Peruvian authors launch alpaca cookbook
| Yum! Alpaca! My favorite! |
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Forget about soft wooly sweaters. Tasty alpaca steaks are where it’s at, according to the authors of a new cookbook containing 100 recipes for serving up the Andean cameloid. "Alpaca: The Great Andean Taste," published by Peruvian development organization Desco, hit bookstores in Lima this week. The recipes come from six chefs in Lima as well as women from community kitchens in the highland Huancavelica region, the book’s editor Hugo Carrillo told The Associated Press. "Among the red meats, alpaca has higher levels of protein, very low fat and no cholesterol," he said. Despite its benefits, the meat hasn’t been appreciated by city dwellers, he said. "Alpaca meat has traditionally been associated with the country’s poorest sector ... meat for Indians, peasants," Carrillo said. The idea of the book is to knock down that stereotype.
Alpaca wasn’t always considered poor man’s meat, however. During the reign of the Incas, who united cultures from modern day Colombia to Chile until their defeat by Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, alpaca was considered a leading delicacy, along with guinea pig and llama, Carrillo said. Carrillo isn’t sure which of the book’s recipes will be the most popular among urbanites, although his favorite alpaca dish is pachamanca. A popular weekend lunch, pachamanca is a medley of meats, herbs, sweet potatoes, lima beans, corn, potatoes and tamales wrapped in banana leaves and buried in a pit along with white hot rocks. Chef Nelson Medrano, who worked on the book and has been cooking with alpaca for two years, especially likes "seco de alpaca" -- a delicious stew made with cilantro, potatoes and peas and served up with rice and beans. "Besides being a tasty meat, it is a healthy meat," Medrano said. Cooking with alpaca is a challenge, he added. Due to the meat’s strong flavor, it is best cooked with spices and herbs, and sauces that use wine or pisco, a Peruvian grape brandy. Peru is home to about 3 million alpacas -- which along with related llamas, vicunas and guanacos -- are native to South America’s Andes Mountains, but increasingly popular among breeders in the United States and Europe.
The camel relatives are shorn to make yarn for sweaters and other garments out of a fiber some say is softer and warmer than cashmere. The domesticated animals are also popular with tourists visiting Peru, who like to take their photographs. Breeders estimate there are some 50,000 alpacas in the United States, where the animals sell for thousands of dollars a piece -- making it somewhat unlikely that alpaca steaks will start popping up on American menus anytime soon. |