The past couple of summers, my family and I have taken vacations that have enabled us to be immersed in Spanish. Our goals have always been to improve our language skills, to learn about and visit the historical sites throughout the country, and to experience the culture.

My previous SpanglishBaby posts about our travel experiences always included information about our activities, our Spanish classes, and the home-stays. In the comments section, there were often requests for further information and more specific recommendations.  Our trip this summer was truly amazing, and I hope to provide details for other families who would like to take a similar trip.

We chose to visit Peru again this summer since there were so many places we still wanted to see. Peru is an excellent country to visit with children. It has so much to offer from ancient sacred cities to an incomparable cuisine and rich cultural traditions and festivities. We chose to stay in Cusco, the former capital of the Incan empire, since it provided an excellent base for visiting the Incan ruins around the city and throughout the beautiful Sacred Valley.

During our time in Peru, the boys gained a deeper understanding of the history of Peru and were fascinated by the Incan ruins. We spent hours exploring and hiking ancient sites. While we all loved Sacsayhuamán, Piscac and Ollantaytambo, the highlight of our trip was visiting Machu Picchu! Having a Spanish-speaking guide helped the children learn about the history and culture of the Incan civilization while they explored the ancient ruins.

I had planned for our visit to coincide with the Inti Raymi festival. In Cusco, this ancient Incan festival of the sun is reenacted with hundreds of actors in colorful costumes. In the days leading up to the festival there were parades and traditional dances in the plaza. Our family really enjoyed being a part of the festivities and the chance to learn more about the culture of Peru and its history.

As in other years, my boys, my husband and I all took Spanish classes. I specifically searched for a school that gave back to the local community. We ended up attending Amigos Spanish School. We had a wonderful experience at the school and learned a lot! Unlike other schools, the aim of Amigos is to teach Spanish while also providing a future for disadvantaged children and young people in Cusco.

The proceeds from the school run a program that provides invaluable language skills, care and academic support to some of Cusco’s most disadvantaged students.

We all loved our teachers and our classes. Luke and Patrick’s teacher, Ms. Vanessa, did an excellent job! She would have the boys singing songs, telling stories, and playing games in Spanish. She was a creative and energetic teacher who did an amazing job furthering the linguistic abilities of the boys. Since the program for the Peruvian children was at the same school, my sons also had the opportunity to play with and become friends with the local children. We had brought bilingual books to donate to the school, and the kids really bonded over reading together.

My amazing teacher Jesús Napancca is the founder and director of the Amigos Spanish School! He was so helpful and dedicated to helping my family have a good experience while in Peru. I highly recommend this school. The classes are excellent, the program is well run, and the teachers are innovative and creative. Most importantly Jesús is always there to provide advice and help your family.

Immersion travel is a great way to further your kids’ language while also traveling and experiencing the culture of the country you are visiting. As a family, you can learn and have fun all in Spanish, and Peru has adventures for everyone!

Recommendations:

–We booked our trip to Machu Picchu with United Mice. It is important to make reservations in advance since the number of daily visitors to Machu Picchu is limited.

–We visited the other Incan ruins (Sacsayhuamán, Piscac, Ollantaytambo, etc.) by hiring a private taxi. The director of Amigos Spanish school Jesús Napancca helped us make these arrangements.

–We were placed in a homestay by Amigos Spanish School. They made all of the arrangements for us. Our homestay family picked us up at the airport in Cusco.

–We studied at Amigos Spanish School. The director is Jesús Napancca.

–I used the Lonely Planet Peru guidebook for booking our hotels, learning about the ancient sites, and deciding what points of interests and museums to visit.

–I used IB Tours for booking our flights from Lima to Cusco. Ask for Gisela!

{Images courtesy of Susan Stephan}

Last Sunday July 28, Peru celebrated its 192^nd Independence Day. In Peru, the celebrations extend from the 28 to the 30. This period is known as Fiestas Patrias and most people take these days off. There is a big military parade broadcast on TV and the Peruvian flag is hung everywhere. Although we are far from there, I still want my kids to know about my culture and somehow live the experience of Fiestas Patrias. So I had this idea to start teaching G {L knows some things already since we’ve been celebrating for a couple of years now} about Peru by having a little “28 de Julio” play date.

