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Rocoto Relleno Arequipeño

Advanced
55 min
roughly 3 of 4 for cost

rich · bright · sweet-edged · earthy Leads with richness that coats and comforts, acid holding everything up to the light, settling low and earthy.

Ingredients

6 rocoto peppers (about 800 g)
60 g sugar and 100 ml red wine vinegar, for the blanching water
400 g fatty beef mince
150 g red onion, fine dice
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp ají panca paste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried oregano
60 g roasted peanuts, chopped
40 g raisins
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
12 black olives, halved
250 g queso fresco, sliced
600 g yellow potatoes, sliced 3 mm
3 eggs
300 ml evaporated milk
45 g lard or oil
salt and black pepper

The skills inside

Tempering a custard Blanching & shocking Knife cuts: dice, julienne, bias

Allergen screen

Found: dairy · egg · nuts · peanuts

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

Cut a lid from each rocoto and scrape out every seed and all the pale ribs with a teaspoon; that is where the heat lives.
Boil a pan of water with a third of the sugar, vinegar and a little salt, give the rocotos and lids 3 minutes, then drain and repeat twice more with fresh water each time, until the flesh is pliable but still stands up and the burn has dropped to a warm hum. 3 min
Fry onion, garlic, panca, cumin and oregano in the lard, add the mince and cook until the water has gone and the pan looks glossy rather than wet; off the heat fold in peanuts and raisins.
Fill each rocoto, press in a slice of egg and an olive, cap with cheese and set the lid back on.
Layer the potato slices with the rest of the cheese in a buttered dish, whisk the eggs into the milk with salt and pour it over, sit the rocotos on top and bake at 180C (350F) for about 45 minutes, until the custard is set and the cheese caps are blistered. 45 min

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Tempering a custard 59 recipes

The hot liquid went into the eggs a little at a time with constant whisking, and only then did everything go back to the pot.
The heat under it stayed gentle throughout and it was never allowed to boil.
Stirred continuously and right into the corners of the pan, where it thickens first and sets unnoticed.
Judged by behaviour: it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a clean line when a finger is drawn through it.
Taken off before it looks finished, and strained. Residual heat carries it the rest of the way, and a custard held on the heat until it looks right arrives past right.

Where it goes wrong The hot liquid went in too fast, or the pot went back over full heat to save time. The yolks set into threads before they could thicken smoothly, and a scrambled custard does not come back; straining hides a little of it and nothing hides the rest.

Blanching & shocking 76 recipes

A large volume at a hard rolling boil, and enough of it that adding the food barely interrupts it; a pot that goes quiet has started stewing rather than blanching.
Timed rather than watched, and short. This is an interruption in the cooking of something, not the cooking of it.
The ice bath was made and standing beside the pot BEFORE anything went into the water, not started once the timer went off.
It went straight into the ice water, fully submerged, and stayed until cold at the centre: a piece still warm inside is still cooking, and the arrest has not happened yet.
Drained and dried afterwards rather than left sitting in water, so it does not carry that water into whatever it meets next.

Where it goes wrong The ice bath was not ready, so the food sat draining in a colander while its own residual heat carried on cooking it. By the time it cooled it was a stage past where it was pulled, and exact arrest is the entire reason for blanching rather than simply boiling.

At the Table

The Pour: Syrah (northern Rhône) or Nebbiolo
Also Right: The braising wine itself, better bottle
From the Taps: Belgian dubbel
Zero-Proof: Beet & blackcurrant shrub

Long-cooked beef trades bite for depth: savory, structured reds echo the pot; and pouring the braise’s own region is law.

Family notes

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Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Rocoto Relleno Arequipeño Technique: Tempering a custardThe skill inside this recipe The cuisine, deeper Technique films from the Peruvian Highlands kitchen