Make Rodrigo Fernandi’s Octopus Causa at home—layers of creamy potato, avocado mousse, tender octopus, and a zesty acevichado sauce. A Peruvian-inspired dish that serves 2–3.

Octopus Causa 

Causa is a beloved specialty that originated in the cosmopolitan, urbane cuisine of Lima, Peru’s capital. Over the decades, it has spread throughout the country, picking up local ingredients and seasonings along the way. At its most basic, causa is a cold, savory potato layer cake; here, it has an inner layer of chicken salad, and is topped with the typical Peruvian fixings of hardboiled eggs, avocado, and olives. It is a summertime essential that can serve as an appetizer, entrée, snack, or hors d’oeuvre. 

This dish requires ají amarillo paste, which is an essential part of Peruvian cuisine. The flavor is irreplaceable. It can be found jarred in most Latino markets, as well as online, fairly economically.  If you cannot get your hands on it, puree any fresh chiles and add to your taste.  

The chicken in the filling can be replaced with canned tuna, crabmeat, poached shrimp, hearts of palm, or anything else you desire.

The assembly instructions below serve as a guideline. Feel free to arrange and decorate the causa according to your personal aesthetic. You can make individual servings using ring molds or ramekins lined with plastic wrap.  You can also make bite-sized causa balls and spoon the chicken salad on top.  

This causa is delicious on its own, but it is so much better with salsa golf (recipe below).  You can drizzle the entire causa with the sauce or add it to individual servings.

Causa Rellena

Across Latin America, rice and beans are a staple rooted in slavery—and each country has its own version. Spain’s colonial foodways may have introduced ingredients like rice to the Americas, but it was Black slaves who cooked bean stews. In Peru, Afro-descended women fried leftover rice and canary beans with lard to make tacu tacu, a dish whose name comes from the Quechua word taku, which means “mixed.” Today, tacu tacu is part of Peru’s creole cuisine, and there are many popular variations. Montaditos are tacu tacu fritters topped with steak, fried egg, or shrimp; tacu tacu relleno is tossed, rolled, and shaped like an ellipsoid stuffed with seafood sauce. I often cook a vegan tacu tacu with leftovers of long-grain white rice and red lentils, and I like how the creaminess of the soft cooked lentils holds the rice together. The recipe describes a basic lentil preparation; and you can omit the aromatics for simplicity. A red onion aderezo with ají amarillo—Peru’s native yellow hot pepper—adds heat. And shaping it like a round cake makes it easy to slice into several servings for sharing. Tangy salsa criolla topping, or pickled red onions, complements the flavors in the tacu tacu, while coffee and baguette make it a full savory breakfast.


Tacu Tacu (Afro-Peruvian Fried Rice & Lentil Cake)

Claudia Berroa grew up watching her grandmother cook in Lima, Peru, but only really started cooking on her own once she and husband Rich married. When she immigrated to the United States 20 years ago, she stayed connected to her family by calling frequently to discuss food and family recipes. 

“I didn’t know I could cook until I really started doing it, and that led to hosting parties for friends and family. Our small apartment would hold about 80 people, and it was a wonderful way to bring people together,” she says.

Claudia’s grandmother’s recipes would be what started her ventures as a chef. She began by selling homemade flan at New York City street fairs, then sold to local markets like Zabar’s and Union Market. This led to Claudia and Rich opening their own restaurant, Claudy’s Kitchen, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Rich, a paramedic, helps manage the business while Claudia has expanded the menu to include a broad selection of the home cooking she grew up with: ceviche, empanadas, roast chicken, and tamales.

One item on their menu, reserved for special occasions, is arroz con pollo. Many families have their own recipes for this homestyle chicken and rice dish, and Claudia makes hers distinctive with plenty of cilantro and dark beer (the darker, the better). "There are countless variations, but Peruvian arroz con pollo specifically features a lot of green color from the herbs and vegetables.” 

“There’s such a wide range of Peruvian cuisine, as it’s a country of several terrains and cultures," adds Rich. "There’s a difference in the food from the cities by the mountains, and those by the ocean with Indigenous, Asian, and European styles of food. We hope we’ll get to showcase all of them.”

