop, and restaurant is offering coca tea. Made from the same plant from which the drug cocaine is derived, these legal and natural leaves are dropped into hot water for tea or steeped into candies to help alleviate altitude sickness. The flavor is mildly herbaceous with a hint of mint.

The sun rises early so near the equator, and with it, Peruvian women dressed in traditional garb start their day early, selling food and drink on the side of the streets. Hard boiled quail eggs are deshelled and dropped into a small plastic bag with a spoonful of aji, a soupy green sauce predominantly made with cilantro, onion, and jalepeno. Others haul five gallon buckets full of chicha, a lightly fermented corn beer. The cloudy, foamy, white/yellow beverage is periodically mixed by scooping and dumping with a measuring cup. For 1 sole (approx. $.33) you get a glass and a pour to be consumed right there. The flavor is slightly sweet and thick but not chewy. The flavor of the corn comes through a bit, and the slight fermentation (1-4% alcohol) gives just a tickle to the back of your throat. Variations on the beverage include using purple corn (chicha morada), making it sweeter and taste slightly of grape juice also providing a dark inky color, or adding strawberries to the original corn mash making it a cloudy pink and again, adding and berry sweetness.

While corn, potatoes, and grains (like quinoa) are the basis of the Peruvian diet, there are so many classic dishes to try, it’s a challenge to choose. At the suggestion of my hostel, one night I headed over to La Cusqueñita, a traditional Peruvian restaurant for dinner. Inclusive in their 50+ item buffet was also traditional music and dancing. I still don’t understand the mustachioed masks, but the food was delicious. We sampled everything including soups and salads alongside Lomo saltado (strips of beef sautéed with onions, tomatoes, and chunks of starchy potatoes) aji de gallina (chicken in a yellow curry sauce with onions), chicharones (fried pork belley), queso andines (Andean cheese, similar to feta in its texture and saltiness but not as crumbly and colored off-white, sold in 3kg wheels at the local market for 12 soles [$4]) and arroz con leche (rice pudding topped with a purple corn based syrup and fresh fruit).

One oddity that you will find on almost every menu in Cusco is guinea pig. Every place that offers it prepares it one of two ways, roasted or fried. The Peruvian delicacy is priced the same (50 soles or about  $17) at every restaurant and can be ordered head on or off. I was leaving the city on my way to the Sacred Valley to start my Inka Trail Trek (my next post) and discovered a tiny town called Lamay, known for its spit-roasted gunea pig. I took the collectivo (municipal bus) and when I saw the ladies waving the rodents on sticks, I flagged the driver to stop. I made my selection of guinea pig from the hearth and after some pictures, sat down to a hearty meal. When ordering guinea pig, you get the whole animal. The innards had been removed prior to roasting and were replaced with herbs and spices, also removed before plating. The skin was dark brown and blistered from the dry heat, and the body was cut into quarters and yes, the head was still on. The meat itself was soft and juicy, tasting somewhere between dark meat turkey and duck. Some complained that the dish is boney, but no more than one would expect from eating a mammal. Corn and potatoes were sides, along with a dish of aji. After the meal, I was served a shot of a clear, anise-flavored spirit as an aperitif.

Back on the collectivo, backpack in tow, I made my way to Ollantaytambo to begin my four day trek.

Food From Afar – Lima

As the sun fell, so did my plane descend. Through the clouds of the almost ever-present haze of Lima, the orange street light-dotted landscape of the capital city of Peru came into view. Bags acquired, I left the airport and was immediately accosted by a swarm of taxi drivers. In Peru, taxis are bargained for prior to the ride, getting in one anywhere in Lima is taking your life into your own hands. The lane dividers seem more like suggestions than rules, as my cab fought his way through the gaps in traffic. My hostel was in Miraflores, a district of high rise apartments boarding the ocean. On this Saturday evening, the nightlife was in full swing, bars and restaurants pumping both Spanish Salsa music and American Pop.

