Cabrito a la Norteña & Me

 Cabrito a la Norteña & Me

So you must be wondering, what does Cabrito a la Norteña mean?!! It translates to Northern goat Stew… I know...I know a lot of people are icky about eating goat, but it’s actually a very delicious meat and even more made into a Peruvian stew.

 This dish reminds me of my father. My dear father comes from the northern part of Peru, Cajamarca. A beautiful city, wonderful, rich in history and in their delicious dishes. This is my fathers favor dish, every birthday this is what he ask to eat on that day. So you can say the entire family gets a full and happy belly. I added this recipe to my book, Family Secrets, in which you can find many of these dishes with a secret preparation for each and one of my family stories.

 This is one of those dishes that just makes you wants to eat up to the last bone and lick the plate!!  

And now for the recipe:

Cabrito a la Norteña:

·         10 pieces of goat/part of the leg

·         2 medium red onions chopped (diced)

·         8 cloves of garlic (diced)

·         1 bunch of scallions chopped

·         1 bunch of cilantro chopped

·         3 Cubitos de Carne ( seasoning powder cubes of beef

·         ¼ os teaspoon of black pepper

·         ¼ cup of white vinager

·         1 cup of Chicha de Jora

(since we don’t find this easily in the US we use a secret ingedient )

·         1 tablespoon Ají Panca (this you can find in the Peruvian products in a paste like form)

·         ¼ cup of canola oil

·         1 teaspoon of Salt

·         ¼ teaspoon Ajino moto (asian seasoning)

Secret Preparation:

The best smell in the world to me is the smell of the garlic frying in the pot, and that is the most important thing you should do when making any kind of stew let the garlic become a brownish color this way you can get all that nice flavor out. BUT before this you have to place the diced onions in first. Why you say?? Well because the onion takes longer to kind of cook and you also want the onion to not fry but cook enough that it will become a brownish color. Those are the TWO most important things to do right.

After this add the:

·          1 tablespoon Ají Panca (this you can find in the Peruvian products in a paste like form)

·         1/4 cup  of white vinegar

·         1 cup of Chicha de Jora (instead use a beer (Corona is better is not as strong as Heineken but not as soft as Budlight))

·         3 Cubitos de Carne ( seasoning powder cubes of beef)

·         ¼ of teaspoon of black pepper

·         ¼ teaspoon Ajino moto (asian seasoning)

·         ¼ cup of white vinager

·         10 pieces of goat/ part of the leg

Let all of this marinate and cook for about an hour for the goat to be nice and soft don’t forget to add on maybe a ½ to ¾ of a cup of water every now and then, just to make sure the liquid doesn’t dry up and then your goat will burn.

Once the goat is cooked, add on the:

·         1 bunch of scallions chopped

·         1 bunch of cilantro chopped

 I love to serve it with either white rice (or brown if you prefer) and  cassava (yucca)

Ohhh and if you want to, you can make a SALSA criolla:

Which consist of:

·         1 large red or white onion sliced

·         2 lemos ( only need the juice)

·         ¼ of habanero chili sliced or diced

·         Salt

·         Pepper

·         ½ tablespoon of vinegar

·         Cilantro (about a tablespoon)

Mix all this together and you have yourself a nice accompaniment, let this salsa sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

And there you go, now you have prepared Cabrito a la Norteña con Salsa a la Criolla. Which by the way is a mixture of two different worlds. Criolla means Creole and Norteña is the northern side.

The Famous Peruvian Ceviche

The Famous Peruvian Ceviche

                                                                                                                                Serving for 4

Ingredients:

·         2 lbs Tilapia Fillet ( cut into pieces maybe 1”x1”

·         1 dozen lemons (you will only need the lemon juice)

·         ¼ of Habanero chili (thinly sliced and minced)

·         ½ teaspoon of salt ( or to your own preference)

·         ½ of Ajino moto (Asian seasoning)

·         1 piece of celery (diced)

·         ½ tablespoon of Ginger (striped)

·         3 Garlic cloves

·         ½ cup of chopped Cilantro

·         2 cobs of sweet corn ( or Choclo (white corn))

·         4 leaves of butter lettuce

·         1 large red onion sliced

·         4 small sweet potatoes

 Secret Preparation:

In a blender mix in the following:

·         Lime juice

·         ½ teaspoon of salt ( or to your own preference)

·         ½ of Ajino moto (Asian seasoning)

·         1 piece of celery (diced)

·         ½ tablespoon of Ginger (striped)

·         3 Garlic cloves

·         A piece of the Tilapia Fillet

The Preparation continuous:

Ø  Have all the fillet diced and washed

Ø  Place the blender mix into a bowl big enough to add the fish in.

Ø  Let the fish and mix sit for at least 10 to 15 min.

Ø  After this time add:

·         ¼ of Habanero chili (thinly sliced and minced)

·         1 large red onion sliced

·         ½ cup of chopped Cilantro

Ø  Serve with the  cooked sweet corn ( or white corn) and cooked sweet potatoes.Enjoy!!!!

E

TThe End:

Okay mi gente, this is what contributes to the doing of the Peruvian Ceviche, believe me after trying this you won’t want to try another type of cebiche, from no matter where it comes from!!

Speaking off, where it comes from, reminds me of the first time I found out I wasn’t American.  When I was about 7 I was told I wasn’t American, that I was Peruvian!!! To my surprise, I wasn’t aware of this but, I had a feeling. My mom’s cooking was always better than going out and buying any hamburger or any fast food junk. A home meal has always made me feel better. The smell of my mom’s cooking can always bring me back to my childhood. Reminiscing those happy moments has made me think about creating the same thing for my own family. And OMG can my daughter recognize my cooking or my mother’s cooking… she was born an American, but has that pure Peruvian blood in her.

 Making this dish and many other that will come are part of my family, of me. The people are what define my country and hopefully our cuisine will help it be more than just our history. 

What is Peru??

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What is Peru?

Peru is the earthy smell, misty sky, the long dessert roads, the humidity of the jungle, the cold from the Andeans mountains, the uniqueness of our delicious dishes. The mixtures of our people from, afro-peru, mestizos, Asian, and Amerindians are the flavor, texture, and uniqueness of our food. All of this and more is Peru!

The andean, creole, jungle, modern Peruvian cuisine, OHHH and lets not forget the seafood are all part of every single Peruvian, whether they can cook it or just eat it. The different hot peppers (yellow chili), the more than 180 kinds of potatoes, the caihua (stuffing cucumber), white corn (choclo), purple corn, olluco, more than 15 varieties of tomatoes, and many more are all these are a little part of every Peruvian.

So now what am I going to do?

 I’m going to teach you to cook some Peruvian food or at least pull you to want to try it!! Oh and I will include a family secret in each recipe to enhance the flavor of every dish. And if you ask yourself why do we have a little secret, well that’s because many our seasonings and items we use are not found in the United States or are not permitted in the country.

So for our next meeting the recipe will be for The Famous Peruvian Ceviche…

Till then  : )