Peruvian Pie!

On Friday night, one of my Peruvian friends Luis invited us volunteers to his house in Huaycán to use his oven (we don't have one!) and I decided to make an apple pie in Peru! Inspired by the Smith tradition of Mountain Day (when classes are canceled and Smithies go apple picking) which just happened in the US and my love to making pie, I decided to attempt to acquire all of the necessary ingredients in Huaycán. I asked my mother to give me the family recipe and I set out for the "mercado" (market) with a friend unsure if my mission would be successful. Turns out that our favorite fruit vendor sells green apples perfect for pie! It proved much more difficult to find a pie pan (I got some confused looks) but eventually a woman selling all kind of pots and pans had two tart pans which worked just fine! We bought flour by the kilo and of course cinnamon! On Friday, Luis so kindly welcomed us into his home (it was the first time I had been inside someone's home in Huaycan) and we set to work making the pie! We listened to Peruvian music, chatted and when it came to making the dough, I just had to estimate using a mug and spoons (because they don't use cup and tablespoon measurements here). We definitely had beginners luck, because I managed to mix a dough of the right consistency despite all the estimating! Luis very skilled with the rolling pit and we all helped to put the whole pie together! After lighting the oven with a match, we slipped the first pie into the oven and started in on the second. Unfortunately, I had run out of good luck by that point and the dough came out super crumbly. However, we managed to scrape it together and I fashioned a improvised lattice top. While the pies where baking, Luis brought out his guitar and we had a really fun sing along! He can play pretty much any song on the guitar as long as he looks up the chords, so we had fun singing both spanish songs and the beatles and other songs in English. When the pie was done, Luis put a happy birthday candle on top to celebrate one of the volunteers Adriana's birthday and we all sang to her. We even tried to make some whipped cream- which turned out nothing like whipped cream but was good on top. Everyone really enjoyed the pie and I do think it came out really well, if I do say so myself! I couldn't have done it without all the help from all my friends here! It was a wonderful night and a true reminder of the power of music and food to bring people together and celebrate different cultures!