This morning Elva had a marathon cooking session as each week on Monday mornings she sends an ice-box full of cooked meals to her son in Arequipa who misses her home cooking and he reciprocates at the end of the week by sending lots of delicacies for her and Hugo that are only available in Arequipa. Anyhow I watched and learned while she was cooking and set out below are the various recipes.
CHICKEN AND WINTER VEGETABLE SOUP
Half fill a pan of cold water and add one large chicken breast. Cover and leave to boil and then simmer until the chicken is cooked. Meanwhile prepare the vegetables.
One whole sweetcorn (called choclo here), 2 medium carrots, peeled and the centre removed and finely diced, a few sticks of celery sliced, half a turnip diced, a piece of pumpkin about 3 inches square, sliced and then diced. Add all this to the pan. When chicken is nearly cooked remove it and finely slice it and return to the pan. Add salt to taste, about 4 oz of broad beans with the outer shell removed, a little garlic. Simmer until all the vegetables are cooked through.
ARROZ CON POLLO (Chicken and Rice)
Liquidise a couple of bunches of coriander and set aside.
Add oil to pan and fry the onion (1 red onion finely diced), a little garlic and the liquidised coriander. A bit later add 4 oz fresh peas, the diced carrot, half a small red pepper diced, In a separate pan fry two chicken breasts each cut into 3 pieces. Meanwhile cook the rice separately using half the liquid from the pan with the coriander, supplemented with water.
At the end the rice is put into a dish and topped with the chicken pieces and the rest of the juice served separately.
PAPA RELLENO (Stuffed Potatoes)
Boil a pan of spuds and two hard boiled eggs.
In a separate pan fry 1 red onion diced, with half a pound of minced chicken (or even better a mix of minced chicken and pork). Add a little garlic, black pepper, salt to taste and quarter of a red pepper finely diced, plus a pinch of cummin.
In a separate dish chop up the hard boiled eggs
In another dish add a few black olives each cut into 4 or 5 pieces.
Mash the potato along with an egg (don´t add any milk or water. Knead well with hands.
In a separate dish mix some fine breadcrumbs with flour. You dip your hands in this first to stop the potato sticking to your hands.
Take some potato and spread it out in your hand - add some of the meat mix, some chopped egg and olive and work the potato around the filling so that it is fully enclosed. Roll in the breadcrumb mix and set aside. Continue until all the ingredients are used up. The stuffed potatoes are oval in shape. Meanwhile heat some oil in a pan until it is hot, add the potatoes a few at a time and fry until golden brown, turning once with care so they don´t break.
FREJOLES (White Beans)
Half a kilo of white beans, soaked in water overnight.
Boil these in fresh water for a good 5 minutes or so and then throw away the first lot of water. Add oil to the pan and fry 6 oz of bacon which has been diced up, something like streaky bacon called Tocino here. Add a little garlic. Dont let the bacon brown too much. Return the beans to the pan, add more water, bring to the boil and then simmer for about half an hour over low heat, adding salt to taste.
CROQUETAS
Crush a load of crispbreads until fine and add some fine breadcrumbs, so that the mix is two thirds crispbreads, one third crumbs. Mix well.
Fry about 12 oz minced chicken and pork with a little salt and black pepper, a little cummin and garlic. Mix with hands until well combined and form into balls, coating each one well with the crispy crumb mix. Fry in hot oil until cooked through. Then add a finely diced onion, a couple of tablespoons of tomato ketchup and enough mustard to give a spicy tang and a little water. Mix well and let the croquetas keep simmering.
FRIED GUINEA PIG (I dare you to try this one!)
1 guinea pig which they bought ready prepared, flattened and complete with head, hands and feet! and Maize flour to coat it.
This was then fried in a large pan, with a large pebble holding it down to keep its flattened shape and so that it would cook evenly.