After checking in and getting a map, I hit the streets. Blocks away, I found John F. Kennedy Park, a greenspace famous for its stray cats. Food carts were scattered around the area, offering snacks and refreshments from ice cream pops, popcorn, to sleeves of nuts and/or fried corn, a ubiquitous snack in Peru. I capped off my night with the famous drink of Peru, Pisco.

When purchasing pisco from the store, the first question you will always be asked “is this for drinking or for mixing?” The spirit is made from a grapes and much like wine, the type of grape used is labeled on the bottle, with the exception of acholado, meaning it is a blend. The latter has a fruitier flavor and is the one you want if pisco sour is your destination. The classic drink is served in every bar, along with the country’s national beer, Cusquena and national soda, Inka Kola (A yellow soda with floral and pineapple flavors). Pisco sours are made easily enough, 2 parts pisco, 1 part fresh lime juice, 1 egg white, ½ simple syrup. Add ice and shake vigorously.

The next day was spent completely on foot. Walking the beaches, seeing the parasailers take off from the steep cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Exhaust and blaring car horns fight for domination of your senses. I found a hideaway from the din wandering to the local market for a tasting lunch. Lima has quite a gastronomic variety, including cooking classes and tours, but I prefer to be a little more self-directed, too bad I don’t speak Spanish. The two edible highlights of Lima have to be the fruit and the ceviche. First, the fruit. In the market, I made friends with the little old lady shop keepers by sampling and purchasing every fruit that I couldn’t put a name to, and then some. Check the Facebook for a video primer of Grecia walking me through the names of some of the oddities (in Spanish).

To the ceviche, as a coastal city, fresh fish (mostly trout) and a plethora of seafood like octopus, shrimp, and scallops come in every day. Just outside the market, locals sit around metal tables ordering the 6 sole (approx. $2) menu del dia. Just down the street, a cart is surrounded by Limans, slurping leche de tigre (tiger milk, the leftover sauce/soup from ceviche). The woman behind the cart was squeezing the small Peruvian limes into a metal mixing bowl, casually tossing in onions, finely chopped peppers and other juices. A quick stir and the citrus “cooked” seafood was scooped into a bowl and garnished with fried corn and seaweed. It was the best ceviche I have ever eaten, and it was $2.50, eaten standing up amidst the lunch rush. Welcome to Lima.

Graham’s Gastronomy – Unshepherded Pie

The sun sets sooner and the temperatures fall, the seasons shift from summer to autumn and with the weather, so does my palate change. Again, I found myself in the company of friends cooking dinner after work. Summer vegetation is giving way to fall foliage and what once would have seemed heavy and “stick to your gut” dish now seems warming and filling. When I was told I had, among other things, ground turkey and potatoes to work with, along with organic Applewood smoked bacon grease, a series of substitutions came to mind.

Ground turkey is leaner than beef. It’s not as flavorful, drier, and is no substitute in many situations. However, if the dish has enough other components, these undesirable attributes can be hidden amongst accoutrements. I personally prefer my shepherd’s pie with chunks of lamb, but even traditionally, beef is used. Peas as a traditional English addition, but those too were not present. Starting with an aromatic base of carrots, onion (in this case, they had half a purple onion to be used), garlic, and celery then adding the corn made for a plethora of vegetable colors, all sautéing with the smell of bacon.

Again, the traditional shepherd’s pie would have the meat and vegetables beneath a layer of mashed potatoes that would then be baked for a golden, brown, and delicious crust. There were three of us eating and we were hungry. So instead, we made three variations of plating. Using a red pepper as a garnish, we layered the meat, vegetables, and potatoes in different orders and sat down to a healthier, albeit non-traditional variation of a classic dish.

Unshepherded Pie

2 lbs ground turkey

1 can or 2 cobs of corn

½ purple onion, chopped

½ white onion chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 large carrots, cut into thin coins

3 ribs celery, chopped

1 T bacon grease (optional)

3 lbs potatoes, cleaned, skin on, chopped

1 T butter

½ C milk

Boil the potatoes in enough water to cover until fork tender. Add the butter and milk and mash, season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a large sautee pan, add the carrots with a few tablespoons of water and cover, when slightly tender, add the bacon grease (or whatever oil you like) both onions, garlic, corn, and celery. Sautee on med-hi until celery becomes soft and onions are translucent.

