Peruvian Cooking Tips from Chef Diego Oka of Miami’s La Mar

Ceviche is synonymous with the name Gaston Acurio. The man responsible for the globalization (as well as the ambassador) of Peruvian cuisine, Acurio’s empire spans countless restaurants, franchises, cookbooks, and TV appearances. Amongst them is the world renowned La Mar cebicheria – which opened in Lima circa 2008 and has since expanded to San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Buenos Aires and Miami, making ceviche a globally recognized and craved dish.

Leading the ceviche train is Diego Oka, Acurio’s protégé since the young age of 19 (he started as an intern after seeing and approaching him in a supermarket). The Japanese-Peruvian chef has opened a handful of La Mar’s, and while he now calls Miami home (and where he brought the La Mar concept at the Mandarin Oriental to life), it’s his worldly travels that keep him constantly reinventing the ceviche, leche de tigre, and causa (all tried and true and traditional Peruvian dishes) wheel. Be it with four stages of parmesan, pesto, or whatever else the gastronomic genius has in his mind. “In your brain you have a library of flavors,” he divulges.

Couple that with experience and what you have is traditional and age-old recipes that have been reinvented to taste completely different. Come with us as we join Oka in the kitchen (and share his recipes!). [pagebreak]

Case in point, take Peru’s edible love potion leche de tigre, which at La Mar gets a plethora of executions from tamarind and honey to ginger to even cheese. Yes, cheese. “Have you heard of the five stages of parmesan?” probes Oka, excitedly. He’s talking about Massimo Bottura’s famed fives stages of Parmigianno-Reggiano from Osteria Francescasna in Modena, in which the chef creates five entirely different textures and which Oka learned first-hand just this past summer during a stage at the three Michelin-starred restaurant. “We’re doing a step less and made a 22 month Parmesan cream,” which he then uses to make a pungent yet refreshing leche de tigre. “People don’t imagine cheese with leche de tigre but for Peruvians it makes sense.”

So, how do you make your leche de tigre cheesy?

You’ll need fancy kitchen equipment like a Thermomix, which heats and mixes at the same time. Or you can do the same thing with good old pots and pans, blending and stirring, of course it will take a lot more labor and time. Basically you take a liter of cream and Parmesan (the better quality the better the results) and blend in said Thermomix, then chill it overnight or till it becomes a paste.

That paste gets blended with anchovy juice (yes, anchovy juice) and lime. “Anchovy juice is full of umami,” says Diego. “And Parmesan too.” In other words, it’s an explosion of flavor in your mouth.

At La Mar, Oka uses the leche de tigre to slather a beautifully and pristinely sliced white fish into a tiradito. The subtle unctuousness of the fish is accented and juxtaposed by brittle salmon skin and garlic chips, basil oil, and microgreens. [pagebreak]

Speaking of greens, have you ever had a green causa? Probably not unless you’ve had a pesto causa, which is also unlikely considering this is a novel idea for Oka himself. “Causa usually has lemon but this one isn’t going to,” he says as he mushes potato with more pesto than you would imagine. “More pesto,” he quips after tasting. It’s the first time Oka is making this recipe, though in his head it’s already been thought out as part of one of many new menu items. “People know La Mar in Miami now, and we’re getting to a point that we can do more interesting and sophisticated things that play with unexpected ingredient combinations.”

Things like pesto causa, which is super easy to make at home – just swap out the lime juice (“it cuts the basil”) with pesto – and changes up the causa game entirely. If you want to take it the extra step, make your pesto at home by simply combining basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a processor and blend till creamy, “but not too too creamy” or else it’ll affect the causa.

Oka’s secret to a superb causa? The texture. “It has to feel and be like clay without being chewy.”

Lucky for you, Oka is sharing some of his recipes, specifically a classic ceviche with leche de tigre recipe (with a twist or two), as well as La Mar’s best selling king crab beet causa.