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.

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

Chances are that if you’ve ever had the good fortune to eat Peruvian food, you’ve had a scrumptious plate of lomo saltado!

One of the most popular Peruvian dishes – after ceviche, of course – lomo saltado is super easy to make and it virtually takes no time. Growing up, I was lucky to eat this at least once a week. My dad’s lomo saltado was by far my favorite.

Most of you know I’m not a huge cook, but I do know how to make some basic, classic Peruvian dishes. Lomo saltado is one of them. (The other one is arroz con pollo – which I promise I’ll share here soon.)

Some people say lomo saltado is not really a Peruvian dish, but it’s actually a prime example of what the cuisine from my country is all about: an ingenious blend of old and new flavors from four continents. The stir-fry concept is undoubtedly Asian, but the ají amarillo and the french fries made with papas amarillas give it the millenary Peruvian flavor.

This recipe is my contribution to our monthly Mizkan Cooking Challenge for September in which the six blogueras participating had to come up with a Receta de mi País recipe using one the many Holland House vinegars as an ingredient.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of beef tenderloin or beef for stir-frying
• 3 roma tomatoes
• 1 big red onions (make sure they’re red!)
• 1 lb. russet potatoes
• Peruvian hot peppers (otherwise known as ají amarillo. You should be able to find this at a Latin supermarket. If you can’t find the actual ají, you can substitute with ají amarillo sauce like the one I used for this recipe.)
• freshly chopped cilantro (to taste)
• 3 tbsps of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Holland House red wine vinegar
• Canola or vegetable oil for frying

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

 Directions:

1) Slice the red onions, tomatoes, potatoes, meat and ají amarillo (if you can get it) lengthwise. Make sure you prep all this ingredients before you start cooking because it all needs to happen very quickly and at high temperatures.

2) Deep fry the potato slices by using enough oil to cover them. Beware, they take a little time, so do this before you start with the rest of the ingredients.

3) Put oil on a wok and stir-fry the beef strips at high until brown. You can add pepper to the beef at this point.

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

4) (Here’s where my recipe differs from other lomo saltado recipes.) Remove the beef strips and stir fry the garlic and onions. Add the vinegar and soy sauce. At this point, thrown in the slices of ají amarillo, if you have it. When onions are cooked but still crunchy, add the tomatoes. 

5) Stir and put the beef strips back in the wok. Add the cilantro and the ají amarillo sauce, if that’s what you’re using.

{© SpanglishBaby Media}

6) Carefully stir all ingredients and add the french fries. (Some people like to put them on the side. I like the potatoes to soak up the juices in the wok). Remove wok from heat.

7) Serve immediately with white rice, the Peruvian staple.

To find out what delicious Recetas de Mi País the other five blogueras in the challenge cooked, just click on the badges below.

Disclosure:  This recipe and post were made possible thanks to the sponsorship from Mizkan Americas.

Photo credit: Andagi

I come from a long line of atypical Latin American women who don’t really know how to cook. (My mom won’t be happy I’m divulging this information. Sorry mamita, I still think you’re an amazing woman!). I don’t have pangs of nostalgia for my grandmother’s arroz con pollo or for my tía’s empanadas. Growing up, my father was the one who cooked in my house, so the mouth-watering cravings are for his food. 

Having said that, my mother – with the help of a very popular Peruvian cookbook called ¿Qué cocinaré hoy? – does make a delicious Papa a la Huancaína, a cold dish made with papa amarilla (did you know that the potato originated in Perú and that there are thousands of varieties and that there’s even an International Potato Center?), ají amarillo and queso fresco. It is truly delicioso, and I don’t say this lightly and only because she’s my mamá… Truth be told, this is not one of my favorite Peruvian dishes. I have a bit of an issue with dishes a base de queso, but that’s a story for another post.

 If you’ve ever been blessed with eating Peruvian food, you’ve probably had this dish as an appetizer. Whenever people find out I’m Peruvian, I’m immediately asked if I can make ceviche and papa a la huancaína – to which I respond by whispering a humiliating no! But, I do know my mom’s recipe and know I’m sharing it with all of you!

 INGREDIENTS

- 1 lb of boiled yellow potatoes
- 2 teaspoons of jarred ají amarillo (the recipe actually calls for fresh ají amarillo, but that’s virtually impossible to find in the States)
- the yolks of 2 hard boiled eggs
- 16 oz of queso fresco
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- lime juice
- Olives (preferably the Botija kind) y lettuce leaves

DIRECTIONS

Cut the potatoes in 1/2 inch rounds and set aside.

Put all other ingredients, except the olives and lettuce leaves, in a blender and mix until you get a creamy, smooth sauce that you can pour. If it’s too thick, add a bit of water until it becomes thinner. If it’s too liquidy, you can add galletas de soda or saltines, the next best thing. (To avoid this, my mom says she usually pours the milk last into the blender and she basically uses just enough to cover all the other ingredients.)

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a platter, place the potatoe rounds and pour the sauce over them. Garnish with olives and slices of hard boiled eggs.

**Note: My mom doesn’t use salt because the queso fresco she uses is already salty and she doesn’t use oil either like the orginal recipe calls for. Also, if you don’t want to use ají amarillo, you can use something called Bijol condiment to get the yellowing coloring. By the way, if you’re interested on another variation, you can go here.

The Huancaína sauce can be used not only on this particular dish, but in my country it’s also popular just as a dip!

 I hope you all enjoy this recipe and that if you decide to go ahead and try it, you come back to tell us all about it!