We invited some Peruvian and Colombian friends and their little ones over and celebrated together. I know the kids are still young and may not understand much of what’s going on, but to be surrounded by Spanish-speaking people, especially Peruvians, talking about our country, food, customs, it just felt like being home away from home. We had such a great time.

I wanted to put together a little table commemorating this special date for my country. Red and white are the colors of our flag. I used things I already had {I have a big closet full of party stuff!} and just went to a neighboring town to get some Peruvian treats.

G stood in front of the banner and spelled “PERU”. I told him, it says “Peru”. And he responded “Pedu”. So cute.

I got some Peruvian “golosinas”, and of course, I had to get some Inca Kola and chicha morada. I also made some “gelatina” {jello} which is a very common dessert in Peru.

I had some lucuma powder in my pantry. Lucuma is a Peruvian tropical fruit. We use it mostly for desserts but now it’s gaining more popularity as a super food, the same as quinoa. I tried to bake some Paleo Lucuma Chocolate Chip muffins, tweaking this recipe I found online. The muffins turned out really good, and healthy, but you could barely taste the lucuma flavor. Next time I’ll use more lucuma powder. I also served some fruit and some pita chips. I had to balance all the Peruvian sweets and treats somehow!

My good friend M brought some “alfajores”, “rosquitas” {it’s been ages since I had those} and the cutest flag cookies. Another friend brought a “turrón de doña pepa” and a “causa rellena” {I forgot to take pictures}. We even forgot to eat them during the play date {we were so busy chatting and playing}. But I had some ”causa” after, and it was delicious!

For favors, I used some red and white striped paper bags that I adorned with a circle tag featuring a girl and a boy with some typical clothes from the Andes of Peru. Inside there were some crayons, a little treat and a little card I printed with the Peruvian flag for the kids to color.

As for activities to keep the little ones entertained, I printed some coloring pages I found online, with Peru’s map and other “símbolos patrios”. We also had an impromptu story time. We read some Spanish books and sang songs in Spanish, too.

The kids {and the moms} had a great time. It was very nice to be able to share and hang out with fellow Peruvian moms, since I don’t know many around. Hopefully this will be a tradition we follow every year. Hope all my Peruvian family and friends had a Feliz 28!

Nadia is a Peruvian wife and mom living in New York with her American husband and two boys. She moved to the United States in 2005 and has made one of her missions in life to raise her children to be bilingual and pass on her cultural heritage. She is an architect, designer and blogger. She is also founder of mamemima, an interior and event styling for kids studio. On her blog, at the same name, mamemima, she writes about decor, design, crafts, motherhood, bicultural identity and of course bilingualism.

Triples — sandwiches like the ones you see in the photo above — were a staple of my childhood back home in Peru. And yet, I hadn’t really made them for myself or my kids until late last year. I was craving one from a specific sandwich place back home, when I wondered out loud: “Why can’t I just make it at home? It’s not like it’s that complicated…”

The next day, I went shopping for all the ingredients and requested my daughter’s help making these delicious sandwiches that contain three simple, but healthy ingredients: avocados, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. And I was so happy when she took her first bite and instantly fell in love with it! Here’s my version of this yummy sandwich (I use 4 slices of bread instead of the traditional 3).

INGREDIENTS: (For one sandwich)

1/4 Avocado cut in thin slices or mushed up

1/2 Roma Tomato thinly sliced

1 Hard boiled egg sliced

4 thin slices of bread

Mayonnaise

DIRECTIONS:

Spread some mayonnaise on one of the slices and layer the slices of avocado on top and sprinkle them with a bit of lime juice so it doesn’t turn black. Cover it with the second slice of bread and put the slices of tomato on top. Cover with a third slice and put slices of hard boiled egg. Cover with fourth and final slice of bread.

Get rid of the bread crusts and cut sandwich into triangles.

