Cachapa

UNICEF Peru’s Con mucho gusto credits this cachapa recipe to Daniel Castro. Its introduction presents the dish as an afternoon snack, combining a touch of sweetness with cheese.

Castro’s mixture uses yellow corn, called jojoto, together with sugar, milk, wheat flour and salt. These ingredients are blended into a compact but soft dough.

In this published method the dough is removed from the blender, kneaded, flattened with a rolling pin and cut into rounds. The rounds then cook on a hot griddle until both sides are cooked.

The cooked rounds are taken from the griddle and filled generously with queso de mano. That cheese filling completes the recipe before serving.

The book describes Castro taking his Venezuelan recipes to Peru, where cachapas became the most requested dish in his small San Juan de Miraflores restaurant. It places the recipe in a story of food shared between communities.