Pesque de Quinua

The prestige dish of the Puno highlands: quinoa cooked slowly in milk and finished with fresh Andean cheese

Origin: Puno and Lake Titicaca, Peru

From the journey of Quinoa.

Pesque de quinua, also written p'esque, is the prestige quinoa dish of the Puno highlands around Lake Titicaca, the very heartland of the grain. Where the everyday quinoa of the sierra is a thin soup or a plain boiled side, pesque is rich and celebratory: the quinoa is cooked slowly until tender and creamy, enriched with milk, and finished with crumbled fresh Andean cheese that melts into soft threads through the grain. It is the dish brought out for a special meal, served as a substantial main or a generous side beside a fried egg, a piece of meat, or a fresh cheese. The dish belongs to the Aymara and Quechua communities of the Altiplano, where quinoa has been the staff of life for thousands of years, and it shows the grain at its most comforting. The combination of quinoa, milk, and cheese is ancient in spirit even if dairy came with the Spanish, and pesque has become one of the defining festive foods of the Peruvian and Bolivian high plateau, a dish that says abundance in a land where abundance is hard-won. The secret, as with all good quinoa cookery, is to rinse the grain thoroughly first to wash away the bitter saponin coat, and then to cook it gently and generously so that it turns soft and almost porridge-like, the perfect bed for the salty, fresh cheese.

Ingredients

  • 250 g white quinoa, rinsed thoroughly under cold water
  • 500 ml water
  • 400 ml whole milk
  • 150 g fresh Andean cheese (queso fresco), crumbled
  • 20 g butter
  • salt, to taste

Method

  1. Rinse the quinoa very thoroughly in several changes of cold water, rubbing the grains between your fingers, until the water runs clear. This washes away the bitter saponin coat.
  2. Put the rinsed quinoa in a saucepan with the water and a little salt, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes, until the grains soften and uncurl their little white tails and most of the water is absorbed.
  3. Pour in the milk and continue to cook gently, stirring often, for a further 8 to 10 minutes, until the quinoa is very soft and the mixture is thick and creamy, like a loose porridge.
  4. Stir in the butter and most of the crumbled cheese, letting it melt into soft threads through the hot quinoa. Season with salt.
  5. Spoon into bowls, scatter with the remaining cheese, and serve hot, on its own or beside a fried egg or grilled meat.

Notes

Pesque should be soft and creamy, not dry; loosen with a splash more milk if it stiffens. The fresh cheese can be replaced with a mild feta or a young, crumbly cheese. In the Andes the dish is sometimes made with toasted quinoa for a nuttier flavour.

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