Can a healthy sandwich get any simpler than that?

Disclosure: As part of the Walmart Moms program, SpanglishBaby received compensation and the products to facilitate this post. As always, all stories and opinions are our own.

There are a ton of things I miss about my birth country, but the food and the Pacific Ocean are probably the two I miss the most.

The only way for me to solve this is to travel back home, but since it’s been almost two years since our last trip there, I have to settle for the “encargos” my mom brings with her to Denver every time she goes back to Peru.

Through the years, the list hasn’t really changed much: alfajores, ají amarillo and Pisco. But ever since I became a mom, my list also includes children’s books in Spanish, chompas de alpaca (alpaca sweaters) and polos de algodón peruano (T-shirts made with Peruvian cotton), and most definitely the kind of Peruvian candy that reminds me of my childhood and that my kids have somehow learned to love too.

Vanessa’s favorite is Doña Pepa.

Santiago’s favorite is Cua Cua.

I love seeing them enjoying these candies of my childhood because it makes me feel closer to my beloved Peru. Same thing happens when I see them enjoy un buen plato de arroz con pollo or devour a triple — a Peruvian sandwich made with avocado, hard boiled eggs and tomatoes and one of Vanessa’s favorite dishes.

But I also feel like many of these “encargos” show my kids how important it is for me to continue to stay connected to my Peruvian heritage. I tell them how they won’t believe how warm their Alpaca sweaters will keep them (and after wearing hers during the bitter cold we experienced in Denver this weekend, Vanessa agrees); I tell them how Peruvian cotton is some of the softest in the world, which is one of the reasons why many clothing stores worldwide get their T-shirts done there; and thanks to some of the books my mom has brought back, I can teach them more about Peru’s traditions, culture and customs.

This time around, my kids favorite book was “Chimoc en Machu Picchu,” which belongs to a beautiful series written and illustrated by the very talented sisters Andrea and Claudia Paz. My kids have almost every book in the series and what I love the most about them is how they introduce Peruvian music, food, traditions and, this time around, one of the places my birth country is most well-known for: the unparalleled Machu Picchu. Plus, each book in the series comes with an audio CD which includes not only the story, but a series of songs specific to the story composed, written and performed by the Paz sisters and their brother. A real gem! (Sadly, I haven’t found the books in the U.S.)

What kind of things do you ask for from your home country?

Did you know December is National Fruit Cake Month? Ever since I’ve become a food blogger I have discovered that almost every day of the year (or at least every month) has a theme in relation to food. Chocolate cake day, Chiffon cake day, Good Nutrition month, and the list goes on. But instead of discarding these celebrations as pointless and arbitrary, I find this to be a fantastic way to remember those foods that we sometimes leave covered in dust at the back of our memories. The best diet is one that offers a large array of foods and nutrients, and remembering to cook all kinds of different dishes thanks to these celebrations does just that.

It is also a happy coincidence (or perhaps it was done on purpose), that Fruit Cake day coincides with the holidays, since it’s at this time of the year that most fruit cakes have always been prepared. In Peru, for example, people devour Paneton (the Peruvian name for the Italian Panettone), day in and day out throughout December. This cake/bread is full of raisins and all kinds of candied fruits. In England, the tradition is eating mince meat pies, which were originally made with meat, but now are just a super sweet (and incredibly addictive) mix of dried fruits soaked in liquor.

A fruity dessert is always a great choice to end your holiday banquet with a bang. So for this Christmas, I have chosen a recipe I love, and -listen to this-, I’ve made it gluten-free! There are so many people out there with a gluten intolerance or allergy (a lot of them don’t even know it), that everyone will benefit by going gluten-free for at least one course, after all that heavy eating.

