Pollo Saltado: Classic Peruvian Cuisine

This evening I am daydreaming about Peru. Lukas and I were blessed to be able to take a two-week trip to Peru in December to visit his family (they are missionaries in Lima).

It was wonderful to get to see family, explore a new and colorful country, and experience the places Lukas has told me about. The trip included exploring Lima, as well as a day and a half trip to the rainforest in Pucallpa, Peru.

Peru is filled with rich history, interesting cultural experiences and, of course, delicious food. Oh, the food... so good!

Since I can't eat Peruvian food in Peru all the time, I'm sure glad I learned from Lukas' mom how to make a few favorite Peruvian dishes. And one of the best is pollo saltado or lomo saltado. More commonly in Peru you find the lomo saltado variation, which includes thinly sliced beef tenderloin or some other type of thinly sliced steak. However, it is sometimes served with chicken instead, thus creating the cousin dish of pollo saltado, featured below. Both are delectable, but at home we have made it with chicken because it is cheaper and we more commonly have it on hand.

Whichever meat you choose to use, this dish includes a bed of rice, with flavorful, tender marinaded meat cooked with vegetables and then topped with French fries. I know, French fries seem like an odd addition, but they add the perfect touch to this dish.

It's making my mouth water just thinking about it.



Pollo Saltado

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 tsp cumin 
• 10-12 cloves garlic (divided)
• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• Canola oil
• 1 whole onion plus 1/3 onion (divided)
• 2 bell peppers, julienned (multi-colored is our favorite)
• 1/2 14 oz. can of tomatoes (drained) or fresh tomatoes (the equivalent of about 7 oz.)
• 2 potatoes, sliced into French fries (or equivalent in store bought fries)
• Cilantro

This recipe makes enough for about 4-6 servings.

Marinade chicken overnight in soy sauce, vinegar, cumin and four cloves minced garlic. This picture only shows one chicken breast, but you will want to use two.

The next day to begin cooking this dish, saute dry rice with 1/3 cup finely chopped onion and 6-8 garlic cloves, minced. This can be done on the stove with a bit of oil. Once some (not all) of the grains of rice start to turn golden, take sauteed rice mixture and cook in rice maker or on stove with 2 2/3 cups water.

 

While rice is cooking, slice up one large onion and bell peppers. You can use all one color, but we usually use multi-colored bell peppers because they look so pretty. 

Chop up chicken in bite-sized pieces, and cook on stove with a good portion of the marinade, bell peppers and onion. The marinade gives the mixture an amazing flavor when it all cooks together.

Slice potatoes and cook French fries in oil on the stove (if you make them from scratch) or bake French fries in the oven if you use store bought fries. We've done it both ways, and I think it tastes equally good either way. It definitely saves time and effort to use the store bought fries and that's the route I've gone the last couple times we've made pollo saltado. If you go this route, use about enough French fries to cover a baking sheet. However, making them from scratch probably makes it slightly more authentic. :)

Once meat and vegetables are tender, add 1/2 can of drained tomatoes to the mixture and heat (or 1-2 fresh tomatoes if you have them on hand).

 Serve layered with rice, French fries, and meat and veggies mixture. Sprinkle cilantro on top.

And there you have it--a signature Peruvian dish that you can make at home. It's chock full of flavor. OK, now that I have written all about it, I may just need to make it again, just to let the flavors take me back to Peru again! :)

Buen provecho!

Arroz Chaufa: Peruvian Fried Rice

I have been immersed into the world of Peruvian cooking... thanks to my husband's family being missionaries in Peru. And, let me tell you, Peruvian food is tasty.

I used to think Lukas was biased when he talked about how great Peruvian food was. I figured that, having grown up there, he was just partial to it. This may be true, but I have since discovered firsthand how delicious Peruvian food really is. I have had the opportunity to try a variety of Peruvian dishes made by Lukas' family and in a Peruvian restaurant we found in Tulsa. We have tried making a few of these dishes at home, and I look forward to trying more in the future!

