Wine With: Peruvian Style Beef, Lomo Saltado

Wine With: Peruvian Style Beef, Lomo Saltado

By Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas

Although we have never been to Peru ourselves, in the past couple of years so many of our friends have vacationed there that we feel we are surely missing out on a wonderful place to visit. Everyone who’s been there seems to have especially good things to say about Peruvian food, so when our friend Lisa offered to prepare her favorite dish for us shortly after she returned from a two-week visit to Peru, we immediately accepted the invitation. We also brought with us a dozen or so different wines so that we could all weigh in on which ones we liked best with the Lomo Saltado.

One of the most popular dishes in the Peruvian culinary repertoire, Lomo Saltado represents the fusion of Chinese, Inca and European cuisine known as chifa, which was popularized by the large Chinese immigrant population that settled in Peru in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Lacking many of the ingredients they were used to, the new settlers merged local products with Asian techniques. Lomo Saltado is a delicious sort of stir-fry accompanied by both French fries and white rice. (Confession: since our American palates weren’t quite ready for such a generous dose of carbohydrates we more or less ignored the rice.)

Lomo Saltado

Serves 4

2 potatoes or 1 package frozen French fries*
About 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound beef tenderloin or tri-tip, cut in slices 1/8-1/4 inch thick**
¼ cup white vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 large red onion sliced into thin strips
4 tomatoes (preferably Roma) sliced into strips
1 chili pepper, preferably Peruvian Aji Amarillo, seeded and cut in strips, or one tablespoon Aji Amarillo paste (available in many Latin food stores)
2 cloves minced garlic
½ teaspoon cumin (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons minced cilantro and/or parsley
Cooked white rice

*Lisa used frozen fries for her first trial run, but the oven-baked homemade version was much tastier, and also easier to prepare than she’d expected.

**In Lisa’s two run-throughs, the tri-tip was good, but the tenderloin was better.

Prepare the French fries, and when they are done keep them warm in the oven. Meanwhile, toss the beef strips with the vinegar and soy sauce and let them marinate for about 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a sturdy skillet then add the beef strips, reserving the marinade. Quickly sear the meat for no more than a couple of minutes. Remove it from the skillet and add the onions, cooking them over medium-high heat until they are tender and translucent. Stir in the peppers (or paste) and the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes have softened, add the vinegar, soy sauce and the cumin (if using). Stir in the meat, cover the skillet and simmer the mixture for another couple of minutes or until the meat is done to taste. Check for seasoning, and garnish the dish with parsley and/or cilantro.

To serve, spoon the meat mixture over the French fries, or arrange the fries on top of the meat. Pass the rice separately.

The four of us sitting around the dining room table savoring the delicious Peruvian-inspired dish were in remarkably unanimous agreement about the wines we liked best with the food. Each of us singled out fruit-forward wines, but the ones that got our ultimate “thumbs up” also offered something else in addition to fruit such as minerality, earthiness, and/or spice. Less pleasing were wines that emphasized tannins or astringency.