La Comida Perruana

Since we left the Sacred Valley in Peru and started travelling,we have eaten all sorts of Peruvian food. It remains true though that the emphasis is on carbohydrates - white rice and boiled potatoes were a meal in themselves in Umasbamba, the Andean village we lived in for 2 weeks, but it is standard, we have discovered, to have chips plus rice as the accompaniment to many platefuls. Of course, they do have 4000 varieties of potato to choose from, or maybe only 3000; it does depend who is telling you.They certainly have many: black ones, small yellow ones, some strange shapes and even stranger consistencies. The villagers in Umasbamba grew potatoes, so they ate them at nearly, if not every, meal.Shades of my Irish ancestors. So the vegetable soup that was breakfast had pieces of potatoes in it and so did the soups that followed in the day. Elsewhere we have been given cold potatoes with a sauce, a cold sauce, say a green one that tastes of peas or a yellow one, source unknown but very savoury. There is a dish of stuffed potato,  a large yellow cooked potato with a meat and egg filling then reheated by frying - it is very delicious. There is a national dish, LomoSaltado, which is a beef stir fry, to which they add cooked chips at the last moment.


One dish that we enjoyed in the wholly vegetarian and very bland diet in the village was also an unlikely one with chips added. We observed it being made with protests rising in our throats,although of course suppressed, as the lovely golden crisp chips were stirred into a huge pot of cooked vegetables.But it was in fact tasty and I am recording it here, in case anyone wants to try it for themselves. Cheap, easy and realy good.


Cauliflower Pot - my name for it

1. Break one whole head of a cauliflower into small florets.
2. Chop3 or 4 carrots very finely into long pieces.
3. Add both to enough hot, well salted, water to cover.
4. Cook briskly until soft.
5. While this is happening,fry about 3 small panfuls of chips, in shallow fat.
6. Also soften half a red onion with 3 plum tomatoes and a stock cube in a little fat in a large pan. Let the stock cube melt into the mixture and add a splash of water if it starts to stick.
7. When the vegetables are soft, take the pan off the heat. If you are not as skilled as Rafaela, our Andean hostess, you may have to drain off some liquid first.
8. As each panful of chips is crisp and golden, put them on top of the vegetables and put the lid back on.
9. The lastly, tip all the contents of the pan into the one with the onion mixture and stir it all lightly together. Then eat hot with rice if your carb count is low and/or you want to have the full Peru experience..