The Yum Yum Factor

I enjoy the challenge of offering a vegetarian version of dishes I serve that are an equally delicious version of the meal that the carnivores are going to eat instead of completely different plate. I wanted to put  Aguadito do Pollo  on an upcoming menu and I knew I wanted to feed the vegetarians something that will have the same flavour profile and so I tried a few things. Aguadito de Pollo is a traditional Peruvian meal that is often served for breakfast after a big party aka for a hangover, making it a staple for New Year's Day or after a big wedding or party. Adding tofu was okay but not great and I also didn't feel like the Jackfruit worked - I wanted something that would really add some heartiness and also have the soft texture of the pulled chicken and neither of those options did that for me. Using a small white bean -either cannellini or navy beans- hit all the right notes. Other than no crispy chicken skin, I didn't feel like I was losing anything by replacing th...

Okay, Toronto Peeps, it's a new year and we are starting up our monthly Supper Clubs at The Kingston Social House, in Toronto's East East End. The first dinner of the year, this Sunday, January 21, will feature one of my favourite meals to cook and eat - my Peruvian Flavah dinner. We start with Aguadito de Pollo, a hearty chicken soup that is full of cilantro, white rice as well as black rice, chicken, aji amarillo all topped off with crispy chicken skin.

You may have noticed that I am not keeping up with my regular pace on the blog. For the last 8 years, I've tried to add at least 1 or 2 recipes a week but my own cooking gigs have kept me out of my own kitchen since the fall. During the holiday season, I was so busy working for my friend in his catering company, that I barely made more than a piece of toast at home. Day after day, I would break down up to 40 lbs of beef into stew meat and then braise it all in the oven, making another 5 or 6 restaurant pans of scalloped potatoes, moussaka, or cutting up and marinating about a metric ton of chicken thighs followed by at least three evening parties a week so trust me, when I got home, we were ordering take out and apart from playing Candy Crush and checking twitter, I barely looked at a camera or a computer. December, in the catering business, is not for the faint of heart, weak of back or fallen of arches. Now, it's the new year and I am finally feeling like get...

The Kingston Social and I are teaming up again for the new year and resurrecting our monthly Supper Clubs, starting in January. For my first menu, I will be doing a Yum style Peruvian dinner. My MVP pop up was one of my most popular of 2017 but, not one to rest of my laurels,  I really wanted to add something new to the meal and because it will be in January, soup just makes sense. This particular soup is based on the classic Peruvian soup, Aguadito de Pollo, also known as Levanta Muertos which translates into a soup to wake the dead due to it's restorative, nourishing properties and I have been told that it may or may not be great for a hangover. I am down with that. The soup, at it's most simple, is made with tons of cilantro, chicken and vegetables, usually served with whole, skin on chicken legs or thighs but that is not really my thing. Instead, I removed the skin, crisped it up until it was transformed into a chicken chicharon/cracker. It is crispy, salty an...

It's no secret that I am a lover of all things custard and caramel. Creme brulee? I'm there Creme caramel? Can't stop me. Dulce de Leche? Hold my earrings

This Peruvian inspired shrimp is currently one of my most requested dishes and by most requested, I mean that people basically command me to make this for dinner when they come over. The aji sauce is usually served with rotisserie chicken but I like with everything from french fries or roasted potatoes to fish. The herb marinated shrimp cooked in lots of butter puts this rich sauce right over the edge and the drizzle of crema de rocoto complements all that richness with a hit of acidic heat.  The sauce is totally addictive,  the dish looks way harder to make than it was to make which is always a plus and it's a really great introduction to some fabulous Peruvian ingredients like aji amarillo paste, made from a yellow pepper only found in Peru (medium to slightly hot) and rocoto , another paste made from a hot, red chili pepper grown mainly in the Andes from Chile to Columbia. Peruvian Shrimp with Aji Verde Sauce 4 servings marinade : 1/4 cup f...

Oh, I do love a challenge. An upcoming pop up was going to require a vegetarian option as a main to go alongside my Octopus Aguachile and Asian Shrimp with Spicy Ponzu and I was really hitting a wall. I wanted something just as fresh and summery and light but how in the hell do you make a dish that is synonymous with raw seafood without seafood in it? I set out to make a vegan ceviche because it should really be a thing but it felt like I was fighting a losing battle for a while because nothing was going to be able to replace the shrimp/fish component. It just sounds impossible, right? WRONG I tried a lot of different ingredients to sub in for the shrimp or fish and nothing was working. All of the bean alternatives tasted too beany. Tofu's texture was all wrong and I thought of doing jackfruit but that really works well for pulled pork and pulled pork ceviche is not something anyone wants to eat so I didn't even bother with that one. I was about to throw in th...

If you like ceviche, you are going to love aguachile.  A true aguachile (chile water) from the Sinaloa region of Mexico, at it's most basic, is made by pouring a spicy puree of chiles and water over raw shrimp, some red onion, radish and cucumber. From there, people add cilantro, lime juice and more but, unlike ceviche, you are going to eat it when the shrimp are still pretty raw - sort of like a spicy, Mexican shrimp sashimi. This requires ridiculously fresh, sushi grade seafood and since that is not always available to us, I like to use cooked seafood (or, you can marinate the raw shrimp/fish in lime juice for an hour or so in advance as you would for a traditional ceviche before adding the aguachile for serving). If you don't like octopus, you can substitute any seafood you like - if you don't want to eat it raw, cook it lightly beforehand. I am not sure I would use $$$ sushi grade tuna, for example, only because its so expensive and this sauce is very s...

You all know how I love a show stopper and this one is a spectacular dish to serve the next time you have your boss/mother in law/new paramour over for dinner. Crispy, spicy little rice cakes with a centre of melty cheese, nestled in an acidic tomato vinaigrette and topped with a dollop of spicy yellow pepper/cheese sauce with a smattering of pickled red pepper, this baby is not only really delicious, it is a beautiful dish to behold. Maybe you have never had Peruvian food and you don't recognize some of these ingredients but they are so tasty that you need to get to know them. If you are not lucky enough to have a good, South American grocer nearby, these sauces are all available online and I have provide links to my Amazon store (yes, I get a few pennies if you buy things via my links) but there are also lots of online stores to purchase Peruvian items from. So, this is just my basic Pressure Cooker Risotto with the addition of the spicy pepper paste, aji am...

For my Toronto readers, I am back at The Kingston Social House, next Wednesday August 9 for another Pop Up! This time the menu was inspired by my friends, the  MVPs - Most Valuable Peruvians.

I really love the scorching hot, Peruvian, yellow hot pepper called aji amarillo. It really has a unique flavour and the bright yellow colour makes everything it touches look really pretty which, in turn, makes everything it touches taste great. If you look good, you feel good. I was introduced to this spicy little devil by our good friend, the MVP (Most Valuable Peruvian) when he made us papa a la huancaina. I watched him make this very traditional dish for us and, at the time, I was dying a little inside because all I was seeing was a bunch of bland, white food. Boiled, sliced potatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, a bowl of queso fresco and some milk - omg, how was I going to eat this without making my bad face? The worst part was how exited he was for us to taste  this special dish that he was clearly infusing with unadulterated Peruvian love. He put the cheese, milk and some of these frozen aji amarillo peppers in the blender as he told us that it is virtually impossi...