The Peruvian Dish
By Michaela Steil
Chef Andres Rios
From tacos to beans to seafood, there is a huge variety of food that falls under “Latin American cuisine.” In honor of Hispanic/ Latino Heritage Month, Stony Brook University will be welcoming Chef Andres Rios for a cooking demonstration at East Side Dining.
Chef Rios will be demonstrating four main dishes: Peruvian Roasted Chicken, Vegetable Paella, Potatoes a la Huancaina, and Mushroom and Carrot Stew Estofado. So instead of trying to cover all of Hispanic cuisine, let’s just do a brief overview of what Chef Rios will be cooking.
Peruvian Roast Chicken, also known as Pollo a la Brasa, is a popular Peruvian dish. When it originally gained popularity among the public, it was eaten by wealthier people from the 1950s-1970s. Nowadays, it is readily available and affordable for almost everyone.
Vegetable Paella is a variation of the traditional Spanish paella. While there is some dispute on its origins, generally it has been determined that paella was developed in the city of Valencia, Spain. Paella is cooked in a specific, flat- bottomed pan, with dimples on the bottom of it. This is to ensure an even cooking of the dish, especially since the pans they are cooked in are constantly getting bigger. The term “paella” itself comes from the pan used rather than the dish.
Potatoes a la Huancaina, or Papas a la Huancaina, is also a Peruvian dish. Basically, the dish is potatoes and cheese sauce. The history of this dish could probably be described more as an old wives tale. The stories tell of a peasant farming woman from Huancayo, a city in central Peru. She would travel from her home in huancayo to La Orya to sell her potatoes to railroad workers (FYI that’s 75 miles). She would travel to La Orya because the weather and altitude there was not ideal for farming, including potatoes. She didn’t have much luck initially so she decided to sell them with a sauce she created, and is now the same sauce that makes the dish so unique. The dish took off among the workers and 1908 it was named the official dish for the finished railroads opening.
Lastly, there is Mushroom and Carrot Stew Estofado. The word “estofado” literally translates to “stew.” There is a wide array of stews in Latin American cuisine, all from different origins across the world. Mostly though, an Estofado dish is considered Spanish cuisine. Likely it originated from central Spain and colder regions, but other than that, there is not an exact pinpoint of history to accompany this dish– doesn’t make it any less tastier though.
