{"id":2004,"date":"2013-10-31T06:42:53","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T13:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=2004"},"modified":"2015-08-14T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T18:49:49","slug":"cooking-in-cusco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=2004","title":{"rendered":"Cooking in Cusco"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had an opportunity to cook a few of the popular and traditional dishes of the Andean region.\u00a0 Through our hotel, Encantada, we booked a lunchtime cooking class for two for $100 (before tip, but this did include the lessons and the food).\u00a0 The restaurant is A Mi Manera<\/a>, and it’s worth a visit even if you don’t take the cooking class.<\/p>\n

We started out in the bar and we were provided with two menus.\u00a0 We thought we would have to choose one, but they had each of us pick the one we wanted to do, so we did it all!\u00a0 Here’s what the lineup looked like:<\/p>\n

Drinks: Chicha Morada (Kristin), Pisco Sour (Ryan)
\nStarter: Quinoa Atamalada con Arroz (Kristin), Cebiche (Ryan)
\nMain: Rocoto Relleno (Kristin), Lomo Saltado (Ryan)
\n(Good news: some of the recipes<\/a> are on the restuarant’s website!)<\/p>\n

I started with my drink, the non-alcoholic chicha morada.\u00a0 The base was pre-made, and it’s created by boiling purple corn and chilling the resulting mixture.\u00a0 This made my part very simple: I cut up some pineapple, added juice from one juice, an ounce or so of\u00a0simply sugar,\u00a0and blended those with the purple corn juice in a blender.\u00a0 Ryan’s pisco sour was a bit more complicated, involving an egg white and alcohol, but the result was delicious!<\/p>\n

\"Cooking<\/a><\/p>\n

Once our drinks were prepared, we moved over to the kitchen to start the real work.\u00a0 The ingredients were already out and some of the early steps were pre-prepared for us.\u00a0 I went to work on one side and Ryan on the other.\u00a0 I started with the rocoto relleno (stuffed pepper) dish and Ryan with the cebiche.<\/p>\n

For my dish, I started with a mixture of egg, milk, and cheese, which would eventually by poured into a dish with my pepper and potato. \u00a0I wish I knew what I stuffed the pepper with (it was pre-made by the chefs), but it was ground meat with veggies. \u00a0The potato was already boiled, so I just had to peel the skin and place it in the dish alongside the stuffed pepper. \u00a0Add a little sliced cheese on top, pour the egg\/milk\/cheese mixture in the dish, and it was done (well, after simmering on the stove and then baking in the oven).<\/p>\n

\"Cooking<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan’s cebiche (the recipe is on the site), was made with the expected fish (he used pejerrey), red onion, hot peppers, limes, and cilantro. \u00a0However, there was one surprise ingredient (missing on the recipe online): milk! Since Ryan made this dish first, the fish was able to sit in the acidic sauce and cook for the remainder of our class.<\/p>\n

The lomo saltado and quinoa atamalada recipes are also on the website. \u00a0We had a lot of fun with this and we were able to mostly prepare it on our own (except for the rice and french fries). \u00a0We even shaped the rice into a pyramid and half sphere! \u00a0Ok, so we had some help with rice molds (here are a couple I’m thinking about ordering: pyramid<\/a> and half sphere<\/a>) – these were used for all dishes we ordered that came with a side of rice.<\/p>\n

\"Cooking<\/a><\/p>\n

We ended the class by sitting down to enjoy our food (the finished products are pictured above)!\u00a0 We dug right into the cebiche, which had already been sitting out for a good 20 minutes.\u00a0 Neither of us were brave enough to try the “tiger’s milk” (ok, I wasn’t feeling well, otherwise I definitely would have), but we did enjoy the spicy result of the fish.\u00a0 The quinoa was creamy, cheesy, and thick and perfect for a cool fall or winter day. \u00a0The lomo saltado tasted like the ones we had in Ollantaytambo at the restaurant – I think this is definitely something we’ll be able to recreate at home with little difficulty.\u00a0 I do wish I had the details about the meat mixture that was stuffed inside the pepper.\u00a0 It was much more flavorful than any stuffed pepper I’ve ever made.\u00a0 I’m sure the Andean cheese on top helped that!<\/p>\n

I would highly recommend this class to anyone who enjoys cooking and learning about a new type of cuisine.\u00a0 It made the Peruvian dishes seem less intimidating, and I’m excited to try a few of them out at home!\u00a0 Nati and her team were very sweet and helpful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had an opportunity to cook a few of the popular and traditional dishes of the Andean region.\u00a0 Through our hotel, Encantada, we booked a lunchtime cooking class for two for $100 (before tip, but this did include the lessons … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,116,3],"tags":[128,91,36,93,95,94],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2004"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}