Ceviche

Ceviche

3 fillets of fish (Congrio, but you can use Sea Bass/Lemon Sole too)
Coriander
2 red onions
13 Limes
Tomato
Lettuce
1 Red Chilli
Salt

       Clean the fish with salt and refrigerate until hard

       Wash the fruit/vegetables with water (soak the limes in water to make them more juicy!)

      

        Chop the fish into small chunks

      (Put the rice on) -see below- 

       Take one small slice in each lime and squeeze the juice over the fish (do this through a sieve)

       Stir the lime juices into the fish

       Peel and slice the onion and soak in cold water to make it crunchy

     Chop the coriander finely and add to the fish.

       Squish the red chilli with a knife and chop finely and add to the dish. (only add ¼ if you are not confident with heat)

          Chop ½ tomato into small chunks and also add to the fish. Mix well.

.        Drain onion and add to fish. Mix in well.

          Pour into a large serving dish and dress with lettuce and slices of tomato.

Ceviche Rice
Olive oil
1 Tbsp Salt
2 cloves of Garlic, grated
2 cups Water
1 ½ Cups of Rice

          Place the oil, salt and grated garlic into a pan. Add water and heat.

         Wash the rice and add to the pan.

     Simmer and stir well, cover with lid whilst cooking

5 weeks in Peru

At the beginning of this week Baby Já (which we’ve found out is short for Jayson) took his very first steps, here is a photo of me being incredibly excited about this!

We’ve began our new timetable halfway through this week, which is really cool! We now help out in classes in the aldea and do arts and craft sessions in the other casas in the aldea-which have been so so so much fun.

                        

The boys have all had their hair cut this week; we find it pretty hilarious especially as they all look like mini versions of my dad now!

This weekend a friend of ours, Luisa, invited us to stay at her house to teach us how to cook Peruvian food. Look out for some posts including the full recipes of dishes we made! 

We got to have traditional Peruvian foods, including Dulci. This is a sweet treat that is sugar with small nuts in. It is presented in wooden bark pieces. 

This is called  Tamal we had it at breakfast, it is strange to describe as it doesn’t taste of much and has a rice/couscous texture to it. It’s cooked corn and chicken meat but it is presented in leaves from the banana plant.

A typical Peruvian breakfast involves a drink of leche (milk) often flavoured with cinnamon, pancitos (small loafs of bread which taste amazing!) and palta (Avocado) with sal (salt). It’s a crazy filling breakfast, as is every Peruvian meal.

Here is our lunch, which there are 2 different dishes: Lomo Saltado and Albahaca Verdes. (Recipe posts coming soon!) Lomo Saltado is a beef dish with fried potato slices (chips) and rice, Albahaca Verdes is a pesto style dish. At home we would consider these to be separate meals however in Peru we eat all this together, yes rice, potato and pasta on one plate, watch as my hips grow ladies and gentlemen!! 

The servings shown in this photo was for 4 of us, it was incredibly delicious and also very filling!!

Luisa took us into Catacaos for a few hours which was really fun, heres a photo of us in the mototaxi!

Mancora!

Our first of many outings to Mancora happened this weekend, a visiting past volunteer at our aldea, Claire, and her mum, Helen, invited us to join them on their trip to Mancora for the day; how could we say no?!

We met in the centre of Piura at the early hour of 7:30am, however with the typical manana manana vibe of peru we didn’t actually leave until 9:30am….. I could have had a lie in Mr Driver! Good job we got to chill in their hotel, where Hannah managed to get a cup of tea!!

We all jumped in a minibus full of others too and off we went! It takes around 2 hours in a minivan, but more if we went on the bus. 

Passing through many towns, drifting in and out of sleep, we also went pass some rice fields. As we did so the locals were all saying how all of the land will be gone once El Nino arrives later in the year.

Rice Fields

The day was spent at the beach mainly, even went for a swim in the ‘pleasantly cool’ waters. On the beach there are plenty of locals selling items, jewellery, food and drinks! We had cups of chopped water melon and delicious warm rolls filled with fresh ingredients.

Hannah And Claire 

The Nicest Roll EVER!

                                               

Beach Selfieeeees

We couldn’t go to Mancora without calling in the amazing Loki Del Mar Hostel, in which we are planning on staying in soon. With a beautiful pool, beer pong tables, many events throughout the week and Pineapple, Passion Fruit and Rum slushies….how could you not love it? 

Don't worry, I'm making wise drink choices....especially as the water has parasites!! 

All you can eat BBQ for S/25? (That's like £5!!) YES PLEASE! 

Pineapple, Passion Fruit and Rum Slushies 

After relaxing with our refreshing drinks we then returned to the beach and tried some foods out.

Typical Peruvian Dish, Rice with Chips and More Rice

Ceviche, Fried Prawns,
Breaded chicken and Fish

Between us we had a fish, fried prawns, breaded chicken and the Peruvian dish ceviche…despite liking the prawns I think that’ll be the last ceviche I try although Hannah loved it! Ceviche is a Peruvian dish in which the fish isn’t cooked, it is marinated in lime juice which ‘cooks’ the fish.

Horses on the Beach.....Beats Skegness' Donkeys!

Peruvian Dog, Hairless (apart from on the head) 

Nothings better than finishing a day off by watching the sunset whilst sipping Pisco Sours….

Helen, Me, Claire and Hannah

Hannah and I being Photobombed by Charlie