In a separate sautee pan, cook the ground turkey and flavor as you like. I added paprika, ground mustard, a little soy sauce, and pepper. Once browned, add to the vegetables and potatoes as you see fit to plate.

Noshing Out – Annual Paella Party

With the sun going down, the last weekend of summer’s heat dissipated into a fall cool. When my girlfriend and I arrived we were greeted first by the smell of smokey chorizo giving up its fat to the paella, coating the bottom of the pan. Sangria and vino verde in hand, we stepped inside my friend’s condo, the party already in full swing.

Every year, my friends unveil their 3’ diameter paella pan, procure prime crustaceans, and prepare a wonderful meal. Appetizers, sides, dessert, and wine are brought by the dinner guests and we all nosh upon delicious, Spanish-inspired foods. We gathered on the porch, the propane tank fueling the blue flames as our host and chef built the paella part by part. Chicken, flavored with oregano and Spanish paprika sizzled as it hit the hot chorizo grease. Once cooked, it was removed and was replaced by rice and seafood along with a shellfish broth. The final addition was the archetypal spice of paella, saffron. One of the most costly spices, it imparts a complexity of flavor befitting the rice dish. Lid on, the shrimp, clams, and mussels steamed together with the rice and spices, a briny smell emanating from the pan. But it was the smell of toast, produced by the socarrat, the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan, that we waited for.

Once the socarrat was achieved, the chef finished adorning the dish with peas and red peppers and chunks of lobster that had already been cooked. The result was a beautiful panoply of colors and flavors, ready to be consumed. As we hungrily scooped the paella onto our plates, one of the other diners opened a bottle of French sancerre. Much like a sauvignon blanc, aromas of lemon and hibiscus came through on the nose of the light golden wine. Served iced cold, a light acidity sat on the palate, cleansing and refreshing me for the next bite.

Our plates and glasses were refilled as we talked over the clatter of shells being tossed into a bowl in the center of the table. Full of the famous Spanish coastal dish, I can’t thank the gracious chef/hosts enough for another amazing time with amazing friends.

Sangria

1 bottle fruit forward red wine – I like to use sirah or zinfandel, merlots and cabernet sauvignon often have too much tannin

1 green apple, chopped

1 red apple chopped – one of the few times I use red delicious

1 orange – peel on, cut into thin slices

* 1/3 C Peach schnapps

* 1 T lemon juice

* Pim’s or other berry flavored spirit

Add all ingredients, stir and chill. Sangria is always a taste, add, taste process. Variations (mango, pineapple, coconut, cranberry) abound. I suggest making it a few hours before service to let the fruit infuse the wine. Serve cold with a cube of ice and a small scoop of the fruit.

Noshing Out – Three Generations of Italian in Hartford

The old, copper espresso press reflected, in golden tones, Grandpa Carbone as he regaled the attentive crowd in the warmly lit back room of the restaurant “Back when we started this place, we couldn’t call it ‘Carbone’s’ because any Italian sounding restaurant would be associated with the mafia!” About 30 Yelpers, Tweeters, Bloggers, and socialites laughed at the history of Carbone’s Restaurante. “We wanted to show people in Hartford that Italian food wasn’t only about pizza and spaghetti and meatballs. So every year, we would go to New York City and eat at the most revered Italian restaurants. We would try the dishes that were most popular there, lobster fra diavolo, zuppa de pesce, whatever. They said there is no way that the chefs would tell you how they make it. So my father (the first generation Carbone) would say that he was a health inspector and next thing you know, he was in the kitchen watching how the chefs would do this or that and he would bring those techniques and recipes back here.” The introductory speech was handed over to his son, Vinnie, dressed in a white coat as Chef Owner, to walk us through the sampling menu for the evening, a tasting of one of Hartford’s iconic establishments as part of a Yelp event series “CT Classics.”