Peruvian Arroz Con Pollo From Chef Claudia Berroa

This dish is perhaps one of the most emblematic chifa (Chinese-Peruvian dishes) in Peru. It has become so embedded in the country’s national cuisine that most Peruvians don’t even think about its Chinese origins. In my rendition, I reemphasize the Chinese elements in this dish by adding ginger, which gives the dish a pleasant bite, and oyster sauce, which adds a rich mouthfeel and profound umami flavor. Although traditionally made with beef sirloin, this recipe works with any protein, including tofu. At chifa restaurants, this dish would be cooked in a wok, but any pan that can tolerate very high heat will work for this recipe. Make sure to crack open a window and crank up your exhaust, as things can get smoky. The addition of crisp French fries makes lomo saltado particularly decadent. At home, I usually make my partner pick up some French fries from a nearby restaurant. However, you can fry or bake your own potatoes or just use frozen French fries.

Chinese-Peruvian Beef Stir-Fry With French Fries (Lomo Saltado)

Peruvian empanadas feature a crumbly, buttery crust that melts in your mouth. I’ve found that American frozen pie crust makes a great substitute. This is a recipe for a single giant empanada, which you can slice and serve as a meal. It’s much less tedious than cutting out circles of dough to make individual empanadas. You can make the filling up to 1 day in advance.

Empanadazo (Peruvian-Style Giant Empanada)

This is, or should be, a staple of grown-up summer vacation. It's a great way to make use of super-freshness: fish, tomatoes, and watermelon, especially. It's light and refreshing, and it keeps remarkably well in the fridge for a day or two. The watermelon is the surprise here, and it just piles on the summeriness, contrasting well, especially, if you turn up the jalopeño heat.

Summer Ceviche

This recipe calls for South American panettone, which is called 

 in Peru. They are usually a fraction of the price of Italian panettone and much easier to find. If you can find it, use a Peruvian brand as these are considered the best quality. Popular brands include D’Onofrio, Winter’s, Gloria, and Motta. Brazilian brands, like Bauducco, are more readily available and usually the least expensive. Either will work for this recipe.

Panetón & Hot Chocolate Bread Pudding

, a pork stew from the southern Peruvian region of Arequipa. It's traditionally made with 

, a fermented corn beverage that can be tricky to find in the United States. I found that hard apple cider replicates the flavor nicely. This is one of the simpler Peruvian dishes to make as you just marinate the pork and then dump everything into a Crock-Pot. The cider and slow cooker are what make this recipe “Americano” but also yield tender, flavorful chunks of pork and an addictive broth. You will want to have plenty of crusty bread on hand to soak up all the juices.

Slow-Cooker Peruvian-American Pork Adobo

The Turrón de Doña Pepa is an Afro-Peruvian dessert closely associated with the feast of the Lord of Miracles on October 28. It consists of layers of cookies and a fruit- and spice-flavored caramel, topped with colorful sprinkles and a prune or two. The caramel and cookies can be made several days in advance and assembled later.

Turrón de Doña Pepa

Topped with fluffy Italian meringue, flavored with port wine and dusted generously with cinnamon, 

 is a rich pudding that tastes like the offspring of dulce de leche and custard. As a kid, I considered it the Peruvian dessert par excellence. It was our reward for behaving well at Peruvian restaurants. If we ordered very Peruvian dishes (i.e., nothing from the kid’s menu), didn’t complain about how spicy the food was, and spoke in Spanish throughout the whole meal, then we'd each earn our own individual cup of Peruvian heaven. The name of this dessert translates to “the sigh of a girl from Lima.” It originated in the 19th century with a woman named Amparo Ayarza, who was the wife of a poet named José Galvez. Allegedly, Galvez took a bite of her creation and declared that it was as sweet and as light as the sound of a young city girl's sigh, daydreaming about her beau. I believe that this dessert’s name is more of a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the exasperating process of making it. Those who have taken it upon themselves to recreate this dish know that the real sighs come from having to constantly stir a pot of sweetened milk for over an hour until it achieves the right consistency. In the 1800s, this would have been achieved by combining fresh milk and refined white sugar—both luxuries back then. However, 20th-century advances in food production made this dessert a lot more accessible to the average Peruvian. The modern version of this culinary "sigh" is made with two ingredients that have forever changed the way Peruvians and other Latin Americans cook: evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

