Warming up for carnival and recipe for Peruvian Aji de Galinha – spicy chicken

After our first saturday market experience in Laranjeiras just before x-mas was a rather wet one due to heavy rains from the outside and a number of beers and caipis from the inside to stand the meteorological conditions we gave it another try today. Approaching the market square we could already hear the samba sounds and see the people dancing on the streets – it was warming up session for the local band Bloco Gigantes da Lira.

The warming up means the band plays their song at the fair to instruct and warm up the listeners so that they are prepared once the street carnival tours begin. This specific Bloco was for children with lots of little once dressed up in all sorts of costumes and already the 2 year olds moving beautifully to the ritmo of samba.

And even dogs and owners went in costumes – be it of their favorite football club!

As temperatures are reaching upper 30C levels we needed to cool down with coconut water and the markets famous caipirinhas

Recipe for Aji de Galinha for 6-8

• 1kg of chicken breast
• 2l of chicken stock
• 2 slices of toast bread
• 200ml of milk
• 2 white onions finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic pressed
• 2-3 yellow aji peppers – you can find jarred aji amarillo paste, which works well too. If you can’t find aji amarillo peppers, then substitute with 2-3 other hot chiles and add curcuma for the bright yellow color
• 200g of grated parmesan
• handful black olives
• handful of walnuts or almonds
• 3-4 eggs hardboiled
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Boil the chicken breasts in chicken stock. Remove the chicken, allow to cool and shred the chicken finely. Retain chicken stock. Soak the bread in the milk. In a pan heat oil and fry the onion, garlic and chiles. Add soaked bread with the milk and allow the liquid to evaporate. Add slowly around 400ml of chicken stock and stir until reaching a creamy consistency. Season with salt and pepper and add curcuma for color. Add the shredded chicken and the grated cheese. Place mixture in an ovenproof dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the oven. Garnish with egg quarters, olives and nuts. Serve with rice.