The Andes · Volume 18, Peru, the Coastal Creole, Chifa and Nikkei Kitchen
Ají de gallina
Peru (colonial, from Catalan menjar blanc)
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Not statedNo source states a time and the atlas has too few comparable dishes to estimate one.
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Ají de gallina
Descended from menjar blanc
Ingredients
An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.
- 2 chicken breasts, skinless chicken, shredded
- bread, soaked in milk
- a splash evaporated milk
- walnuts or pecans, ground
- a handful, grated parmesan
- 1 cup, puréed ají amarillo
- to serve papa amarilla or huayro potato, sliced, to serve (white potato as fallback)
- for garnish olive and hard-boiled egg, to garnish
Method
- Build a sauce from bread soaked in milk, evaporated milk, ground walnuts or pecans, parmesan and ají amarillo.
- Fold shredded chicken through the sauce.
- Serve over sliced papa amarilla, huayro or white potato as fallback.
- Garnish with olive and hard-boiled egg.
Notes
A genuinely traceable colonial inheritance: the medieval Catalan and Spanish sweet dish menjar blanc, chicken, almonds, sugar and flour, was reworked on the Peruvian coast into something savoury, ají amarillo and pecans replacing sugar and almonds.
What a modern chef changes
Sous vide chicken, a fully smooth sauce
Method
- Poach the chicken sous vide to a precise, still-moist doneness before shredding, rather than boiling it through in the sauce, where it tends to dry as the sauce reduces around it.
- Pass the finished sauce through the chinois for a completely smooth, grit-free result, no trace of the bread's texture left behind.
- Toast the walnuts or pecans and grind them fresh in the spice grinder immediately before folding through the sauce, for a cleaner, less bitter nuttiness than pre-ground or stale nuts give.