In fact, come to find out, Peruvian food has been rated in culinary circles as one of the top countries for unique cuisine. There are hundreds of dishes unique to Peru. The recipe below is for arroz chaufa, which is a Peruvian fried rice. This particular dish has significant Chinese influence, but with a bit of a Peruvian twist.

I still remember the first time I tried arroz chaufa. Lukas and his sister, Lynea, made the dish for me when Lukas and I were dating, and I remember them huddled in the tiny dorm kitchen attempting to make a culinary masterpiece. Cooking anything as a college student is always a challenge given the lack of cooking supplies and space, but they did a great job. Now Lukas and I can make this at home (thankfully, we have a little more space to work now in an apartment than we did in a dorm kitchen)!



Arroz Chaufa

• 1 large chicken breast
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 large onion
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 square inches ginger root
• 3 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• Soy sauce
• 3 green onions
• 1-2 small carrots
• 1/3 bell pepper
• 1/3 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups rice (2 cups precooked)
• 2 eggs
• Optional: extra onion and several limes for topping

Directions

Start cooking rice. For two cups of rice, we cooked with 2 3/4 cups water in our rice maker. If you don't have a rice maker, you can easily cook it on the stove.



Cut the chicken breast into bite size pieces. Mince garlic and ginger root. Cut up onion into small pieces. Cook chicken, garlic, ginger and onion on the stove in a large pan, along with cumin, chicken bouillon, salt and pepper. You can also add a small amount of soy sauce at this point.



Cut up green onions, carrots and bell pepper. Steam briefly with a little bit of water to soften the vegetables. We just put the vegetables in the microwave briefly.



Add onions, carrots, bell pepper and peas (if the peas are still a bit frozen they will defrost quickly on the stove) to the meat. Add cooked rice to the mixture. Stir everything together. Add a little more soy sauce to flavor. Ideally, you want some soy sauce flavor, but not too much (so that you can taste all the other distinct flavors).

Fry two eggs in a separate skillet and chop into small pieces. Mix egg pieces in with the rice, meat and veggies.



And it's all ready to eat. If desired, you can squeeze several limes and mix with chopped onions for a topping for arroz chaufa. This is the typical Peruvian way to eat it; my husband loves it, but I usually skip that part--I think it has plenty of flavor without it. If you choose to make the sauce, just keep it in a separate dish from the rice, that way you can add it as desired. A little bit of the sauce goes a long way.



Enjoy this taste of South American cuisine!

Friendship Soup--Wholesome and Delicious

Spring is in full bloom, and I love it! In light of the warmer weather, it may seem a bit strange to be posting a soup recipe. While I agree that soup is more of a winter food, I do still sometimes make it even in the warmer months. And this is such a filling, wholesome and delicious soup that it is great all year round.

 

Friendship Soup is a soup I grew up on. It gets its name from the fact that it works great to layer the dry ingredients in a jar and give away as a homemade gift to friends. All they have to do is add the tomatoes, meat and water and cook! A family friend gave a jar of the soup ingredients to my mom year ago, and my mom has been making it ever since.

Since getting married, I have frequently turned to this soup for a staple meal option (Lukas loves it!) and have passed along the recipe to my mother-in-law. What I love about this soup is how filling it is, how delicious it tastes, and how healthy it is. It incorporates such nutritious and often-forgotten-about ingredients, such as lentils and split peas, and it has great Italian flavoring. And for someone who really tries to cook healthy foods (although I still can't resist making the occasional dessert!), this soup is a great option!

Look at that wholesome goodness!

Friendship Soup

1/2 cup dry split peas

1/3 cup beef bouillon 

1/4 cup barley

1/2 cup dry lentils

1/4 cup dried minced onion

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1/2 cup uncooked white or brown rice

1/2 cup alphabet macaroni or other small macaroni

1 pound browned ground beef

3 quarts water

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes (or two smaller cans that are about 15 oz each)

Put all dry ingredients, except for pasta, in a large pot. Add browned ground beef, 3 quarts of water and the canned tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 45 minutes. Add reserved macaroni; cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until all is tender.

