"This is one of Coque's wonderful 'nouvelle cuisine peruvienne' dishes served at 'Le Bistrot de mes Fils'. The pairing of lentils with foie gras and fruit works particularly well. The result is a spectacularly innovative way to serve traditional Peruvian tacu tacu."
Exciting, isn't it?
Please note: I will not provide an exact recipe for anything I take directly out of any cook book. It is someone else's intellectual property. For exact recipe, buy the book or borrow from library. In this particular case, this recipe is available on publisher's web site: click here
But before I get to actual cooking stuff, let me backtrack to how I arrived at Peruvian cuisine.
I don't remember how, but I ended up with a couple of avocados at home, which I simply ended up cutting and serving in a salad. Avocados are delicious and also very nutritious and healthy, so we definitely wanted to eat some more avocados. What is one thing that comes most often to mind when thinking of avocado? Guacamole! About a year before we moved to Colorado, we came here for a vacation with a large group of friends. One of the days we stopped for lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Frisco. We ordered guacamole with our chips, and to our surprise, we were treated to a wonderful entertainment at our table - our waiter prepared a bowl of fresh guacamole right in front of us, using molcajete and tejolote. Thinking of that wonderful experience few years ago, I had to get molcajete! Both Amazon and Williams Sonoma sell exact same item for exact same price that I would recommend. Once I got molcajete, I had to learn some more about the history, the authentic recipes, etc.
Of course I didn't stop with just guacamole. I went on to learn more about Mexican cuisine in general (remember that Mole Poblano I mentioned earlier, that was part of my discovering Mexican Cuisine process). But I wouldn't stop just with Mexican cuisine either. I went on to other cuisines of Latin and South America, and that is how I came upon this book:
Book is available for sale on Amazon from a third party. One thing that still confuses me a bit is that neither in listing nor in description nor in the photo of the book on Amazon or other sites that have this book is there "Vol. 1" (see top right corner). I wonder if what I bought is part of a series, or a newer print and that publisher is working on second volume, or seller simply didn't send me the complete book. Searching everywhere online didn't produce any answers, seems like all the images and information out there do not have volumes, and I haven't gotten around to contacting publisher yet. If anyone out there has the answer, please share with us.
And now on to cooking. Plated dish consists of the following components: tacu tacu on the bottom, then fried baby bananas, covered with lentil salad, and topped with seared foie gras, garnished with some oporto sauce. Each of the components is by no means hard to make, and all are actually quite fast to make too. Prep work is what is taking up the most time, and the real trick here is to time everything perfectly so as to have all the components ready at the same time for plating. This is something that has to come from experience, I guess, that professional chefs have over home cooks.
Preps steps were to prepare lentils, rice (I already had some cooked rice ready), clean and finely cut all the vegetables, to be used for tacu tacu and lentil salad.
For tacu tacu, puree a bit of lentils. Fry some garlic (minced) and onions until just golden. Mix garlic and onions with lentil puree, some whole lentils and rice. Then add Aji Panca paste (the book provides recipe for it as well, but I cheated a bit and bought a prepared paste).
To make salad, mix lentils, onions, red bell pepper, tomato, parsley, banana.
Then add vinegars, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Mix.
This salad is very tasty by itself and I certainly will be making it again to be consumed on its own.
At some point, prepare the sauce (mine didn't come out all that nice, unfortunately). Port, stock, butter and seasonings are reduced in a pan to make it.
For tacu tacu, form a thick pancake out of the mixture and fry in oil until crispy on both sides.
When ready, put on the plate. Next fry the baby/lady finger bananas (cut lengthwise in half).
Arrange bananas on top of tacu tacu. Then top with lentil salad.
You'd have to be more careful adding the salad to recreate presentation offered in the book. I'm going for a more sloppy look.
Next, prepare foie gras. Score each piece with a knife, then quickly sear.
Arrange foie gras on top, add sauce, and feel free to add a sprig of oregano or parsley on top. Et voila!
This is an exceptionally delicious dish. The last few steps - making sauce, and keeping it warm, frying tacu tacu, searing foie gras, and plating - did test me, as everything has to be done fast to make sure everything is nice and warm. I'm sure a seasoned chef wouldn't think much of it, but I was getting ready to lose some of my cool, especially with tacu tacu, as they were falling apart a bit when I was trying to flip them. But the more I try, the more experience I will get and the better I will be at this. This was one amazingly delicious Peruvian adventure.
Until tomorrow, good night!
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