Suspiro a la Limeña

Morena Cuadra’s Peru Delights version of suspiro a la Limeña places a caramel-coloured milk-and-egg-yolk cream beneath a Port-flavoured meringue. Powdered cinnamon finishes the assembled dessert in individual cups or a larger dish.

Evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk cook together over low heat, with constant stirring, until the mixture thickens and takes on a caramel colour. The saucepan comes off the heat before the three eggs are separated.

The yolks are beaten, tempered with a couple of tablespoons of the same hot milk mixture and returned to the saucepan. In a separate pan, sugar, Port wine and two tablespoons of water boil into a syrup that forms a thread when dropped from a spoon.

The egg whites are beaten to soft peaks. The hot syrup is poured into them in a thin, steady stream while beating continues until the resulting meringue is cold.

The cooked milk cream is poured into cups or a larger container, covered decoratively with the meringue and dusted with powdered cinnamon. The recipe offers room-temperature service or refrigeration; Cuadra also suggests water, tea or a small glass of pisco alongside the dessert.