Last night, I attended a gala dinner hosted by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza and Ambassador Hugo de Zela, permanent representative of Peru to the OAS.  As part of the Inter-American Year of Culture, Peruvian cuisine was honored with the Cultural Heritage of America Award.  This is quite possibly the closest event to a state dinner then I’ll attend.

Dessert Trilogy

I had the pleasure or sitting at the same table with Mary, Nycci and some other great writers.  We were the media table, apparently. Monica Bhide (who I have wanted to meet for a very long time) was also present (seated one table away), and is an absolute pleasure to talk to.

The food was great (as was the pisco, and pisco and passion fruit juice).  I love Peruvian food, and while I’ve eaten at various Peruvian restaurants here and in NYC, I’ve never had (and probably never again will have) Peruvian food on this level–the chefs that cooked for us are the top chefs in Peru.  We were served:

• Several ceviches (flounder, bass, and scallop)
• Shrimp chupe (with shimp, fried fish, a poached quail egg, blue potatoes, fava beans, and white cheese)
• Cilantro scented (“seco”) rack of lamb (with lima bean puree, tomato confit, cilantro infused olive oil, and yuca chips)
• Dessert trilogy (crispy spiral gaufrette (“ponderaciones”) with “manjarblanco” sauce, “lucuma” and chocolate roll, and “chirimoya,” pisco and orange mousse)

We also were given appetizers (as part of a cocktail hour) before the meal, and (some excellent) petit fours and (good strong) coffee at the end of the meal.

They said you can’t talk to a Peruvian without the conversation eventually being about food, but I’m not sure I can talk to anybody without eventually talking about food. I do know that I could use some more good Peruvian ceviche right about now.

And, they even sent me the below ceviche recipe to share with you.

-JAY

CEVICHE
By Chef Coque Ossio

Ingredients:

1-3/4 lb (800g) sea bass or flounder fillets
1 red onion, in very fine slices
½ red ají limo, chopped very fine
½ yellow ají limo, chopped very fine
Juice of 16 key limes
Salt

Serve with:
1 boiled ear of corn, cut into rounds
Boiled sweet potato
Lettuce leaves

Preparation:

Cut fish into bite size pieces and mix together with onion in large bowl. Wash onion and fish and drain well. Season with salt and ají limo.

Toss fish preparation quickly in lime juice.  Refresh by adding a couple of ice cubes, mixing well and removing immediately before they have a chance to melt.

Serve ceviche immediately in a deep dish, accompanied by boiled sweet potato, fresh cooked corn and leaves of lettuce.