To give as a gift: Layer all the dry ingredients in a jar. Put pasta in a small plastic bag and place as the top layer of the jar. Include instructions for how to prepare the recipe and what ingredients they need to add. Would work great as a Mother's Day gift (not too far away), new neighbor gift, Christmas gift (OK, so might have to stash that idea away for a while) or a just-because gift.

Peanut Butter + Chocolate = Scrumptious

It's been way too long since I've updated this. My intention is to be more consistent for my readers, so my apologies. It's been a busy several weeks. However, I hope it's been worth the wait because today I'm featuring one of my very favorite dessert recipes--a recipe that combines two very good things: peanut butter and chocolate.

And really, how can you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate? Both ingredients are amazing, and when combined together they are just--wow. These peanut butter bars, complete with a chocolate topping and peanut butter glaze, are definitely a crowd-pleaser and a tantalizing feast for your taste buds.

These are one of my tried and true recipes. I made them for my husband's birthday--the first one we celebrated together, back when he was my boyfriend. Lukas jokingly said I was trying to "fatten him up." Lukas is not a big dessert eater and yet he loves these peanut butter bars. I also made them for one of the first meals I cooked for my in-laws after Lukas and I moved into our new apartment. And I served them to family and friends at a game night we hosted recently. They are always met with raving reviews.

Peanut Butter Bars
Base of the bars
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal

Topping

1 cup chocolate chips

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup milk

Cream butter and sugars for the base of the bars, blend everything else in. Put in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes.

While it is cooking, gather the chocolate chips for the topping and blend the glaze ingredients together (you want the glaze to be fairly thick, but also at a consistency where you can drizzle it onto the bars). After removing the bars from the oven, sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Let stand 10 minutes. Drizzle with glaze.

Let cool (at least most of the way) before serving. They will keep their shape better this way. Enjoy!

Paella: Delicious Spanish Cuisine

Join me for a walk down memory lane and let me share a wonderful Spanish dish that I tried while studying abroad in Spain three years ago and recently decided to recreate in my own kitchen.

I spent a four months studying abroad in Seville, Spain (Sevilla as the Spaniards would say) during spring semester 2009. I still think nostalgically about that beautiful city, filled with art and historical sites almost around every corner. What a special opportunity it was to spend that time there, immersed in a culture so different from my own.

Sevilla was definitely a pedestrian city, and we walked just about everywhere. One Saturday, my roommate and I decided to wander around to some local shops and try a Spanish restaurant. Our meal of choice was the famous Spanish dish of paella, a sauteed mix of rice, vegetables, spices and meat or seafood. It was delicious and one of my favorite foods in Spain.

I was so excited when I found a recipe for paella in my Taste of Home cookbook. This recipe takes some time to assemble, but it's fairly straightforward and is well worth the effort. The original recipe was too big for just my husband and me, so the recipe below is my modified, halved version. It makes about 5-6 servings.



Paella

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1-1/4 cups uncooked long grain rice
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1-2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 green pepper
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium tomato, chopped (or equivalent in canned tomatoes)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 to 1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

In a large saucepan, combine the broth, rice, onion, half of the garlic, salt, turmeric, pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, saute the green pepper, green onions, parsley, thyme, hot pepper sauce and remaining garlic in oil for 2 minutes. Cook until green pepper is crisp-tender. Add tomatoes and peas; heat through. Discard bay leaf from rice mixture. Stir rice into vegetable mixture and keep warm.

In a large nonstick skillet, cook chicken in lemon juice. I also added a little olive oil. (The recipe also called for shrimp, which I left out because it is not necessary and I don't usually have it on hand. However, you can add it if desired.)

Once cooked, add meat to rice and vegetable mixture.

We served the paella with some garlic green beans on the side. Yum!

Buen provecho!

Crockpot Cooking: Shredded Beef Tacos

We were given a crockpot for a wedding gift, and I've been looking forward to trying it out for a while now. Last week I finally got around to doing so. I think my husband can attest to how excited I was about cooking in it for the first time--pretty sure I talked about it quite a bit! For my first endeavor in crockpot cooking, I decided to make a recipe that I got from my mom: Shredded Beef Tacos. They are delicious and unique from other taco recipes I've tried.