The truth is, it’s actually quite easy to turn a cake gluten-free. Granted, the texture is not the same as a regular cake, but some would say it’s even better. By replacing the regular flour this cake usually calls for, with cooked quinoa and amaranth, what came out of the oven was a creamy cake, with a texture similar to that of bread pudding, or even flan. Everyone raved about it. And this was actually the product of an accident, (but now I think it was meant to be); my initial idea was to use quinoa flour instead of regular flour, but when I couldn’t find the package I would’ve sworn I had in the pantry, I used the leftover amaranth and quinoa I had made for breakfast, which was already cooked. Sometimes the best things come out of the most unexpected places.

What I loved the most about this cake (other than the texture and the fact that it’s gluten-free), is the deep Sherry flavor in every bite. It is quite low in sugar, so the Holland House Sherry cooking wine I used really shines through. I’m a big fan of using cooking wines in my food, and this was no exception. And everything came together beautifully when I finished it off with a huge dollop of whipped cream, and some nuts and raisins soaked in even more Sherry. Vanilla ice cream would be another great option.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and that it teaches you how to give an unexpected twist to any recipe. Never forget to have fun in the kitchen, and to prepare everything with love!

Ingredients

250g raisins

200ml Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine

150ml thick natural yogurt

150ml olive oil

3 eggs

1 cup almond flour

11/2 cup cooked quinoa and amaranth (half of each, or just quinoa).

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

Preparation:

Soak the raisins in the Sherry for at least half an hour.

Preheat the oven at 350F.

Grease and flour a non-stick baking pan that is about 9 inches in diameter.

Mix the yogurt, oil and eggs in a bowl, and beat with a fork until everything is blended together.

In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder.

Add the dry ingredients, and the cooked quinoa to the egg mixture. Add half of the soaking raisins. Mix everything well.

Transfer the mixture to the pan, and cook for 40 minutes.

The cake is ready when a knife or fork inserted in the middle comes out clean. It should be golden on top, but don’t let it burn.

Take out of the oven, pinch everywhere with a fork, and pour the Sherry where the raisins have been soaking all over the cake.

Heat in a cooling rack. When cool, pass a knife around the edge of the cake to separate it from the pan.

When it’s cool enough to handle, cover the pan with a large plate, and quickly turn upside down. Then turn it upside down again, to get the golden side on top.

Serve with whipped cream, the rest of the soaked raisins, and some chopped nuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

For more recipes, tips and offers featuring Holland House visit their Facebook page and the Mizkan Pinterest board.

Disclosure: We thank Mizkan for their sponsorship.

Our family was fortunate to have had the opportunity to once again immerse our children in Spanish by traveling abroad. You may remember that last year we spent the summer in Peru. This summer was spent in Costa Rica. There really is nothing like travel to enhance your child’s language skills and to provide them with global and cultural understanding. Such trips require planning and effort, but the work is well worth it.

Since I do not have family living in a Spanish speaking country, a lot of research is involved with putting together an adventure that will be both fun and educational for the entire family. Months prior to the trip, I am looking at schools, possible homestay arrangements, and tourist destinations that will be interesting. Having now been through the planning, traveling and living abroad experience twice, I feel that there is some advice of value that I can pass on to families that would like to embark upon similar journeys.

Homestays

In both Peru and Costa Rica, we lived with local families. The homestays in both countries were arranged through the schools that we attended while abroad. There is no better way to be immersed in the language and culture of the country than to actually live with a local family.

Be careful! Our experience in Peru was wonderful! We ate with the family daily, and they went out of their way to help us get to know the city where we were living. The family enjoyed having students come to get to know their country and culture.

Unfortunately, we did not have a similar experience this summer. It was obvious that our Costa Rican family had us only to make money. The television was on constantly, and there was very little interaction with the family. The single mother was gone three nights a week, and we were left with the three children and a teenage babysitter. The house was also dirty, and we were often hungry because there was not enough food during the meals. Although my husband complained in writing at the school, nothing changed.

No matter what country you are visiting, homestay experiences will vary enormously based on the family and their motivation for taking in students. Have a back-up plan if the family does not work out. Be sure that you can either change families or living arrangements, if you find yourself in a situation that is just not the right fit. Try to avoid paying for the entire stay so that you have the freedom to make a change if your living arrangements are less than ideal. It is also a good idea to have a back-up plan to avoid being stuck in a home that makes you uncomfortable.

