La Gran Comilona - Lima

De alguna manera quedamos en comer en Lima. No una comida, 9 dias de descubrimiento gastronomico ingredientes nuevos a nuestro vocabulario y paladar. Todos hemos dicho que fue idea nuestra, yo, mi padre y mi tio, pero la verdad es que caimos en fortuna de todos tener el mismo tiempo disponible y nos tiramos. Llegamos a lima a los finales de Mistura el festival gastronomico mas grande de latinoamerica, y claro decidimos atender. La feria esta ubicada con vista a la playa.
 Mistura pretende dar apoyo y reconocer los cocineros, los agricultores y los interpretes de los productos peruanos. Llegamos en coche, al abrir las puertas. Tras comprar boletos de entrada y para la degustacion dimos la vuelta. Las areas se dividen entre bebdidas, comida criolla, comida fusion, el mercado, anticucheros etc.
  Probamos varios platos... Ceviche de conchas negras
 otros ceviches variados...
 
 Tras los ceviches probamos los platos calientes Nos comimos un chaufa (arroz frito) con conchas y mariscos Cordero al horno de leña
 y chancho (cerdo o lechon) al horno Y "al Palo" La verdad es que Mistura fue un buen previo de lo que se puede comer en el Peru, de sus increibles ingredientes, de sus interezados cocineros. Empezamos muy bien.

Stunt Foodways

Interesing new site I intend to contribute to from the guy who brought us
My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
A Website with a dedication to the fair and honest treatment of ugly and ungainly food, a fondness for feeding unruly crowds, and a commitment to cooking hard and well beyond your pay-grade.
Stunt Foodways
Check it out.
Up already some goat butchery.

Olio and Eating Richmond

olio board
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

We had a get together of Richmond food bloggers associated with the aggregator Eating Richmond. The venue was perfect, Olio is a European market with great cheeses, cured meats, and outstanding hot dishes, pizza's and cold beer (oh yeah and wine). They had very interesting oils, vinegars and canned/bottled products



The beer selection was great, and at least that night was grab what you want and have the counter open it for you.



The cured meat section had some great selections



The olives where great as was the proscioutto



I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favorite foods marinated white anchovies in the display



It was a very interesting and enjoyable night for me, meeting such a diverse, intelligent and pleasant group of people with a shared interest in good food.

Beef heart skewers - Anticuchos de Corazon

anticuchos
Originally uploaded by chuborupert

My wife went to the South of the James farmers market and bought me a beef heart from a grass fed animal from faith farms (how romantic!) Now to her defense she did call me and walk me through what they had and I steered her towards the heart. I had been reading about peruvian street food, one dish in particular is skewered meats or anticuchos, with the heart being popular. I planned on fileting the heart marinating it then grilling it. I went with a basic chimichurri marinade instead of a more spicy version but this cut could easily take a chili based marinade. I watched an excellent demonastration video with the kids from Chris Cosentino's web site Offalgood.com



We then got the idea to record our own version... warning, it's not nearly as interesting and gets a bit redundant towards the end as I'm not very quick.

Butchering my heart from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

After the prep I marinated the heart filets in the following overnight.
5 cloves of garlic mashed
one large handfull of fresh parsley chopped fine
1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
tablespoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of pimenton
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 cup olive oil

After soaking the skewers in water for a couple of hours (a step I usually forget causing them to catch fire) I threaded the meat on.
I tried to keep them a uniform size for cooking purposes.



I set the rice cooker up so we could have some white rice with it and went out to grill

peruvian grilled beef heart from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

They turned out very good with very tender flavorful beef taste, I would certainly make it again even though it requires a lot of prep. The kids really liked it, which makes me wonder if they were more into it as they were involved in the prep and anticipation of eating it.








South of the James Market
Shelter No. 2 in Forest Hill Park
New Kent Ave. & 42nd St.