Peruvian

Mayocobas, or canary beans, are the quick-cooking pantry ingredient you should know about.

Bright, fresh, colorful, and easy to eat with one hand, this take on the classic Peruvian mussels dish is a great cocktail snack.

Take your time to cook down the flavor base, which is enriched with ají amarillo and beer, and you’ll be rewarded with a thick, homey Peruvian duck stew.

Try eating just one of these picarones, doughnut-like Peruvian confections that are drenched in a fig-flavored syrup.

Next to one of Peru’s most astounding Incan ruins, perched 12,000 feet high in the Andes mountains, is a restaurant called Mil. I planned an entire trip around eating lunch there.

The ceviche at Lil' Deb's Oasis in Hudson, NY, changes on a daily basis in an ever-evolving experiment of colors and flavors. The restaurant uses only locally caught fresh fish, so, in order to re-create at home, buy the highest-quality ingredients you can find.

Lil' Deb's Oasis's take on Peruvian "tiger's milk" features the energizing combo of fresh citrus juice, ginger, and turmeric.

Choose the best-quality fish for this simple ceviche.

"More great expressions of pisco are making their way into the States, with a huge array of flavor profiles, from rustic and edgy, to delicate and floral. La Diablada is cool stuff." —Charles Joly, bartender, The Aviary, Chicago

Haven't you always wanted to make a dish that required Leche De Tigre? Well, in this Peruvian ceviche recipe, you can.

With its signature foamy white head and Angostura bitters garnish, the pisco sour is a stunner.

This cumin and paprika-spiced number gets added punch from a tangy green sauce and an avocado and cucumber salad.

Always use firm-fleshed white fish, without skin and bones, to prepare classic ceviche. Avoid oily or fatty varieties of fish.

The best, most interesting ceviches in the world come from Peru, specifically Lima. Peru is blessed with three completely different geographies—coastal, Amazonian, and highland, with a different ecosystem—and cuisine—for each. Peruvian chefs create ceviches using exotic fish from the coast, potatoes and corn from the highlands, and wonderful tropical flavors and ingredients like hearts of palm from the Amazon region. Typical of a ceviche, the snapper in this taco filling is cooked not with heat, but by chemical action of the acid in the citrus juices. True red snapper, one of the great fishes of the world, is very expensive and rare, distinguished by its large head and red flesh. Most fish that is sold as snapper is actually rock cod or some other rockfish and does not have the subtlety of the genuine article. If you can’t get true snapper (you can tell only by seeing the whole fish, with its bright red and pale yellow markings), striped sea bass or halibut will work well. Candied ginger makes a nice garnish.

This is a very basic and traditional ceviche from coastal Peru. There is an ongoing argument in South America about who first invented ceviche, with both the Peruvians and Ecuadorans vying for credit. The Pacific Ocean fisheries that run along the western coasts of these two countries are the most productive in the world. They are the meeting place of some of the greatest deep-sea currents that bring the Arctic waters, full of life, to the surface for feeding the large schools of migratory fish. This recipe is a great way to enjoy the bounty of the sea while still preserving the integrity of the flavors. Try serving these tacos in smaller crispy shells. Guacamole, avocado slices, or diced boiled potatoes are traditional garnishes used to subdue the spicy effect of the chiles.

The Pisco Sour is the official drink of Peru; there is even a National Pisco Sour Day, celebrated the first Saturday in February. Pisco brandy was first established by Spanish conquistadors, who planted grape vines as they traversed the mountainous terrains of Chile and Peru—and Chile also claims the Pisco as a national treasure. There is good reason for the debate, as Pisco was the first distilled spirit in the New World. The now-classic Pisco Sour was created in the 1920s by ex-pat American bartender Victor V. “Gringo” Morris at the Morris’ Bar in Lima, as a local variation on the Whiskey Sour. The cocktail became a favorite among the locals and quickly spread up the West Coast of America as far north as San Francisco, where it was popular by the late 1930s. This version contained pisco brandy, egg white, lime juice, simple syrup, and aromatic bitters served frothy and straight up. A specific kind of lime called Limon de Pica is the right ingredient for the Peruvian classic. Some places in Peru grate nutmeg or cinnamon on top of the cocktail to finish it; our version includes the nutmeg. The Peruvian Pisco Sour is the perfect brunch companion as a restorative drink: musky and clean, with a rich texture and alluring bitters.

In seviche, the scallops are “cooked” by the acidity of the citrus.

True Ceviche (page 21) “cooks” fish by marinating it in an acidic dressing. But there is a similar dish in which the fish is simmered in boiling water first; it’s used most frequently with seafood that is tough when raw, but it’s also used—at least in this country—as a form of reassurance. It’s a bit of a cheat, but so what? There is little difference between the texture or quality of fish that has been marinated in lime and that of fish that has been cooked quickly (which is why marinating in lime is perfectly acceptable in the first place). Like all ceviche, this is a great starter.