Cook Like a Chef: Tiradito Lujoso By Diego Oka

Earlier this year, Mazda invited me to the Healdsburg Wine & Food Festival. Arriving in style in a new 2024 Mazda CX-90, the festival reigned supreme with various exciting culinary events and celebrity chefs aplenty — Food Network’s Guy Fieri and Amanda Freitag, to name a few. In its third year,  the event offered exciting experiences like a fantastic lunch featuring “West Coast barbecue” from one of the greatest pitmasters in California, Matt Horn, who owns Horn Barbecue. Although it was easy to lose count of the delicious bites I took, Chef Diego Oka’s tasting menu at Bricoleur Vineyards is one I’ll never forget. And good news! He decided to share his luxurious “Tiradito Lujoso” recipe with Honest Cooking.

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Tiradito, a Peruvian dish, is a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese techniques. It is similar to ceviche (or, in Peru, it’s called “cebiche”), where the fish cooks in leche de tigre, or “tiger’s milk”— a citrus-based marinade. However, the fish is thinly sliced like sashimi, giving it a more delicate flavor profile than ceviche. Unlike traditional Peruvian ceviche, tiradito allows for more interpretation, making it a dish that invites experimentation. 

When asked why Chef Diego chose this dish to commence his tasting menu at the Healdsburg Wine & Food Festival, he said: “Tiradito Lujoso is one of the most beautiful and delicious dishes we have at La Mar [his restaurant in Miami]. This dish is very detailed, and we made it even better by using vegetables from the Bricoleur Vineyards farm and local fish, creating a dish with Peruvian heritage and California products!”

In this recipe, Chef Diego simplifies the process by breaking it down into three parts: his veggie confit recipe, the rocoto and piquillo pepper leche de tigre recipe, and finally, the full recipe. If you can’t find piquillo peppers, don’t worry; just swap them with red bell peppers. And for a rocoto pepper substitute, feel free to use manzano peppers. 

How to Make Tiradito Lujoso

Veggie Confit Instructions

1. Chop celery and white onions. Throw in a pot with garlic and canola oil.
2. Cook slowly (confit) until caramelized and veggies are soft.

Piquillo and Rocoto Pepper Leche De Tigre

1. In a hot wok, add a little bit of canola oil and frozen rocoto slices. Cook both sides and smoke them, but do not char them.
2. Do the same with piquillo peppers. You just want to smoke them in the wok and then let them cool.
3. Place veggie confit in blender with little to no oil (separate the oil in another container), add 2 oz of ice and blend. Slowly add your confit oil to emulsify the mayo. Add your piquillo and rocoto peppers, then add lime juice and salt to taste.

Tiradito Lujoso

1. Season chalaca (diced onions, habanero, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, lime, salt)
   and mix with blue crab meat, lime and salt.
2. Use a cold plate, add the piquillo and rocoto pepper leche de tigre in the center, and spread it out. Plate the salted Hamachi pieces (9 pieces). Spread around chalaca and crab mix.
3. Garnish with avocado slices (5), radish, purple potato chips, garlic chips,
   olive oil, micro cilantro, and flowers.
4. Serves 2 to 4 people.

Recipe Notes:

• The original recipe uses blue crab. Chef Diego switched the blue crab to uni (sea urchin) for the festival (as shown in photos).
• Freeze peppers before cooking them for best results.
• It’s the perfect summer recipe, serving 2 to 4 people, and is great as a precursor before the main course.

Tiradito Lujoso

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• Author: Chef Diego Oka
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: Serves 2 to 4 1x

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Description

Chef Diego Oka from La Mar in Miami shares his Tiradito Lujoso recipe. The dish is like an elevated Peruvian ceviche with luxury ingredients like sliced hamachi, blue crab (or uni), caviar, and a red pepper leche de tigre.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Veggie Confit:

• 1 oz (28 g) garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/2 head celery, chopped
• 1.25 cups (300 g) white onion, chopped
• 2.5 cups (600 mL) canola oil

Piquillo and Rocoto Pepper Leche De Tigre:

• 1 oz (28 g) veggie confit (prepared above)
• 1 oz (28 g) rocoto pepper, deseeded and deveined
• 1.5 oz (43 g) piquillo pepper, deseeded and deveined
• 3 limes, juiced
• 0.3 oz (8.5 g) salt

Tiradito Lujoso:

• 1 oz (28 g) piquillo and rocoto pepper leche de tigre (prepared above)
• 1 oz (28 g) Hamachi slices
• 0.5 oz (14 g) chalaca (diced onions, habanero, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, lime, salt)
• 0.4 oz (11 g) blue crab meat
• 0.005 oz (0.14 g) torched avocado slices
• 0.1 oz (2.8 g) radish slices
• 0.017 oz (0.48 g) garlic chips
• 0.1 oz (2.8 g) purple potato chips
• 0.15 oz (4.2 g) smoked trout caviar
• 3 edible flowers
• 0.1 oz (2.8 g) micro cilantro
• 3 drops olive oil

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Instructions

Prepare the Veggie Confit:

1. Chop the Vegetables: Finely chop the celery and white onion. Peel the garlic cloves.
2. Confit the Vegetables: Place the chopped vegetables and garlic into a pot with the canola oil. Cook on low heat, allowing the vegetables to caramelize and become soft. This process should take about 1 hour. The veggies should not be browned but should be tender and sweet.

Prepare the Piquillo and Rocoto Pepper Leche De Tigre:

1. Smoke the Peppers: Heat a wok with a small amount of canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the rocoto pepper slices and cook on both sides, just enough to smoke them without charring. Repeat with the piquillo peppers. Set aside to cool.
2. Blend the Confit: In a blender, add 1 oz of the prepared veggie confit (avoid adding too much oil). Add 2 oz of ice and blend. Gradually add some of the confit oil to emulsify the mixture into a mayo-like consistency.
3. Finish the Leche De Tigre: Add the smoked piquillo and rocoto peppers to the blender, followed by the lime juice and salt. Blend until smooth. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Assemble the Tiradito Lujoso:

1. Prepare the Chalaca: Dice the onions, habanero, tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Mix with lime juice and salt. Combine with the blue crab meat.
2. Plate the Dish: Use a cold plate to serve. In the center of the plate, spread a thin layer of the piquillo and rocoto pepper leche de tigre. Arrange the Hamachi slices (about 9 pieces) over the leche de tigre.
3. Add Garnishes: Scatter the chalaca and crab mixture around the Hamachi slices. Garnish with torched avocado slices, radish slices, purple potato chips, garlic chips, smoked trout caviar, micro cilantro, and edible flowers. Finish with a few drops of olive oil.

Serve immediately as a first course or appetizer.

Notes

Recipe Notes:

• The original recipe uses blue crab. Chef Diego switched the blue crab for uni (sea urchin) for the festival (as pictured in photo).
• Freeze peppers before cooking them for best results.
• Serves two people and is great as a precursor before the main course

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 5 minutes
• Category: Appetizer, First Course
• Method: Sashimi or Crudo
• Cuisine: Peruvian