Peruvian cooking rests on native ajíes, especially ají amarillo, with Andean herbs like huacatay and influences from Spain, Africa, China and Japan in dishes like ceviche and lomo saltado.
Overview¶
Peru's cooking combines Andean and Amazonian foods — thousands of potato varieties, maize, quinoa and native chillies — with Spanish, West African, Chinese and Japanese influences brought by conquest, slavery and nineteenth- and twentieth-century migration. The chilli, called ají throughout the Andes, is its signature. Peruvian ajíes tend to be prized for fruity, floral flavour and colour as much as heat.
Two fusion traditions are distinctive: chifa, Peruvian-Chinese cooking with soy, ginger and wok frying, and nikkei, Peruvian-Japanese cooking, which influenced modern ceviche and tiradito.
The core palette¶
- Ají amarillo (Capsicum baccatum): the most important. Orange-yellow when ripe despite the name, with a fruity heat of roughly 30,000–50,000 SHU. Used fresh, dried (ají mirasol) and above all as a blended paste.
- Ají panca: a dark red, dried C. chinense-type chilli, mild and smoky-sweet, for marinades such as anticuchos.
- Rocoto (Capsicum pubescens): round, thick-walled and very hot, with black seeds; stuffed in Arequipa (rocoto relleno) and blended into sauces.
- Ají limo: small and hot, often in ceviche.
- cumin, garlic, black pepper and dried oregano are the main Old World spices, used in stews and marinades.
- Herbs: huacatay (Tagetes minuta, "Peruvian black mint", a marigold relative with a powerful, sweet, minty-basil-citrus scent); coriander, essential in seco and arroz con pato; muña, an Andean mint relative; parsley and mint.
- Annatto (achiote) for colour in the Amazon and in some stews.
Regional differences¶
The coast¶
Lima and the northern coast give ceviche, tiradito, causa, lomo saltado, arroz con mariscos, and the Afro-Peruvian dishes of Chincha and Lima such as anticuchos (grilled marinated beef heart) and tacu tacu. Northern cities like Chiclayo and Trujillo are known for arroz con pato and seco de cabrito, both green with coriander.
The Andes¶
Highland cooking centres on potatoes, maize, quinoa, cuy (guinea pig), pachamanca (meat and tubers cooked with huacatay in an earth oven), and ocopa (a huacatay and peanut sauce). Arequipa has rocoto relleno, chupe de camarones and a tradition of picanterías.
The Amazon¶
Tropical fruits, river fish, cassava and plantain; juane (rice parcels with turmeric or annatto, wrapped in bijao leaf) and tacacho con cecina. Ají charapita, tiny and very hot, comes from here.
Key techniques¶
- The aderezo: a base of onion, garlic and ají paste (amarillo or panca) fried slowly in oil until sweet, often with cumin. Much of Peruvian home cooking begins here, as sofrito does in Spain.
- Ceviche: raw fish cut into cubes and dressed briefly — often just a few minutes — in lime juice, salt, ají limo or amarillo, red onion and coriander. The resulting juice is leche de tigre. Longer marination, common in the past, gives a firmer, more "cooked" texture.
- Saltado: stir-frying in a wok with soy and vinegar, a direct chifa influence.
- Blending ají paste: seeded, deveined ajíes are blanched once or twice to soften their heat and then blended with oil.
🔁 No ají amarillo?
Jarred ají amarillo paste is widely available and keeps for weeks once opened. In a pinch, a mixture of yellow pepper and a little scotch bonnet or habanero gives a similar fruity heat, though the flavour is not the same.
Landmark dishes¶
Ceviche, tiradito, causa limeña, ají de gallina, papa a la huancaína, lomo saltado, anticuchos, arroz con pollo and arroz con pato (green with coriander), seco de res, rocoto relleno, ocopa, pachamanca, juane, pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken marinated in cumin, garlic and ají panca), chifa fried rice (arroz chaufa), and picarones.
Stocking the cupboard¶
- Ají amarillo paste
- Ají panca paste
- Rocoto paste (for the brave)
- cumin and garlic
- Dried oregano
- Huacatay paste (fresh huacatay is hard to find outside Peru)
- Plenty of limes, red onions and coriander
- Soy sauce, for chifa and lomo saltado