School

In Peru, my children studied Spanish with a Peruvian teacher. They learned songs, read books, played games, and did art projects with their teachers. While in Costa Rica, they attended a Waldorf School.

Working with individual teachers was far more conducive to the language learning of my sons. The teachers were able to specialize their instruction to best meet the needs of my boys. They were also exposed to excellent Spanish and were required to speak with their teachers without using English.

The Waldorf School provided very little teacher directed instruction; rather the kids were encouraged to play. While the boys did use Spanish to play with their peers, since they were only 2 and 4 years of age, the Spanish was limited and not very complex. While peer interaction is important, we were easily able to meet other young children by just taking a soccer ball to the park with us. There is nothing like having a teacher work with your child individually to further their linguistic skills.

Activities

In Peru, I arranged play dates with other Peruvian children, but in Costa Rica, I signed them up for music classes and Tae Kwon Do. The structured martial arts and music classes were so much fun for my children, and they were a great way for the boys to get to really know other Costa Rican children. These enrichment classes enabled the boys to both further their language skills and to experience different activities that they can continue to pursue in the future.

Travel

We did travel while we were in Peru, but I wished that we had done more. This year I scheduled extra travel days into our Costa Rica adventure.  The boys loved exploring the rainforests and beaches, and they were particularly interested in the animals and wildlife. To make our travels even more educational, we would hire guides who would take us on nature walks helping us to spot animals and telling the kids about what we were seeing, all in Spanish. We would have the guides use Spanish with the kids and us. While learning about the animals and nature around them, the kids, my husband and I were also hearing and using our Spanish.

An immersion experience in a Spanish speaking country is a great way to reinforce the Spanish language. Not only will your child gain linguistic skills, but they will also acquire a greater understanding of some of the different customs and cultures of the world. Planning a trip abroad can be challenging, but the efforts are worth the time and research.

I hope that my experience and advice helps with your plans to take your kids to another country to speak Spanish, become familiar with the culture, and to get to know another country and its people.

{photo via marinakvillatoro}

As many of you know, cooking is not my forte. I know how to make a few dishes and between those and the ones my husband makes, we manage to feed our family of four. Unlike most Latina women I know, I didn’t grow up in a household where women cooked and passed on their skills to the next generation. I grew up in an atypical Latina house where my father cooked because my mother (and her mother) where never taught how to — they had maids who took care of that.

While I see absolutely nothing wrong with a man cooking, my dad is no longer here. This means that unless I learn how to make Peruvian dishes, my children will have no connection to that part of their culture, except when we travel back to Peru, which sadly is not as often as I’d like.

In an effort to change that and because I want my children to have the same memories I had regarding home-cooked meals, I’ve been letting go of my fear of failing and have started adding more dishes to my very tiny repertoire of Peruvian fare. Yesterday, I tried making ceviche — the epitome of Peruvian cuisine and one of my dad’s specialties. Because I’ve only tried to make it a couple of times in the last eight years, yesterday’s attempt felt like the very first one as I made an actual meal of it and not just a tasting sample, like in the past.

And am I ever so glad I did! Although I’ll have to tweak a couple of minor things the next time I make it, I’m happy to report it was a major hit! The best part was that Vanessa tried ceviche for the first time ever and she liked it! I was so proud of her and of myself and the whole experience reminded me how happy my dad used to get when he saw us enjoying the food he’d so lovingly prepare. There’s power in being able to transmit one’s culture through food. Not to mention the immense love and care I took to attempt to live up to my father’s standards. I think he too would’ve been very proud.

Amazing the things we do for love, for our children and for keeping our culture alive, no?

Tell us, what have you done to make sure your children know about their Latino culture?

“I’m never brining any of you any more encargos,” my mom complained as I help her lift the two huge suitcases you see in the picture above into my car’s trunk at Denver International Airport yesterday.

