Peruvian pisco sour

LIMA, Peru — Like much of the world, Peruvians devour turkey for their Christmas meal, usually with rice, apple puree and a salad of potatoes, apples and raisins.

Yet if anyone — at least in the West — thinks that is unoriginal, then it bears recalling that turkeys come from the Americas and were unknown in the Old World prior to 1492.

The feast for “Navidad,” as the holiday’s called in Spanish, is typically washed down with wine, especially champagne or some other sparkling white, as well as the classic Peruvian cocktail of pisco sour, made from the local fortified white wine pisco blended with beaten egg white, sugar, a dash of lime and Angostura bitters.

As in many other predominantly Catholic countries, Peruvians are so eager to celebrate Christmas — and open their presents — that they do so as soon as Dec. 25 starts, in other words just after midnight on Christmas Eve.

Pisco sour

Most Peruvians make pisco sour by taste, without a written recipe. But approximate measures are:

-1 cup of pisco to one egg white

-1/3 cup of white sugar

-1/3 cup of lemon juice

-4 cups of ice cubes

First beat the egg white, then add all the other ingredients except the bitters, and blend briefly again. Once the pisco sour is served in a glass, add a dash of bitters to the cocktail, so that it is visible in the center of the froth.