 Custardy Shortbread Bars With Boozy Meringue Topping

Ranfañote can be seen as a crunchy bread pudding, or a sweet and crusty stuffing; you could also think of it like a sweet, vegetable-less panzanella, in that it is composed of a mixture of dried bread. (Note: Food52-ers noted that while they had no idea what the dish was at first, they considered it an addictive, sweet-savory snack mix.) It is a dish of Afro-Peruvian origin (though that's contested), and it almost faded into obscurity, but has made a comeback in Lima. A hint of booziness and wintry spices make it perfect for chilly weather. Note: Any salty, strong, cheese that is firm or crumbly will work in this recipe. Avoid using cheeses with too much moisture, like feta. Featured In: 

The Sweet-Savory Peruvian Bread "Pudding" Time (Almost) Forgot

Ranfañote (Crunchy Peruvian Bread Pudding)

Ají amarillo, an orange-yellow chili with a fruity yet earthy flavor, is ubiquitous in Peruvian cuisine. The fresh chilies are difficult to find in the U.S., but ají amarillo paste, sold in jars, is available at well-stocked markets and specialty stores. The paste is key to the deep, spicy flavor of this quinoa chowder. If you can’t find it, use 1 or 2 minced jalapeños instead (if you like, seed the jalapeños for milder heat). The soup is especially good made with fresh in-season corn but, in a pinch, substitute frozen corn kernels. Serve with a simple salad of shredded cabbage, sliced avocado 

. Don’t forget to rinse the quinoa to remove the naturally occurring saponin that gives quinoa a bitter flavor. But check the packaging first, as some quinoa is sold prewashed; if so, there’s no need to rinse. Excerpted from MILK STREET: Tuesday Nights. Copyright © 2018 by Christopher Kimball, photographs by Connie Miller of CB Creatives. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York. All rights reserved.

Milk Street's Peruvian Quinoa and Corn Chowder (Chupe de Quinoa)

This is a favorite appetizer that originated in the port city of Callao, just north of Peru’s capital, Lima. It consists of steamed mussels that are chilled, served on the half shell, and topped with a zesty relish. You can cook the mussels and assemble the relish in advance; both will keep in the refrigerator for a day. These Peruvian-style mussels make elegant party appetizers but are also perfect with an ice-cold beer while watching a sports game.

Choros a la Chalaca Recipe

Amazonian cooks added their own touches to the Chinese-Peruvian favorite, and before too long, they came up with 

—Amazonian fried rice. At its core, this dish includes all of the usual suspects: day-old white rice, soy sauce, eggs, and scallions. However, things get interesting with the addition of three ingredients that instantly evoke the Amazon’s food culture while giving the dish an appealing mix of savory, sweet, and smoky flavors: ripe plantain, chorizo sausage, and cecina (which I've replaced here with the easier-to-find bacon).

Amazonian Fried Rice (Chaufa Amazónico)

This one-pot pasta is the traditional accompaniment to a dish called 

, a specialty from the Sur Chico region of Peru. The combination of these two dishes is referred to as 

, or “chest-stainer.” However, it makes an excellent main dish on its own. You can omit the chicken in this recipe to make it vegetarian. You can also adjust the spice by increasing or decreasing the amount of 

Peruvian Chicken & Basil Pasta (Sopa Seca)

Sweet and simple, these chocolate confections are a staple at Brazilian parties. Typically, they’re made with sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder and butter, but our version includes cinnamon and instant espresso for heightened flavor. Classic brigadeiros are coated with only chocolate sprinkles. To add nuttiness, we mixed chopped cashews into the sprinkles.

Don’t turn up the heat to rush the cooking; the chocolate mixture can easily scorch. Medium heat and constant stirring yield a perfectly smooth, silky texture.

Excerpted from MILK STREET: Tuesday Nights Copyright © 2018 by Christopher Kimball, photographs by Connie Miller of CB Creatives. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York.  All rights reserved.



