Tag Archives: 18 Reasons

How to Cook a Peruvian Dinner for 50 People

Peruvian Pop-up at 18 Reasons

Peruvian Pop-up at 18 Reasons

When the 18 Reasons event organizer told me that over 50 people had RSVP’d for the Aji de Gallina Peruvian Pop-up dinner, I knew that cooking this dinner would take a lot of extra planning and patience. Fortunately, those are two things I enjoy about cooking. But to make sure the dish tasted just right and was ready on time, I was particularly mindful about 5 things: scaling the recipe, having the right cooking gear, prep and cooking time, presenting the dish properly, and most importantly, cooking with love.
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Peruvian Pop-up Dinner at 18 Reasons

Peruvian Pop-up Dinner at 18 Reasons

Peruvian Pop-up Dinner at 18 Reasons

Last Tuesday, 18 Reasons hosted Pisco Trail’s first Pop-up Dinner of 2012 and to celebrate Spring I prepared a traditional Peruvian Lamb Stew — Seco de Cordero. Slow cooked with a lot of love in a cilantro sauce and sofrito with aji amarillo, it was savory, warm, hearty, and a little spicy — the perfect meal for a rainy night in SF.
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Food Stories & Traditions: An Interview with my Mom

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing my mom about food stories and traditions during the holidays. And though the interview lasted less than an hour, it covered decades of stories from the Peru of her childhood to present day — stories that made me smile and laugh with a hunger and nostalgia that could only come from our shared love for Peruvian food.
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Pisco Cocktails Class at 18 Reasons

Pisco Cocktails Class at 18 Reasons

Pisco Cocktails Class at 18 Reasons

At the 18 Reasons Pisco Cocktails class, 16 Pisco-loving students spent the evening making simple syrup, cracking eggs, crushing strawberries, squeezing limes, and cracking coffee beans to make 4 different cocktails and a special take-home infusion. But we also talked about the history of Pisco, its origins in the Ica Valley of Peru, its journey from Peru to San Francisco, and the history of each cocktail we made.
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Peruvian Tasting at 18 Reasons

Peruvian Tasting at 18 Reasons, The Mission, San Francisco

Peruvian Tasting at 18 Reasons, The Mission, San Francisco

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of cooking some of my favorite dishes at the first Peruvian Tasting Night at 18 Reasons for a gastronomical tour of Peruvian cuisine. I was thrilled that the event sold out weeks in advance, and it was a wonderful opportunity to prepare some of the recipes from Pisco Trail for an audience excited to learn more about Peru and the cultures from all over the world that have influenced its cuisine.
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