This recipe makes enough for at least 10-12 tacos, if not more, depending on the size of your roast and how full you fill the tortillas. The roast I used was about two and a half pounds. My husband and I have been taking leftovers to work with us for lunches, but leftovers are also supposed to freeze well if you want to save some for later.

After I successfully made my first crockpot meal, my conclusion is this--I love crockpots and can't wait to find more ways to make use of this great invention. It was wonderful to come into our apartment when I got back from work to the wafting smell of slow cooking roast. And the best part was actually eating the tacos!

Shredded Beef Tacos

• 2-4 pound Roast
• 1 package taco seasoning
• Adobo Seasoing (2-3 tsp)
• 2 cups black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 cup salsa
• 1-2 cups frozen corn

Place roast in a the crockpot. (You may want to trim off some fat first--I was able to get a much leaner cut of meat by doing this). Sprinkle Adobo seasoning and taco seasoning packet on top, as well as black beans, corn and salsa. The recipe calls for 2-3 teaspoons, though I didn't really measure it out--just sprinkled until it looked like the top of the roast well well coated. For those of you who have never used Adobo seasoning, it's a wonderful spice combination including salt, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and other spices. You will probably not find it on the aisle with the rest of the spices; I found it on the Hispanic food aisle. It's one of those hidden gems that you might not find if you don't know what you're looking for. (Extra tidbit about Adobo seasoning: It also makes great seasoning on top of baked tilapia if you want an additional use for it.)

Cook all day on low--about 8-10 hours. It's well worth the longer cooking time--it came out really tender and moist and fell apart when I shredded it.

When meat is done, transfer to a large pan and shred with two forks. Mix meat back into sauce in crockpot.

Serve on tortillas with sour cream and cheese. Yum!

Berry Cream Muffins

Cooking is a simple delight for me. There is something immensely satisfying about combining a variety of ingredients and ending up with something tasty to eat. And the things you can come up with are endless!

After getting married last summer and now having an apartment of our own, my love for cooking and spending time in the kitchen has really taken off. There is something really special about having my own kitchen, doing my own meal planning and stocking the kitchen with the ingredients I like or want to try. I have found a whole new world in searching for recipes and finding creative ways to make meals, pastries, desserts, side dishes, etc., as well as trying old tried and true recipes that bring back nostalgic childhood memories (I had a mom who is a great cook to set an example for me!).

The recipe below is for Berry Cream Muffins. I found the recipe in my Taste of Home cookbook, which my grandma gave me as a Christmas gift about a year ago. 

These Berry Cream Muffins, I must say, are now one of my all-time favorite muffin recipes. They are very moist and flavorful, and they are great to have with a bowl of cereal for breakfast, as a snack or even as a dessert. I made these today, and when my husband, Lukas, walked in the door, one of the first things he did was comment on how good the house smelled. When I told him what I had made, he wasted no time in doing a little dance to the kitchen to sample the freshly baked goods, which was followed by many "Mmm's." :)

Berry Cream Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries or blackberries

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup sour cream or yogurt

½ cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add berries and toss gently. I have tried this recipe with blueberries, raspberries, and as shown in this blog, a mix of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. They all turned out delicious. 

Combine eggs, sour cream/yogurt, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. The recipes turn out well with either sour cream or a flavored yogurt. Today I used a raspberry yogurt, supplemented with a little bit of sour cream to get the full cup specified by the recipe. Either way, the yogurt and/or sour cream makes these muffins delightfully moist!

Fill greased muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes. This recipe makes about 12 muffins.

Optional Streusel Topping: 

You don't have to do the streusel, but I've always included this. Really, who doesn't like a sweet, crunchy, cinnamon topping on the top of a muffin? For the streusel, mix 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 3 tablespoons quick cooking oats, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Cut in 2 tablespoons cold butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins before baking.

And there you have it. One of my very favorite muffin recipes! Happy baking!