Marcelo Batata Cooking Class
Chris was informative, entertaining and so full of energy. She made this class a lot of fun.
This was my second cooking class in Cusco.
My chef was Christina, and the other students were a couple from England and a couple from Australia.
We started with the fruit course.
Chris taught us which fruits were from Peru, which were from other places in the Americas, and which were originally from Asia. Her sous-chef, Fernando, brought us each a platter with the fruit already in bite-sized pieces. We tried granadilla, tumbo and maracuyá, all kinds of passionfruit from Peru. (They’re fairly liquid and served in spoons above). We tasted mango and starfruit from Asia, then papaya, which is originally from Central America. Then we tried aguaymanto and pepino dulce, sweet Peruvian fruits related to the tomato. The last one we tried was the Peruvian chirimoya, the round green one in the photos above. I think it tastes like pear soaked in honey. It really is that sweet.
After the fruit course came a mini-market visit.
The Marcelo Batata cooking school is too far from any markets for a real market visit to be practical, so they have turned a room into a market. Chris showed us different varieties of potatoes, corn and peppers, quinoas and other Andean grains. During the tour, Fernando brought us in a couple rounds of appetizers.
The first appetizer was a hummus made with tarwi, a variety of domesticated Peruvian lupine that’s less toxic that the wild lupine that grows all over North America and Europe. The tarwi hummus was on a mini round of pita bread and a slice of grilled zucchini. The second appetizer was a deconstructed tamale, with the corn meal on the bottom and a slice of cuy (guinea pig) prosciutto on top.
The appetizer course
After the appetizers in the market room, we went into the kitchen where Fernando had prepped everything we needed to make ceviche set out at our five cooking stations. Chris walked us through chopping the red limo chili and cilantro, then mixing it with the fresh fish and lime juice. I learned to core the lime so the juice wasn’t bitter, which I will definitely do in the future.
We plated our ceviche with sweet potato cubes and went back to the bar to eat. Fernando served us tiny skewers of fried potato and alpaca sausage in huancaina sauce to go with the ceviche, the third photo above.
Ceviche will always be my favorite.
I love how it’s served in Cusco, with sweet potato and toasted corn. I love how they make it in Huaraz with tarwi and cushuro. I love how Chiclayanos serve it with fried corn tortitas and white beans. I love ceviche with ocean fish and with fresh trout. You get the idea.
One of the marinated fruit options was pisco with cherries.
Next was the cocktail class.
First, we tasted two kinds of pisco, one made with Quebranta grapes and the other with Italia grapes, and learned how to drink pisco straight. Chris told us about the differences between how Peruvian and Chilean piscos are made. If you want to know more about Pisco, check out my blog about the pisco distilleries I visited in Ica.
We made the classic Peruvian pisco sour with lime juice, pisco and an egg white shaken on ice until the egg white is foamy. We had the choice of the two piscos we had tasted and several piscos they had marinated with fruits and spices. I picked a lemongrass pisco and it was delicious.The last step is three drops of bitters, for the flavor and to mask any residual egg smell.
We followed that with a second cocktail, a chilcano to take with us to the kitchen. This is another pisco drink, but without egg and poured over ice rather than shaken.
This was before we set all five woks on fire, but I promise none of us were hurt.
After the alcohol came the fire.
I’ll admit I was a bit nervous that we were going to cook lomo saltado next, but Fernando had done all the prep work already so none of us needed to use a knife. The platters had three rows so we didn’t have to think about what to add to the wok first, second and third.
Chris gave us the full demonstration of making lomo saltado, a classic Peruvian stir fry. It’s simple, but you have to get everything in the right order: oil, beef, spices, onions and peppers, cook for a minute, add the garlic and ginger then soy sauce and vinegar, cook for a few seconds, then add a shot of pisco and tilt the wok till it catches fire. Lean back but keep the wok moving. After the pisco has burned off, add the cilantro and green onions and serve.
Lomo saltado is one of Peru’s best fusion dishes.
It’s traditionally made with tenderloin beef, which came with the Spanish to Peru. It has tomato, from Central America, and onion, also from Europe. The potatoes are very Peruvian but the wok, soy sauce and rice are very Chinese.
How to sign up?
Check out Marcelo Batata’s website and follow them on Instagram.
How to get there?
Marcelo Batata is in a courtyard by Uchu Steakhouse, near the Plazoleta Nazarenas and some of Cusco’s best hotels.
Marcelo Batata is run by Peruvian birders and conservationists. They donate 10% of profits from the cooking school to habitat conservation and environmental education in Cusco. (I’m hoping they’ll like this blog enough to take me birding with them someday).
