New Year, new style for sharing what we love

This is a new year and as it is we would like to do something diferent in our life. We would like to share with our friends and the friends of our friends some knowledge we have been accumulating over the years of our marriage. Without any doubt we have a passion. And we develop our passion for us and for our family.

From today and for the rest of this year we would like to give each other a little piece of our passion. Charo and I are Cuisine fans and also as we like flavour we pay special attention on the healthy style of cooking. This is something of added value we can give.

Peruvian Cuisine is a delicious gourmet experience but healthy aspects are other issue.

We want everybody enjoy Peruvian dishes without loosing health. At less we are going to make the attempt in this direction. May be sometimes this would be imposible to afford but we will make trying to make the less against our health.

What we are going to share through this BLOG is what we are currently making in our home. We are parents of four wonderful kids each one with their likes.

This is the first day of the year. As we were last night with wonderful friends receiving 2010 Year sharing a typical Peruvian dish we decide begining this BLOG with the dish shared there.

It was "Papa a la Huancaina". Boiled potatoes covered with a special cream based on Peruvian yellow chilli pepper, cheese, garlic, onion, cracker, olive oil and a little of milk. The milk is optional and depends on the cheese used.

All of you are wellcome to test this dish. I'm going to explain in detail what original ingredients can been replace and of course which alternatives are available in the market.

The original dish is made with a typical Pewruvian yellow potato. As we cann't find locally let's use the yukon golden potato.

The Peruvian yellow hot chilli pepper can be found at Plaza Latina (Shoreline). But we are so far from there that doesn't make sense to get this. Instead of this we can use 1 jalapenho (the Mexican type we found in all food stores) or a half of habanero pepper. Be careful because habanero is very power so if you don't like your food hot, avoid it and use only yellow bell pepper.

The cheese. In Peru we use the fresh type which is very good. The closest we find here is a Mexican type named Panela. If you want a cheaper option it would be the Couttage Cheese.

As the other ingredients are standard let's go now to our business.

Ingredients ( up to 8 servings )

5 medium size Yukon Golden Potato, boiled.

1 Peruvian yellow hot chilli pepper OR 1 jalapenho pepper or 1/2 habanero pepper

1 yellow bell pepper (if you decide not putting hot add one more)

1/2 onion medium size

2-3 garlic cloves (it depends on size of cloves)

25 gr pecans OR cashews roasted unsalted

250 gr fresh cheese OR 400 grs couttage cheese

1/2 cup milk, if using couttage cheese you can avoid milk or use only 1/4 cup

8 pcs soda crackers unsalted

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt

2 boiled eggs cutted in halves (for final decoration, see the picture, we recomend 1/4 per serving)

16 kalamata olives (for decoration, see the picture 2 per serving)

Lettuce leaves as bases for 8 dishes (see the picture)

Preparation.

The cream.

Open peppers and put away the core (the part with the seeds). Cut onion in 8 pieces, garlic in halves and pepers in three pieces.

Put in a pan with a thin layer of water (less that 1/2 inch) peppers, garlic and onion cutted in pieces so they can fit inside the blender. They are going to be roasted. Let the mix stay 2 minutes since the water begins boiling. Do not let the pan dries and if it does add small quantity of water.

Put in the blender the boiled components, blend adding the pecans, cheese, milk oil and crackers.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt and taste the flavour. If you think it needs more add, but slightly.

Blend until you get a cream not so liquid not so thick.

When the cream is ready it's almost ready.

This is an appetizer, so take an appetizer dish and lay down two or three pieces of lettuce leaves. Then add potato slices three or four is OK. The potato slices can be up 1 inch thickness.

Cover the potatoes with the cream.

As decoration add 1/4 boiled egg and 1 kalamata olive (see the picture).

You can add parsley powder aside the dish to improve looking.

I would like very much receiving any comment about this dish.

Feel free to share with all your friends and they are also wellcome with any questions.

Have a good day and tomorrow we will send another Peruvian Recipe.

Bon Appetit!!!

Gus & Charo