Recipe beet causa

Recipe beet causa

BEET CAUSA

For those who don´t know what this dish is, the Causa is a Peruvian dish, cooked with mashed potatoes and mixed with yellow ají (yellow Peruvian chili pepper) and lime. This creates the base, which can be filled with different fillings made with chicken or tuna, with mayonnaise and red onion.

This simple dish is open to being cooked in different shapes and combinations, so creativity is assured.

Ingredients:

-         1 medium potato per person

-         1 boiled beet per person

-         ½ avocado per person

-         ½ lime per person

-         ají yellow puree

-         ¼ boiled chicken breast per person

-         Mayonnaise

-         ¼ red onion per person

-         ¼ spring onion per person

-         dill

Mince the red onion, very minced, put it in a bowl and add a little salt, let stand for one hour, until the liquid is expulsed, dry with a paper towel and let set for later.

Clean the beets and steam with the skin one hour, until they get soft. We will know they are ready when it is easy to prick them with a knife. Let set until they are warm and peel them. I like to use plastic gloves because they stain a lot. Separate half of the beets and blend them until they puree. You can strain it to separate the solid parts.

Clean the potatoes and boil them with the skin for half an hour or until they get soft. Instead of boiling them, I use a special bag to cook them in the microwave oven. Peel them and mash them until they get really soft, without lumps. It is important to mash them when they are still hot. Add a teaspoon of yellow ají chili paste, but be careful because it is very spicy. Add some lime juice, mix it all and taste it. Correct if necessary.

Separate half of the potatoes and mix with the beet juice. Add it little by little because we don´t want it to be liquid. We want it to have an intense fuchsia colour.

So, we have one yellow and another fuchsia mixture.

Pull the chicken breast and divide in two. Add minced red onion, mayonnaise and minced dill to one part. Add the beet in little cubes with minced spring onion, minced dill and mayonnaise to the other part.

Both mixtures must be consistent, so add the mayonnaise little by little until you get the texture we want. Add salt if necessary.

Now it’s time to shape the mixtures. You can make a lot of different shapes, round, square, with the filling inside or on the top, etc. In this case I have used a square metal mold.

Spread a little oil inside the mold, put it in a plate and put some of the fuchsia potato paste into the mold, until you cover half of the mold. Add some avocado cut in cubes and fill with more potato paste. When you have covered it all, just press in the middle and lift the ring. Put some chicken filling, the white one, on top.

By La Cocina de Mirinda