Francesco in Miami

On the way down to Chile we took an early flight to Miami and rented a car so we could bomb around and eat a decent meal before the grueling overnight flight to Santiago. The semi-squalid Latin American that we go to was shut down, so we had to figure out where we could get a decent meal in an unpretentious setting. Geoff did a little homework and came up with Francesco at 325 Alcazar Avenue in Coral Gables. It's a small place with fantastic Peruvian-Italian cuisine. We split the Ceviche 3-sauce sampler; I'm not sure which three sauces we got, but they had Francesco style sauce, mild aji amarillo sauce and spicy rocoto sauce, and traditional Peruvian Style sauce. Geoff got the Riso Nero Con Fruitti Di Mare: rice,scallops and shrimp with squid ink sauce. I got the Corvina Con Pulpo A La Piedra: grilled corvina (sea bass, but not what we think of as "Chilean" sea bass) filled with sauteed octopus topped with sesame-oyster sauce, with potato souffle. We ate very early, so service was good - it got a little slower as the place filled up, but they were always gracious. All the desserts looked really good, but I picked the Suspiro de Limeña (A Lima Sigh), a dessert that I enjoyed in Chile several times as well. I found this recipe at Peru Mucho Gusto and it looks pretty close, but I haven't tried it out - I'll let you know, or you can try it:

As in every art of love, a sigh will be got by he who knows how to prepare a Lima Sigh, sweet and tempting. A yoke of cooked sweetened and condensed milk is covered with a mixture of meringue, port wine, and a touch of cinnamon.


Suspiro a la Limeña (serves 4 people)

Ingredients:
1 can of sweetened, condensed milk
1 can of evaporated milk
3 egg yokes
3 egg whites
¼ cup of Port wine
¾ cup of sugar
Cinnamon powder
Vanilla

Preparations:
Make manjarblanco (caramelized milk paste) with the two types of milk constantly stirring them until it reaches the desired consistency. Then, remove from the heat. Next, add the yokes and stir to avoiding curdling. Then, add the vanilla. Make syrup with the sugar and the Port wine. Make a meringue by beating the egg whites until they are stiff. Then, pour a very thin stream of the hot syrup into the egg whites. Beat until it is cool. Serve the manjarblanco with a covering of meringue in a dessert bowl. Sprinkle with cinnamon powder.