Milk Street's Brazilian Chocolate Fudge Candies (Brigadeiros)

This is an adaptation of a tradition Italian-Peruvian Swiss chard pie called 

 in other Latin American countries, like Argentina and Uruguay. You can make the filling up to a week in advance and assemble the pie the day before you plan to bake it. It's best served at room temperature. Note: It's important to remove the ribs from the chard, as they tend to release a lot of water and can make your crust soggy. If you cannot find Swiss chard, use frozen chopped spinach instead.

Peruvian Swiss Chard Pie

This is my mother's rendition of an Italian-Peruvian dish called 

, which literally means “green noodles.” It is an interpretation of pesto, which uses spinach and cream cheese. It was a childhood favorite when we lived in Peru, and after we moved to the United States, it evolved into the unique family recipe described 

. About 10 years ago, my mother decided to serve the dish with a homemade creamy hot sauce, and now we cannot have this pasta dish without it. This is my mom’s attempt to recreate a typical Peruvian table condiment using ingredients one could find at most American grocery stores. The result is quite a departure from anything you’d find in Peru, but it is uniquely delicious. The sauce thickens as it sits and turns into an addictive dip. You can make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator, or as you make the green spaghetti.

Kelli's Green Spaghetti With Aji Sauce

Forget steak tartare: This dish has far more funk and punk, is deeper and more daring, and—to top it off—harbors thousands of years of history. In many parts of the world, 'shrimp' and 'prawn' are interchangeable, although, technically, shrimp have two claws and prawns have three. River prawns are a specialty in the region of Arequipa, thanks to their exquisitely intense flavor, but you can use any super-fresh, quality shrimp, if that’s what you have available. Note: It’s easy to make your own confit garlic cloves. Simply separate and peel the cloves from two heads of garlic and put them in a small saucepan with enough olive oil to cover. Put the pan over a medium heat and bring the oil just up to a simmer (but don’t let it boil), then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Allow the cloves to poach in the oil for about 20 minutes, until very soft but still holding together. Allow to cool, then transfer everything (including the oil) to a sterilized airtight jar and store for up to 6 weeks in the fridge. Recipe excerpted with permission from 

 by Martin Morales, published by Quadrille, November 2017.

Peruvian Shrimp Ceviche (Sivinche)

Triples are among the most ubiquitous snacks on the streets of Lima, and a mainstay at lonche, the mid-afternoon coffee and tea break. They are also favorite hors d’oeuvres at parties, where they are cut into dainty triangles or squares.

Because of this sandwich’s simplicity, it is important to thoughtfully procure and prepare each component. Use ripe, good quality avocados and tomatoes for this recipe, and be careful not to overcook the eggs.
Any square or Pullman loaf of white sandwich bread will work for this. 

Many Peruvians regularly make homemade mayonnaise similar to the recipe below.  Peruvian-style mayonnaise gets its distinctive flavor from fresh garlic and lime juice, and it is typically not as sweet as American varieties.  The recipe makes more than is required for the triples. In a pinch, you can use any commercially made mayonnaise, but avoid using sweet salad dressings like Miracle Whip.

Triples de Palta (Peruvian Avocado Sandwich)

I love this Ecuadorean addition of salty, crunchy popcorn to ceviche. Shrimp "cook" in the lime juice particularly well, although I have made this with firm-fleshed white fish as well as dry scallops. Ceviche is, of course, all about the freshness of the fish—so make sure that whatever you use is as fresh as you can get it.

Shrimp Ceviche with Popcorn

This recipe takes a raw, but delicate flounder fillet  and marinates it in lime as a base for a salad using shades of green. I think flounder makes the best white fish for ceviche because of its delicacy. - Sagegreen

Ceviche, dressed in green

What's not to love about roast chicken? I have run the gamut cooking roast chicken from Marcella Hazan's Chicken with Two Lemons, Zuni Cafe's Dry Brined and Thomas Keller's high heat, no-fuss bird. Chef Keller taught me plenty, and it's with his excellent tutelage, I worked out this recipe. Peruvian style chicken was introduced to me at a hole in the wall lunch only spot in Virginia. It's been a favorite ever since. Leftovers, shredded, make a great quesadilla, taco or burrito filling.

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