5 Christmas Dishes from Peru

In Peru, as in many other places, the food for Christmas dinner is a feast that includes turkey, but we also have lechón, Christmas rice, or rice a la jardinera.A quick search in your trusted browser will let you know that stuffed roasted turkey is the dish most commonly prepared in the country for dinner, but in each region, it is accompanied by different salads and side dishes.Thus, among the 5 most common Christmas dishes found on Peruvian tables, we have:Stuffed Turkey. The Peruvian-style stuffed and roasted turkey is marinated in orange juice with a bit of dry chili powder and filled with ground meat.Roast Lechón. This dish is more typical of Peru and is accompanied by moraya, which is dehydrated potato soaked for consumption, as well as tamales and bread. The leg of lechón is marinated in garlic, onion, various chilies, vinegar, and mustard before being taken to the oven.Apple and Sweet Potato Puree. The apple puree is usually made with green apples, due to their sour flavor, and is cooked with water, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, before being mashed, while the sweet potato puree is made with brown sugar, orange juice, cinnamon, butter, and nutmeg.Christmas Rice. Also known as Arabic rice, this side dish is prepared with fine noodles or angel hair, bacon, raisins, nuts, and some prepare it with black soda, meaning cola, but it can also be made savory.Christmas Salad. In Peru, this salad is made with iceberg lettuce, also known as white cabbage or coleslaw, apples, carrots, canned pineapple, grapes, walnuts, almonds, and yogurt.Reading a bit more about Christmas food in Peru, we find that on the site Matador Network they undertook the exercise of proposing a dinner with more typical dishes of the country, based on the gastronomic customs of the coast, highlands, and jungle, with the help of cook María Zúñiga.Thus, they propose that the dinner features criollo tamales made with peeled corn, achiote, and ají colorado filled with pork or chicken, with sweet bread from Chancay or a classic bread pudding for dessert, and a drink of milk punch with egg for Lima.For the coast, they suggest replacing turkey with duck, in the southern coast, the sources of rocoto relleno and potato pie, and for drink, guiñapo for toasting. For the highlands, they indicate that the traditional dish should be hen broth with potatoes and noodles, and the tamales or humitas from each department.Finally, for the jungle, they mention juanes, a dish similar to rice tamales, filled with hen, as well as smoked cecina meat and tacacho balls.Did you know these dishes? What do you think should be the dinner in your country if more regional food were used?