JOIN USForgive me, if this sounds a tad blasphemous, but have you ever eaten a national heritage? How often does one get to do that? That too, far, far away from the home of the heritage. Are you thinking of a moustachioed conquistador? An exquisitely etched monument? A beefy fortress? Well, you cannot eat a conquistador or a fort. Can you?
I am talking of a eating a national heritage called ceviche, Peru’s favourite dish that is made by marinating fresh fish in citrus juice and zesting that up with a kiss of aji or chillies. Whisk the citrus juice with a few condiments, throw in the ultra-fresh fish. The citrus juice denatures the proteins in the meat in as much the same way as cooking does. The zingy dish has a spanking fresh taste and feels like a citrus cocktail. Ceviche is not heat-cooked and is ready to serve before you can say cev of the ceviche.
But you should know that I did not fly thousands of miles into Lima for a taste of the historical dish. I stepped out of my room and into Park Hyatt Goa’s Palms restaurant for my first-ever Peruvian dinner. Chef Bruno Santa Cruz, a Lima lad, flew in from Istanbul to rustle ceviches, which originated in Peru nearly 2,000 years ago.
Traditionally, sea bass was the main ingredient of Peruvian ceviche, served with corn on the cob and slices of cooked sweet potato on the side. In the Peruvian city of Trujillo, there is shark in the ceviche; in Lima, it is the fish called sole. Vegetarians, however, do not sulk. Make your ceviche with palm heart, avocado, corn, any winter vegetable that you love. Even boiled lima beans.
While dealing with Peruvian cuisine, do not baulk if there’s more than one papa on the menu. Papa grilled. Papa sauteed. Papa baked. Papa batter fried. No, no, chefs in Peru are not homicidal by instinct. In the Quechua language, papa translates to ‘tubers’. That is, potatoes. No nation knows potatoes better than Peru. After all, they are the ones who domesticated
potatoes 10,000 years ago. Today, Peru grows more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes (some stretch the count to 4,000).
Corny stuff
In Peru numbers are not a potato’s prerogative. Corn has its own massive count as well. Peru has more than 55 varieties of corn and they come in all possible colours — yellow, purple, white and black. Like ceviche, there’s history to the corn. The Incans experimented with corn by cross-breeding and hybridising them to create bigger kernels.
Even today, Peruvians love their corn — tamale is a corn dish; chicha morada is non-fermented sweet corn drink made by boiling purple corn with pineapple and flavouring it with cinnamon and cloves.
In Peru, do not be surprised if a guinea pig lands on your dinner plate. In the Andes, guinea pig is a delicacy. So is alpaca meat, which is freeze dried (instead of sun dried). The Incans developed the freeze-drying method in which meat/potatoes are left out in frigid winter months where they shrivel for longer shelf-life.
Sweet heavens
Unlike me, if god sent you with an in-built sweet tooth, settle for the Peruvian tres leches, a dessert made with condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream. Suspiro de limeña is made of condensed milk and sugar that is boiled down into a thick cream. The rich dessert is topped with a meringue, made of more sugar, egg and a touch of port wine; manjar blanco (also known as dulce de leche) is cream stuffed in doughnuts, topped on ice cream.
Peru has a million things on its menu. But ceviche is the monarch. As Chef Bruno brought the ceviche in a glass bowl, I caught a deep breath to devour a national heritage. In a bowl of tangy ceviche.
Red snapper with capsicum & lime ceviche
Ingredients:
n Red snapper : 90 gm
n Red onion: 15 gm
n Garlic: 1 gm
n Ginger: 1 gm
n Red chilli: 2 gm
n Coriander: 3 gm
n Lime juice: 50 ml
n Hondashi: 5 ml
n Glassed sweet potato: 2 pieces
n Corn: 8 gm
Method:
Cut the snapper into cubes. Put in a bowl. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, and coriander. Mix gently. Add salt and black pepper lime juice. Mix again and serve. For garnish, use sweet potato, corn and chilli.