She just got back from a six-week long trip to Peru and both my sister and I bombarded her with our lista de encargos even before she left. In fact, mine kept on growing while she was already there and I remembered I also wanted this thing or the other thing and emailed or called so she could add it to the list. But while my mom complains about what a pain it is for her to go running around Lima getting us our encargos and then complains about having to pay the overweight fees at the airport, I know she’ll always bring these things back because she knows how much it means for us to have a little piece of our homeland here in Denver.

I’ve written about this topic before, so I won’t bore you with the details about why these encargos are so important to me. I’ll just share photos of some of the things she brought back, including my favorite Peruvian candy. Check them out:

Have you ever had any of these? While I can find many of the Mexican candies I grew up with, the Peruvians are a lot harder to come by now that we live in Colorado. Getting them directly from Peru, then, is a real treat. The majority of these have already gone into hiding, as Vanessa has become addicted to some of them too and so if I leave them laying around, they’ll disappear before I even taste them myself. 

Because my mom is an awesome mamama (the name many Peruvians calls their abuelas), when her nieta Vanessa asked her for some conchitas from the beach in Peru, my mom not only obliged, she actually brought back more than 100 sea shells picked by her brother — my godfather — and one of her cousins. Needless to say, my daughter was in heaven and already has plans to make several necklaces out of the ones that have little holes.

Last, but not least, a bunch of beautiful finds from my home country, including T-shirt with the new Perú logo as well as several books for kids learning to read in Spanish for Vanessa, which I promise to write more about soon. For now, you should know that I got the recommendations for the book from the librarian at the dual language school I used to attend as a child back in Peru… so you know they’re awesome.

What’s on your list of encargos?

Part of my plan for raising bilingual children has always included teaching them how to read and write in Spanish. I find it very discouraging that so few elementary schools offer foreign language education. It is shocking considering all of the recent studies that demonstrate the cognitive benefits of being bilingual. To make up for this shortfall in the public education system, my sons will have Spanish classes with me at home. I am doing some part time home schooling to make up for this major deficit in their education.

While I am a Spanish teacher, I was trained and credentialed for the high school level. Teaching my children how to read and write in Spanish has required me to learn some new methods and strategies. I was not in any hurry to teach my son how to read, but rather followed my child’s lead. When he started to ask me what signs said and began to sound out words on his own, I knew he was both interested and ready to learn.

During our family trip to Peru last year, our children attended a pre-school part time, and I was able to stay and observe the classes. I wanted to learn the most effective strategies for teaching Spanish literacy skills. The teachers at the pre-school were wonderful at explaining the process and different activities used to teach reading. The method used throughout Peru, and in many other Spanish speaking countries, is known as the Coquito method. Created in 1955 by teacher Everardo Zapata Santillana, this method follows the syllabic structure of Spanish. The system is phonetic with children learning different phonemes and then how to string syllables together to form words and later sentences.  It is a logical method for teaching the Spanish language. Mr. Zapata Santillana explains “El espanol se aprende en solo dos meses porque se lee como está escrito y se escribe como se escucha.”  (“Spanish can be learned in only two months because it is read as it is written, and it is written as it is heard.”)

I had planned to stock up on books and materials for teaching my children prior to visiting Peru and visited the Coquito store.  Much to my surprise Mr. Everardo Zapata passed through the store on the way to his office.  I was amazed!  Even though he is now in his eighties, he still goes to work everyday improving upon Coquito and its teaching materials.  I made an appointment to return the next day and was thrilled to be able to actually meet the man who created this wonderful method that has helped generations of children learn how to read.  He was very kind and welcoming, explaining how to use the books that we purchased and even giving me books to bring back to the United States.

Now that I have been using the Coquito books and posters with my son, I am amazed at how easy it is to teach him Spanish using this process. My son loves to learn and actually calls our reading sessions “playing Coquito.” It is so easy for him to sound out words and string together sentences. The whole teaching and learning process has been a rewarding and fun experience, and I am fortunate to have discovered one of the best methods to help him achieve success.

*I am not an expert on the method of teaching using Coquito, but I have found it fairly straight forward and easy to use. You can also check out these two YouTube videos about the history of Coquito and its creator Everardo Zapata Santillana.

