“Why does a cookbook on Peruvian food have stir fry recipes?” asked one of my coworkers, leafing through the massive copy ofPeru: The Cookbookthat sat on my desk. “And why are there so many of them?”
Good question. And one with a pretty interesting answer, as it turns out. Too badPerudoesn't quite answer it.
A confession: I knew next to nothing about Peruvian food when I began this month’s review. That’s one reason the book interested me. Apart from ceviche and the occasionalpisco sour, I’ve had very little interaction with Peruvian food. I just knew the cuisine was famous for its Amazonian produce, spit-roasted guinea pig (cuy), and the fact that, year after year, it’s predicted to be the Next Big Food Trend.
And, of course, I knew of Peruvian superchef Gastón Acurio. It is almost impossible to overstate the influence Acurio has had on his country and its cuisine. He runs over 40 restaurants at every price point, including three in the US (San Francisco, Miami, Chicago). His flagship, Astrid y Gastón,is currently second拉丁美洲的50个最好的餐馆列表,和我t resides in a historic hacienda that was the site of a major battle of the Peruvian Civil War in 1855. He iswidely regardedas the driving force behind the massive interest in cooking among Peru’s youth.
In other words, if there’s anyone to explain Peruvian food and how to make it, it’s Gastón Acurio.
Conveniently, the chef has written his first English-language cookbook,Peru: The Cookbook。出版社的这本书是上个月发布publisher that generally specializes in two types of cookbooks: big, glossy chef cookbooks (Rene Redzepi, Ferran Adria), and even bigger, encyclopaedic cookbooks that focus on the foods of a specific country (Thailand, Mexico, India, The Foods of Lebanon, etc.).
Peruis both of these: a comprehensive look at the foods of Peru, authored by that country’s most well-known chef. And man, is it thorough. After a very brief introduction, over 500 recipes crowd its colorful pages, including entire chapters on ceviche and street food—and very few recipe headnotes.
Sound overwhelming? It is, especially if, like me, you’re new to Peruvian food. Flying basically blind, I set about putting together a cookout’s worth of recipes to test fromPeru。
Ceviche was an easy call for an appetizer, and a couple grilled meats—anticuchoskewers of beef, and a whole, marinated chickenpollada-style with two sauces—rounded out our protein needs. I also made a quinoa salad with vegetables, olives, and chunks of fresh cheese that would’ve been a welcome delight at any potluck across the country. Oh, and a Chilcano Pisco, because what’s a cookout without a good cocktail?
All of these were tasty. The ceviche couldn’t have been quicker to throw together or more perfect for one of the first hot days of summer. The marinades for both the beef (an almost mayonnaise-like chile sauce) and the chicken (a thin, vinegary solution seasoned with soy sauce) were spicy-tangy-sweet and techniques I’ll undoubtedly turn to in the future. I’ve already gone back and made theQuinoa Solteritoa second time (I have a feeling there'll be a third). And the combination of the Peruvian liquor pisco with bitters, ginger ale, and lime juice was basically the ideal summer refreshment.
But was this a meal people would typically eat in Peru? I have no idea. Wading through the dense mass of recipes without the guidance of an in-depth introduction to Peruvian food was an endeavor, and, to be honest, more than a little frustrating.
Finding substitutes for Peruvian-specific ingredients proved to be its own massive hurdle. Chiles form the basis for the cuisine, and dishes use a mixture of fresh chiles and pastes fromaji amarillo,rocoto, andpancachiles. The pastes were easily sourced online for about $10 a jar. A little pricey, maybe, but at least available.
The fresh chiles themselves? They're only available seasonally, and even then are scarce in the US. The chiles are almost universally considered irreplaceable, but you can get close-ish: I subbed habaneros forrocotosand serranos forajis。I also used a blend of mint and cilantro leaves for the Peru’s huacatay herb, another hard-to-replace staple.
I knew these substitutions weren’t exact replicas of Peruvian flavors, and perhaps are even an insult to a chef of Acurio’s stature. But what good is publishing an English-language cookbook if people in English-speaking countries can’t use it? A short guide to Peruvian ingredients, why they’re important, and potential substitutions (however far a cry from the original) could pave the way for readers to try more complex recipes.
Because here’s the thing: regardless of how faithful my renditions of these dishes were to the Peruvian originals, they all turned out amazing. This is food people want to cook. Apart from the hard-to-find ingredients, each dish was fairly easy to throw together, and apart from perhaps the raw fish and some spicy condiments, they were all pretty kid-friendly.Peruis full of these kinds of recipes: flavorful, often one-pot, often family-friendly, definitely unique dishes.
But what if you want to plan a meal out ofPeru? Want to learn which side dish is typically served with a given entree? Or what sweets are eaten during holidays? Or why a sauce goes with one grilled meat but not another? Or why Peruvians eat so much quinoa? Or what makes a Peruvian-style stir-fry Peruvian?
You’re almost certainly out of luck: only some of the recipes have (very short) headnotes, and the chapters do not have introductions. This is in line with Phaidon’s other so-calledNational Cuisinescookbooks, although some of these titles—like famous Italian cookbook,The Silver Spoon—at least benefit from a chapter of menus put together by well-known chefs.
It’s a shame that the dishes inPeruaren’t given proper context—a culture rich and diverse enough to produce these cuisines surely has some good stories to tell. Like the one about those stir-fries, for instance. Turns out Peru had a huge influx of Chinese and Japanese immigrants and birthed two entire cuisines based on those influences:ChifaandNikkei, respectively.
That's the sort of thing I would have liked to learn fromPeru: The Cookbook。The bummer reality is that all to often, I had to use Google to find answers to my questions. But now that I'm armed with a refrigerator full of chile pastes and a killer recipe for quinoa salad, you can bet I'm going to look for more information on the complex and delicious foods of Peru.
Peru: The Cookbook
By Gastón Acurio
Rating:Two forks.
Our star ratings are based on a four fork system. TheEpicurious Cookbook Canonserves as the standard-bearer for what four fork books should be.
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