Causa Limeña Recipe
One of the best cold, layered potato dishes around!
From Lima, Peru to your kitchen, a Causa Limeña is a cold, layered, potato dish best enjoyed in the warmer months on an outdoor terrace with a glass of cool, white wine.
If you’re ever lucky enough to visit the diverse and stunning country of Peru, chances are you’ll savour a Causa Limeña during your travels there. Even unadventurous eaters have been known to enjoy this layered potato dish made popular in Lima, the coastal capital city- and enjoyed from the highlands to the lowlands. And what’s not to like about a well-crafted Causa? Yellow potato (here in North America the Yukon Gold stands in for the gorgeous yellow-fleshed tubers on offer in Peru that we just don’t get here), shredded chicken meat, or seafood dressed with mayo, lime juice, hot peppers, salt and black pepper- it’s not that much of a stretch for most.
As mentioned in this site’s blog, 2008 is the United Nations designated Year of the Potato. With that in mind, numerous home cooks and amateur gourmets turned in some impressive (and some downright odd) recipes featuring the tasty tuber at a recent potato recipe contest. You can read more about causas and their history here. For those of you curious enough to try this cold, layered dish (that’s perfect with a crisp salad for a lovely luncheon dish), here’s a solid recipe that will hold you in good stead. And the best part is you can dress this dish up (by using individual ramekins for example to assemble each causa). Or you can go casual, as this recipe suggests by making it in one rectangular pan. Any way you slice it, a good Causa Limeña is a thing of beauty. This one features tuna. Taste it yourself and be a nay-sayer no more.
CAUSA LIMEÑA With Tuna Recipe
Courtesy of La Cocina de Doña Luz in Toronto
Preparation Time : 45 min
Serves 6 to 8
INGREDIENTS:
The Mashed Potatoes
- 2 pounds potatoes, peeled
- 3 teaspoons yellow aji (spicy yellow pepper that you can find in most Latin grocery stores)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons corn oil
- Lime juice
The Tuna Filling
- 1 cup of Tuna
- Lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
The Presentation
- Pyrex dish, 8' by 4'
- Green lettuce, hard boiled egg
- Cooked shrimps and Kalamata olives
For the Mashed Potatoes:
- Cook the whole potatoes in water until soft.
- Mash until relatively smooth. Add lime juice, salt, pepper, yellow aji and oil.
- Mix well. Set aside for 1/2 hour.
For the Tuna Filling:
- Combine all the filling ingredients until smooth.
For the Causa:
- In a Pyrex dish spread a layer of mashed potato, a layer of filling. Repeat and finish with potatoes.
- Cover with plastic wrap and chill until cold.
Presentation:
Serve on a bed of green lettuce, with salsa criolla, sliced hard boiled egg, sliced or whole kalamata olives and shrimps.
Serving suggestion: a crisp green salad dressed simply with citrus and olive oil, salt and pepper.