The tasting was set with three stations, highlighting coastal, modern, and classic. At each, Vinnie highlighted the ingredients that had been sourced locally from a partner farm. The first station featured roasted potatoes from that farm in a variety of colors and sizes, all cut into thick wedges and roasted. The crunchy and brown outside gave way to a soft, puffy center. Paired with this was octopus, covered in Spanish paprika and charred black, giving the diner a double taste of smoke. Lastly at that station was a shrimp ceviche. Lemon and lime were used to “cook” the thickly cut, white fleshed shellfish. Purple onion, tomato, and green pepper added a vegetative crunch along with a bright color pallet to the dish.

The modern station gave the diner a selection between two versions of fried chicken, not a typical Italian staple. The honey chicken was crispy on the outside, the batter crunching off and the inside steaming as you bit in. Local honey was drizzled on top with bundled sprigs of rosemary. Alternative to honey was spicy, a bright orange sauce covering the chicken in addition to the aforementioned batter. Heat crept up on me as the vegetative, “green” flavor from the partner farm peppers came through on the sauce.

Lastly, the fresh pasta station was manned by Vinnie himself. The summer oriented dish highlighted the fresh tomatoes, sitting dark red in his mis en place. Built in a sauté pan coated with yellowish green olive oil, Vinnie tossed tubular pasta, raw and roasted garlic, grated pecorino cheese, both sun dried and fresh tomatoes. Over the heat, the tomatoes broke down, bringing  out the classic pasta sauce aroma you associate with Italian grandmothers. Vinnie plated the pasta with house made meatballs. I inquired as to what kind(s) of meat he used. “We take the ends from the pork loin and mix them with ground beef, pecorino romano, some spices, and yesterday’s Italian bread soaked in milk, just like grandma used to do.”

Flashes and clicks were seen and heard over the dull roar of the evening, as attendees (including myself) took photographic evidence of their dining pleasure. I made some new friends, each of us waxing poetic over Hartfordian gems like Carbone’s. Keep watch for more posts about CT Classics and thank you Carbone’s for a delicious evening.

Noshing Out – Selfies

Every month on the second Friday a Meetup group of friends and I get together at someone’s house for a zaney-themed cooking extravaganza. This month, the event took place in Middletown, half in the kitchen, and half under a warm, starlit sky. The theme, as usual, was scarcely tangentially related to food “Selfies.”  After deliberation (and an inspection of my pantry), I decided on creating a dish reflective of my cooking style, a selfie of sorts. I tend to use ingredients that are in season, and go from those ingredients to eating within an hour. Mixing flavors in a novel manor, be they ethnically diverse or culinarily contradictory, is also recurring theme for me. In this case, apples were my base. Cinnamon first came to mind, but that wasn’t enough, as a flurry of other spices passed my mind, I realized I was considering the building blocks of chai. But the dish still needed body, substance, so I added cream and rice with a dab of honey for refinement and my dessert was ready.

My girlfriend and I arrived around 7. The cooking was already underway, with one of the foodies putting together ingredients for a chicken curry. Our gracious host, Terry, always one for healthy eating, was in the process of creating a buffalo flavored cauliflower. She used frozen bunches and bestowed them with a smokey aroma by dressing them with hot sauce and a variety of Cajun and BBQ spices before laying them on a baking sheet in the oven to roast.

The real action was outside. Laughter and a din of food preparation came up from the patio below. A stone slab staircase descended onto a gazebo and rock enclosed grill. Already, other guests were imbibing in the variety of wines, the corks laid next the bottles from whence they came. More foodies arrived, some dishes coming fully prepared, like a Moroccan stew, sprinkled with peanuts and squirts of lime before service. Heady spice scented steam billowed out of the carafe when he revealed his creation, claiming it met the theme as an homage to the fact that we all came out of Africa. Amateur chefs quizzed one another over ingredients and preparation styles. One foodie expressed themselves by making a salad from heirloom tomatoes grown in their garden. The golden varietal had been roasted in a cast iron skillet and tossed with feta cheese and a homemade pesto.

