The Ankle Biter Eats!

Causa Rellena is a Peruvian appetizer that I happily eat as a main course. It is layers of golden potato flavoured with lemon and golden aji amarillo, with a layer of—in this case chicken salad, but tuna salad is also good—in between, and garnished with hard-boiled egg, red pepper, green onion, and cilantro. Causa Rellena isn’t an Easter dish, but it is a great way to use any uneaten hard-boiled eggs.

One of my reasons for feeding this dish to kids is that it is mostly made up of things they like. There are a few chopped veggies as garnish, but by my theory of veggies by approximation—the veggies might accidentally end up on the fork, or kids might be tempted to eat them through frequent, but benign exposure.

Ingredients

Potato

• 2.2 lb (1 kg ) potatoes (yellow or Yukon gold, if available)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 Tbsp. of aji amarillo
• salt to taste

Filling

• 2-3 cups of cooked, chicken (white meat), chopped small
• ¼ cup of celery, chopped small
• 4 green onions, chopped finely
• fresh cilantro, chopped or snipped, to taste
• ½ cup of mayonnaise
• salt to taste

Garnish

• 2 boiled eggs cut into quarters
• fresh cilantro, chopped or snipped, to taste
• red pepper slices
• green tops of the green onions, chopped or snipped, to taste

Preparation

Mash the potatoes, and mix in the olive oil, lemon juice, aji amarillo, and salt. If you get the proportions of salt, lemon, and aji amarillo balanced, you can taste each flavour and none of the flavours overpowers the others.

Chop the chicken and mix in the mayonnaise, celery, white part of the green onion—reserving the green tops for the garnish—and salt. I’ve noticed that the green onion is great for seasoning mayonnaise if you don’t like the taste of mayonnaise.

Causa in a dish:
Place half the potato mixture on the bottom of a rectangular platter. Put the chicken mixture in the middle, and place the other half of the potato mixture on top.

Causa on a platter:
Spread potato in one long rectangular layer on top of some plastic wrap. Spread chicken on one third of the potato layer; then use the plastic to roll it like a jelly roll. Transfer to a platter.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill until cold. Garnish with cilantro, green onion, red pepper slices, and hard-boiled eggs.

Serve cold, cut into squares about 2-3 inches wide.

Notes
Aji amarillo: this is the Spanish name for a paste made from a medium-hot chili with a beautiful golden colour.
Salt: Maldon sea salt is great with in the potato with the lemon and the aji amarillo.