Hot and Chilli

Anticuchos, Peruvian ox heart recipe

Anticuchos

I love Peruvian cuisine and I can’t resist this traditional Peruvian dish can be make of any meat, but the most popular is ox heart. Ox heart is such an underused offal and it’s not expensive cut of meat. Peruvian food is delicious and easy to make. I give you a couple of places where to buy the ingredients in the UK and USA.
Anticuchos consist in small marinaded pieces of grilled skewered meat accompanied by boiled potato and aji (chilli sauce).  When buying a whole ox heart ask your butcher to clean the veins, arteries and fat and portion them. It’s quite big, just think a whole cow, obviously it will be a big heart!  You can cook some, portion the rest (about 300gr per portion)  and freeze them.  Each 300gr portion is plenty for 2-3 portions of anticuchos. A whole heart will give you about 2.5-3kg of meat.  I bought my ox heart from a very famous butcher in Clapham Common, they wouldn’t butchered it for me, despite the high price tag.  I love a challenge so I did it myself.

 

Anticuchos recipe

yield: 4 portions
ingredients:marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup ground aji panca
salt and pepper to taste
1 desert spoon of cumin
¾ cup vinegar
1 tbsp of fried achiote in 3 tablespoons of oil,
(achiote is a spice made from the red seed of the annatto tree)

anticuchos
500gr ox heart, clean and free of grease
salt
oil
aji amarilllo
skewers

method:
Soak the heart in salted water for 2 hours. Wash off the salted water and patch
dry.

marinade:
Mix the marinade ingredients.

Clean the beef heart by removing fat and veins. Cut into approximately: 6cm lenght x 0.5cm thickness.  Place in a bowl and pour over the marinade mixture. Marinate the beef heart at least 12 hours in the fridge. Take the beef hearts out of the fridge for at least 30 mins. Assemble the screws: 3 pieces in each stick
Heat the grill or bbq and accommodate the skewers smearing each one with a mixture of minced fresh yellow pepper and oil. Turn and wait for them to cook.Serve hot. Usually served two skewers per person accompanied by a boiled potato, corn and hot pepper sauce.  If there is no beef heart can be prepared with beef tenderloin and proceed in the same way.Tip: The aji amarillo and panca (chillies) in this recipe can be replaced with scotch bonnet (without seeds) or they can be found on sale in the UK: at Borough Market (chilli stall) and online  try Amazon, shop Sol Andino in London. In the USA is much easier to find latin ingredients, one of many sites is Latin Merchant
 

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4 Comments

  1. Lisa Serrano Diaz
    March 7, 2014 / 12:42 pm

    Looks delicious!

  2. rtwlabs
    March 7, 2014 / 12:43 pm

    Thanks Lisa, It is quite different and very tasty indeed!

  3. Danny Kingston
    March 10, 2014 / 6:00 pm

    I made anticuchos at the weekend, they were delicious, although I didn't really use any chilli heat like in your recipe. Will have to try yours next time round.

  4. rtwlabs
    March 10, 2014 / 6:35 pm

    Hi Danny, they are soo goood, some heat is good but the Peruvian chillies are more about taste than heat. Heat varies a lot. R