Lucky students at ACE, the Academy of Culinary Education in Woodland Hills. They got to watch Peruvian chef Ricardo Zarate reveal just what makes his dishes so fabulous.
Cecilia de Castro, who heads ACE, snagged Zarate for a demo, which drew not just students but chefs and media fans who have followed Zarate since he arrived in Los Angeles in 2009.
Starting with Mo-Chica in the Mercado La Paloma in downtown Los Angeles, Zarate opened a string of restaurants. The latest is Rosaliné in West Hollywood, a modern Peruvian bistro named for his mother.
You can also taste his food at Los Balcones in Studio City, where he consulted on the menu. He is also in Las Vegas and will open in New York.
Energetic and loaded with enthusiasm, Zarate explained Peruvian ingredients including aji amarillo, panca pepper paste and aji limo. Aji, the word for chile in Peru, comes from the Quechua language, he said.
And he told how quinoa, cultivated for centuries in Peru, was once scorned as food for poor people. Now it's trendy and valued for its healthful properties.
The ceviche that he showed the students is nothing like Mexican ceviche. In Peru, ceviche is raw fish with sauce on top, Zarate said. The sauce is punchy, powerful leche de tigre, (tiger's milk), a mix of vegetables, lime juice and raw fish.
Working quickly, Zarate pureed the sauce in a blender, adding ice to dilute the lime juice because it's spicier here than in Peru, he explained.
He then laid slices of yellowtail on a plate, topping each slice with a dab of garlic paste and a few drops of smoking hot sesame and olive oils. Next he added leche de tigre, then finished the ceviche with crisp fried quinoa and micro greens.
"Don't get me wrong, but it's the best," he said.
The other dish Zarate demonstrated was quinotto, which is quinoa influenced by risotto, a signature dish for him since Mo-Chica. The stock for this is made with vegetables and dried shiitake mushrooms.
Other quinotto components are butter, sour cream, white truffle oil, Parmesan, a mother sauce called aji aderezo and, for garnish, crispy quinoa and sautéed mushrooms.
Peruvian cuisine is a lively mix of contributions from the Incas, Spain, Italy, China and Japan. Zarate's own cooking, and that of most Peruvian restaurants in the United States, is Japanese-influenced, he said. You can learn more from his book, "The Fire of Peru: Recipes and Stories from My Peruvian Kitchen."
This is the recipe for leche de tigre as it appears in the book:
LECHE DE TIGRE
Tiger's Milk
From "The Fire of Peru"
2 tablespoons roughly chopped firm white-fleshed fish, such as corvina, paiche, striped bass, yellowtail or halibut.
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, quartered
1 (1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 large stalk celery (tender top end), thinly sliced, plus a few leaves, if you have them.
2 tablespoons roughly chopped red onion hearts (the cores) or red onions
3/4 cup fresh lime juice (from about 6 limes)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
About 5 small ice cubes
In a blender, combine the fish, garlic, ginger, celery, onions and a few tablespoons of the lime juice and puree until the ingredients are well combined.
With the blender running, add the salt, then very slowly pour in the remaining lime juice so the sauce emulsifies.With the blender still running, add the ice cubes a few at a time until the sauce is smooth and frothy.
Use immediately, or refrigerate up to 1 hour, or 2 hours if you really insist.
Makes about 1 cup.
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