Causa Limeña
Causa is a cold layered dish from Lima built on Peruvian yellow potato mashed with ají amarillo, lime juice and oil until it forms a pliable, saffron-coloured dough. Two layers of that dough enclose a filling, most often chicken bound with mayonnaise, sometimes tuna, crab or prawn, with avocado slid in between. The name is usually traced to the Quechua word kawsay, meaning sustenance and also the potato itself, although a patriotic origin story attached to the War of the Pacific circulates as well. It is served chilled as a starter, and because it is assembled in a mould and cut, it holds its shape on the plate. 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 a third 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 last 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.
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