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The Andes · Volume 17, Altitude, Chuño and the Picantería Table

Rocoto relleno

Arequipa, Peru

Rocoto relleno, stuffed spicy pepper: two bright red stuffed peppers standing upright in a small dark baking dish, tops golden and blistered from the oven, a little of the minced beef and raisin filling just visible spilling from one.

Illustration

Time
45 minutes

As tradition built it

Rocoto relleno

175°C, 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 rocoto peppers, halved, seeded and deveined
  • 2 tbsp (added at each of three boils) sugar
  • 2, red, diced onion
  • 1 tsp, minced garlic
  • 600g minced beef
  • 2 tbsp, ground ají panca
  • to taste salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ¼ cup, toasted and ground peanuts
  • ½ tsp oregano
  • ¼ cup, black olives
  • 4, chopped hard-boiled egg
  • ½ cup, chopped parsley
  • ¼ cup, golden raisins
  • 4 egg, for topping
  • 1 cup evaporated milk

Method

  1. Halve the rocoto and remove the seeds and veins, since capsaicin concentrates in the placenta rather than the flesh.
  2. Boil and drain the rocoto three times in fresh water, adding two tablespoons of sugar at each boil.
  3. After the third boil, plunge the rocoto into cold water while the filling is prepared.
  4. Sauté onion and garlic until golden for the sofrito.
  5. Add minced beef with ají panca, salt, pepper and cumin.
  6. Enrich the filling with peanuts, oregano, olives, hard-boiled egg, parsley and raisins.
  7. Stuff the peppers with the filling.
  8. Top with egg beaten into evaporated milk, salt and pepper.
  9. Bake for 45 minutes at 175°C.

What a modern chef changes

Held deseeding chemistry, sous vide filling

Rung 04

Method

  1. Hold the sugar-boil deseeding exactly as tradition performs it, since it is already precise, controlled chemistry.
  2. Cook the beef filling sous vide with its own aromatics before folding it through the sofrito, for a more evenly seasoned, less grainy filling.
  3. Dehydrate a portion of the peanuts and grind them fresh in the spice grinder rather than using them whole.
  4. Pass the egg-and-milk topping through the chinois before it goes over the pepper, for a smoother set once baked.
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