Our favorite dish however was the pork loin. Wanting to highlight the side sauce, the pork was unmarinated and seasoned simply before hitting the grill, cut to thin, medium rare slices and were laid out next to the chutney. Both sweet and savory, onion, red pepper, garlic, and peach played in a viscous sauce which I liberally adorned my pieces of loin.

The remainder of the evening was spent sampling wines, noshing on the smorgasbord of offerings, and reveling in the like-mindedness of food focused friends. An event that I look forward to every month, made even better when I dont even have to drive myself home.

Apple Chai Rice Pudding

2 C white rice

1 C peeled, chopped apple (sweeter varieties like gala, fuji, or honeycrisp)

½ C cream

1 ½ C chai tea (strong)

½ C honey

1/8 t salt

1 t vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a medium pot over med/high heat and cover. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat to low and let simmer until rice soaks in all liquid. Serve warm.

Graham’s Gastronomy - Feeling Porky

Cravings are a double edged sword. On the positive side, cravings help narrow the spectrum of possibilities for what I am looking to cook or eat. On the other hand, they can lead me astray from what might otherwise be a healthy decision. The other night, I felt both edges of that that sword, as my fellow foodie friend, Dave and I got together to cook, both of us with a hankering for pork. While I tend to be more “cook whatever I’m inspired by in the grocery store,” Dave prefers planning the meal and shopping for specific ingredients. We split the difference and settled on a pork loin with something and a bacon topped frisee salad dressed somehow. Our trek to the grocery store and rummaging through our respective refrigerators produced a mango, apples, onions, and shallots. Good to go.

We were cooking at Dave’s apartment, whose kitchen is not large, so the both of us, imitating professional chefs, kept declaring “behind!” as we passed chopped and prepped ingredients from cutting board to pan. It started with me cutting locally grown apples into match sticks, chopping onion and shallot, and slicing mango into small cubes while Dave crisped thick-cut, applewood smoked bacon, which I also chopped. We used the grease from the bacon coated both the pans for the pork loin and  the onions. The loin, after being seared in a pan and flavored simply with salt and pepper, was put in the oven at 350 until an internal temperature of 150 was reached. It was then evacuated and wrapped in foil to rest before being sliced on the bias and topped with a mango chutney. The chutney had been reducing from when the pork originally went in, combining onion, mango juice, and fresh mango with a little lemon, salt and pepper. The chutney thickened and was dapped atop the pork.

The salad was assembled just before service. The frisee, apple, and bacon were tossed together in a large mixing bowl and plated. The aforementioned shallot was sautéed in the bacon grease and once translucent, we added balsamic vinegar and fresh ground pepper. The salad didn’t feel dressed enough, so to finish the creation, we poached an egg for each of us and crowned the vegetation. The runny center cascaded down the lettuce providing an unctuous mouthfeel to the crunchy components.

The dinner itself was spent is nigh silence as we consumed our creation, but conversation picked up quickly thereafter as we turned our attention to demolishing one another in Super Smash Brothers. What a great night.

Mango Chutney

·         1 whole onion, chopped

·         1 T Bacon grease (or duck fat, or clarified butter)

·         1 mango, peeled and cubed

·         6 oz mango juice

·         Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion in fat until translucent, add mango and mango juice and reduce until consistency of honey

Frisee Salad

·         2 heads frisee lettuce, rinsed and pulled apart

·         4 slices bacon, cooked crispy and chopped

·         1 medium apple (sweeter is better, fuji or pink lady would work well)

·         1 shallot, chopped fine

·         1/3 C bacon grease

·         1 egg per person, poached with runny center

·         1/3 C balsamic vinegar

Mix apple, chopped bacon, and lettuce in large mixing bowl. Brown shallot in bacon grease then remove from heat, add balsamic and mix, then toss over salad mix. Top with poached egg and fresh ground pepper.