Causa Limeña
Causa limeña is a cold Peruvian starter of layered mashed yellow potato seasoned with ají amarillo and lime, filled with chicken or tuna in mayonnaise and slices of avocado. The potato is worked with oil into a pliable, saffron-coloured dough, and because the dish is assembled in a mould and cut, it holds its shape on the plate; crab or prawn also work as the filling. By one account the name comes from the Quechua word kawsay, meaning sustenance, though a legend tying it to the War of the Pacific is told as well. Chilling time comes on top of the stated time.
Ingredients
- 1 kgyellow potatoes
- 4 tbspají amarillo paste
- 4 tbsplime juice
- 4 tbspvegetable oil
- 1.5 tspfine sea salt
- 300 gcooked chicken breast
- 5 tbspmayonnaise
- 1 pieceripe avocado
- 2 pieceshard-boiled eggs
- 8 piecesblack olives
- 2 tbspchopped coriander
Method
- Boil the potatoes whole and unpeeled in salted water for 25 to 30 minutes, until a knife slides out without lifting the potato. Cooking them unpeeled keeps them from taking on water, which is the difference between a dough you can shape and a wet paste.
- Drain and peel them while they are hot enough to be awkward to hold, then push them through a ricer straight away. Never use a blender or food processor: the blades rupture the starch cells and turn the potato into something closer to glue. Spread the riced potato out and let it cool to room temperature.
- Work in the ají amarillo paste, lime juice, oil and salt, kneading 2 to 3 minutes until the colour is even and the dough holds a shape when pressed. Taste it now and season it more assertively than seems right, since chilling flattens both salt and acid.
- Shred the chicken finely and mix it with the mayonnaise and a pinch of salt to a thick, scoopable filling. If it is loose enough to spread on its own, it will slide when you cut the causa, so keep it firm.
- Line a ring mould or a small loaf tin with cling film. Press in half of the potato dough in an even 1.5 cm layer, cover with slices of avocado brushed with lime, then the chicken layer, then the other half of the dough, pressing firmly at each stage to drive out air pockets.
- Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, ideally 4, so the layers set and the flavours come together. Unmould by lifting the film, then peel it away rather than sliding the causa off it.
- Finish with a thin spread of mayonnaise, wedges of hard-boiled egg, black olives and coriander, and serve cold within an hour of unmoulding, straight from the fridge rather than left to warm on the counter.
FAQ
Almost always a food processor or a stick blender instead of a ricer, or a waxy salad potato instead of a floury yellow one. If it has already happened there is no fix, so start again with the right potato and press it through a ricer or the fine plate of a mouli while it is still hot.
A frozen ají amarillo blended with a spoon of oil works exactly the same way. Failing that, a roasted yellow pepper blended with half a teaspoon of turmeric and a pinch of cayenne gives the colour and mild heat, though not the fruit-and-pepper aroma that defines the real thing.
Two days in the fridge, tightly covered so the potato does not take on other smells or dry at the edges. Do not freeze it: the potato dough goes grainy and weeps water on thawing, and the mayonnaise filling separates.
All three are cold Peruvian potato starters, but huancaína and ocopa are boiled potato slices under a poured cheese-and-chilli sauce, while causa is potato worked into a dough and layered with a filling. Causa also exists as a rolled version and as individual moulded portions, and the filling changes freely between chicken, tuna, crab and prawn.
Cold as an entrada, one moulded portion per person or a larger tray cut into squares for a table, often alongside salsa criolla of thin red onion with lime. It sits comfortably on a buffet because it does not need reheating and holds its shape for a couple of hours. On a Peruvian table it goes well with salmon ceviche as a second cold starter and lomo saltado as the main.
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