Peruvian recipe
How to make Causa limeña
Lima, with pre-Inca roots
Cold layers of mashed yellow potato, seasoned with lime and yellow chilli, filled with chicken or tuna salad and avocado. It is cut into squares and looks like a small, colourful cake.
Ingredients
- 1 kg yellow, floury potatoes (such as Yukon Gold)
- 2 tablespoons ají amarillo paste, or 1 mild yellow chilli, blended
- Juice of 2 limes
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 200 g cooked chicken, shredded, or tinned tuna, drained
- 3 tablespoons shop-bought mayonnaise (made with pasteurised eggs)
- 1 ripe avocado, sliced
- 2 hard-boiled eggs and a few black olives, to decorate
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Boil the potatoes in their skins until soft, about 25 minutes. Peel them while warm and mash until very smooth.
- Let the mash cool, then mix in the chilli paste, lime juice, oil and salt to taste. It should be soft enough to spread.
- Mix the chicken or tuna with the mayonnaise and a little salt and pepper.
- Line a small square dish with cling film. Spread half the potato in it, then a layer of avocado, then the chicken or tuna, and finish with the rest of the potato.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes, turn out onto a plate, cut into squares and decorate with slices of egg and olives.
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