This Saturday 8th May 5pm we’ll be cooking Peruvian food. Pollo a la Brassa, Peruvian roasted chicken was developed in the 1950s in Lima by two Swiss hoteliers/restauranteurs. Originally served only in high end restaurants, it’s now popular all over Peru.
The saturday classes are suitable for all ages and we have some children join in too.
The dish is usually served with a creamy green sauce called “aji”, popular all over south america. We’ll be making our version in class. Pollo a la Brassa is often accompanied by large french fries, we’ll be serving it with sweetcorn fritters. These are naturally plant based and give a bit more excitement for our students wanting to make a non meat version out of quorn or tofu. Fritters are a great way to get kids to try more vegetables too.
For the meat eaters we’ll be learning how to spatchcock a chicken which is way, way easier than it sounds. I will show you just how easy this is. A great skill to learn for barbecuing.
Spatchcocking a chicken basically means to remove the spine of the chicken so it lays completely flat during cooking. The benefits are, even seasoning, even cooking, crispy skin and reduced cooking time. All you need is some kitchen shears or some big sharp scissors (I use the ones from my sewing kit. I don’t do much sewing lool)
After we’ve prepped the chicken we’ll make a marinade, marinade the quorn/tofu.
For the chicken, we’ll loosen the skin of the chicken, brush some underneath, cook it and baste every 10 mins. The chicken will take approx 40-60 minutes to cook. Depending if you use an oven or a hot BBQ. I will show you how to check the chicken is cooked.
Meanwhile we’ll make the aji sauce and the sweetcorn fritters. These can be cooked on a hob or an outdoor camping ring.
The class will last around 90 minutes.
Here is a list of the ingredients we’ll be using.
ROAST CHICKEN (double the ingredients for four)
- One small whole chicken
- 4 cloves of garlic crushed or finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- One tablespoon of olive oil
- generous few twists of black pepper
- one teaspoon of oregano
- salt (2 x 3/4 teaspoons)
- two lemons
- SAUCE
- One handful of fresh coriander leaves
- one lime
- 100ml sour cream
- two tablespoons of mayonnaise
- one garlic clove crushed or chopped
- one or two green chills chopped (jalapenos)
- EQUIPMENT
- Kitchen shears or big sharp scissors, knife and chopping board, pastry brush, microplane or grater pestle and mortar or hand blender/food processor for sauce, oven tray or BBQ.
SWEETCORN PANCAKES
- 200g of tinned or frozen sweetcorn
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- 4 spring onions finely chopped
- One red pepper finely chopped
- One lime
- One teaspoon of ground cumin
- One handful of coriander
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 75g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 jalapeno finely chopped
- Vegetable oil for frying
- EQUIPMENT
- Bowl for mixing, spoon for stiring, spatula for frying, frying pan, microplane or grater kitchen roll on plate for draining, indoor hob or camping stove if doing in garden.
Serve with a green salad of choice.
All of the ingredients for this dish can be bought from local supermarkets.
To book go to the courses section of the website or pm me. After booking I’ll send out the zoom link and recipe card.