Coquito Clasico can also be purchased on amazon.com through La Tiendita.

Editor’s note: This is the third post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of  Morena, half the team behind the blog Perú Delights and she brings us a traditional Crema Volteada {Flan} from Perú.. We hope you come back all week to check out so many different ways of making flan in Latin America and Spain!

Nothing in the world is easier to make than a Flan, or its mother, the gracious French lady called Crème Caramel. For Latin Americans, our love of flan is in our genes, in our blood, and in our surprisingly sweet palate. It is popular all across Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, and even though it may have lots of regional variations, it’s chore is always the same: baked milk and eggs covered in caramel. I have eaten it since I was a little girl, so did my parents, and so have my children, and I don’t think this continuity is going to end any time soon.

In Peru children start their love affair with Flan at a very early age. There isn’t one single kid who hasn’t carried a portion of Flan in his/her school lunchbox, or a house or restaurant that doesn’t make it regularly. It’s a dessert to celebrate everything, to comfort anyone, and to have in hand just to satisfy the cravings for something sweet. Nobody is free from indulging in this velvety, vanilla flavored custard covered with caramel sauce… So rich and addictive, but at the same time so innocent and homey.

The name is confusing for many people, especially because in French pastry vocabulary, a Flan is a kind of tart with a baked crust and a creamy filling. What we Latinos know as Flan is something quite different but equally delightful. Peruvians also call it Crema Volteada, which literally means “upside down cream”, and have turned their love for this ubiquitous dessert into a creative force, producing many versions of the original with as many flavors and textures as is possible to imagine: cream cheese, apple, pear, raisins, quinoa, lúcuma, coconut, corn, prunes, cinnamon… However, hands down, the original plain vanilla is the favorite all over the country.

Leche Asada is another dessert from Colonial times that resembles Flan, even though it´s less sweet, not as rich, and has a burnt top layer. It’s made with fresh milk instead, baked without the caramel, and the outer surface is burnt with a hot cast iron, (so it definitely is not a Crème Brulée or Crema Catalana either).

Here is our very simple and surefire recipe for Flan. We use evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and eggs, all mixed together in a blender, and baked in a water bath, a.k.a. “bain marie”, to get that soft, creamy, delicate texture. It’s so easy that you can make it with success even if you’ve never boiled a pan of water in your life. The amount of eggs varies from recipe to recipe, and if you prepare it with whole milk instead, the result will be lighter and less creamy, but still delicious. A disfrutar!

CREMA VOLTEADA (makes 8 portions)

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence Directions

*Preheat the oven at 375 F.

*In a saucepan heat the sugar over medium high heat, moving constantly until it melts and forms a liquid caramel. Be careful not to let it burn because it will taste bitter. When it’s ready pour into a ( 9 inch) baking pan, covering all the inner surface with the caramel. Be very careful with your fingers, and don’t even dream of tasting it with your tongue. Hot caramel is dangerous. Let it cool.

*Blend eggs, milk, and vanilla essence in a mixer. Pour into the baking pan.

*Put the baking pan inside a larger pan with about 2 fingers high of hot water.

*Bake for 1 hour. Let it cool completely.

*When cool, run a knife around the border and turn the flan over a bigger plate.

*To soften the hard caramel at the bottom of the baking pan, put the empty baking pan over medium heat, with 1/3 cup water. Stir with a spoon until it softens and becomes liquid again, and pour over the flan.

*Keep refrigerated, and share with your loved ones.

Morena Cuadrais half the team behind Peru Delights, a Peruvian food blog she created with her daughter, also Morena. They write about their country`s cuisine, with both a traditional perspective and an open mind with a healthy twist. Morena is a journalist, a trained chef and a wine expert, and has edited and published several magazines and book collections. She’s a founding member of the Peruvian Guild of Wine Specialists, and she directed a cooking school in Lima until 2008. She now lives in Virginia,USA.

{All photos in this post are courtesy of Morena Cuadra}