You don’t need to find amarillo chili peppers for this recipe. Any long, red or orange chili pepper will work, but there are, conveniently, a few appropriate long, skinny spicy peppers in the Lufa Farms basket this week. Common substitutes for amarillos are serrano or habanero chili peppers (if you’re purchasing at a store such as Epices de Cru or Olives et Epices in the Jean-Talon Market), but the flavour is unique.
Causa is basically a layered potato salad. It looks fancy but is actually very simple to make and very easy to enjoy. Mash some potatoes with some salt, pepper and puréed chili pepper, layer on top a shrimp, crab, or vegetarian mayonnaise-based salad (avocado is traditional, but blanched garlic scapes (fleur d’ail) worked wonderfully) followed by another layer of spicy mashed potato. The heat doesn’t have to be overpowering, and the sweet mayo combines the best of both potato and shrimp salad in one dish.
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 4 yellow potatoes
- 2 long, hot yellow or red chili peppers, seeds and white veins removed (wear gloves!)
- 1 tsp water
- 1/4 tsp plus 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp oil
- Juice of 1 1/2 limes
- pepper
For the shrimp or vegetarian filling:
- 1 lb Nordic shrimp, shelled and de-veined if fresh, or defrosted if frozen (available at most poissoneries in Montreal – ask for “crevettes de Matane”, or substitute local crab or lobster meat if you’ve got a little extra money kicking around. Please don’t buy Thai or Indonesia farmed shrimp. Trust me, you don’t want that in your body.
- AND/OR!
- 1 bunch of garlic scapes (fleur d’ail – like in the Lufa boxes this week), diced and blanched (boiled for 2 minutes before straining and rinsing in cold, running water or placing in a bowl of ice water)
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
- 2 tbsp ketchup (I NEVER use ketchup! This is the first time I’d used it in years, but you can also use 2 tbsp tomato paste or 1 seeded, puréed tomato with 1 tsp of sugar or honey, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Directions:
1. Wash the potatoes and toss them in a big pot of boiling, salted water for about 20 or 25 minutes, until a fork enters the skin easily. You don’t want to spend 30 minutes mashing these guys because you under-boiled them. Remove from the water and let cool.
2. Put on some rubber gloves and remove the seeds and white veins from the chilies, then toss them in the blender or food processor with 1 tsp water and 1/4 tsp salt. Voila aji amarillo paste! Make more than necessary if you have enough chilies as this is great served on the side with most other Peruvian dishes, and even as a sauce for the causa itself.
3. In a large bowl (or in a strong food processor that can mash thick potatoes) combine 1-3 tbsp (start with one…) of the aji amarillo paste with the remaining tsp of salt, tablespoon of oil, lime juice, and a few big grinds of pepper.
4. Now that the potatoes are cool, peel them and pull them or chop them into chunks before adding to the aji amarillo mixture. Mash using a potato masher, immersion blender, or whatever mashing tool you may have on hand.
For the filling:
1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil and add the shrimp and/or garlic chives. Boil until just cooked through (1-2 minutes only if fresh. The shrimp will be rubbery if you cook them too long. The garlic chives will be less pungent). Drain and rinse in cold water or an ice bath to stop the cooking process and then drain again.
2. Make the mayonnaise by preparing yourself emotionally to whisk for awhile. You can also do this in a blender or with an electric whisk: Whisk 1 egg yolk until creamy, then slowly pour in the 1/2 tsp of lemon juice. Drop by drop (at first), then more steadily add the olive oil and keep whisking until all the oil is added (very slowly!!) and the mayonnaise is fairly thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Combine all or some of the mayonnaise with the shrimp and/or garlic scapes (start with less and add more until acceptable shrimp salad-level of mayo).
Now the fun part! Putting it all together:
1. Find either 4 ramekins, or a flat-bottomed casserole, baking dish (8″ x 8″ maximum) or loaf pan – basically whatever shape you want) and line it with saran wrap.
2. Press half the potato mixture evenly into the bottom of the dish(es).
Top with the shrimp or garlic chives filling.
Top with the remaining mashed potato mixture. Cover with saran wrap, and refrigerate until dinner time. When it’s time to serve, remove the bottom layer of saran, invert the ramekin or baking dish and peel away the top layer of saran. Garnish with cilantro, or leftover garlic scape, a dollop of mayo on the side, or extra aji amarillo paste. Slice into wedges or serve individually.
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