Peruvian Dinner

It's been a year and a half since I've posted to this blog.  I've been kept very busy tending to my creations in my kitchen and garden and have spent little time in reflection.  But  I made a particularly beautiful dinner last Sunday and have gotten a few thumbs up on Facebook for my endeavor so I thought I'd log back into my abandoned blog to post a few photos and recipes.  The dinner was for my parents and my brother Chris who had just returned from Italy.  Everyone coming to dinner had travelled to Peru at some point and Peru's cuisine has been coming up for me recently.  I purchased a great cookbook, Ceviche, at a cute new boutique here in La Jolla and had already prepared a meal from the pages of the book.  Another recent inspiration was Anthony Bourdain's Peruvian episode of Parts Unknown.  One dish in particular he was served at a waterfront home in Lima was Causa Limena, and I wanted to replicate what I saw for just a few seconds on camera.

Empanadas filled with Swiss Chard and Fresh Cheese
I prepared my pastry dough of flour and butter and then chilled it in the fridge while preparing the filling.  I've never heard of this particular filling, but I have lots of beautiful rainbow chard growing in my yard that I wanted to use.  My inspiration was the Greek spanakopita, spinach and cheese wrapped in filo.  I basically steamed the chopped chard with a little olive oil, a clove of crushed garlic, and a tablespoon of caramelized onion.  After cooking I chilled the chard and then added a cup of crumbled mexican queso fresco.  I rolled out the dough in a long sheet, scooped 1/4 cup portions of filling, folded the dough to cover the filling, cut into pieces, formed the edges, poked with wholes in the top to vent steam when cooking and placed on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.  This method of preparing the empanadas comes form a short scene in a fabulous series of documentaries on famous chefs called Chef's Table.  The empanadas were in the episode on Francis Mallmann.  I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350.

Salad
Peruvian Beans, Roasted Corn, freshly grated Parmesan Cheese, Butterleaf Lettuce, Tomatoes, dressing of Lemon and Olive Oil.

Mango Ceviche
This was the only recipe I prepared from the Ceviche book.  It is a different technique from how I have made ceviche in the past.  The main difference is creating the Leche de Tigre, which is the Peruvian name for the infused lime juice used to marinade the fish.  In the past I would soak all my ceviche ingredients in the marinade and serve still sitting in the juices.  The Leche de Tigre technique is more refined and controlled.  I took the juice of 7 limes and soaked in it a clove of sliced garlic, 1/4 inch sliced ginger, teaspoon diced jalapeño, a few sprigs of cilantro.  After ten minutes I strained the mixture, the remaining liquid is the Leche de Tigre.  I chose a local black sea bass from El Pescador and diced it into small chunks.  I soaked the fish in the marinade for about 15 minutes and then drained it.  I added to the marinaded fish some sliced purple onion, diced jalapeño, sliced mango, cilantro, juice of half an orange and some salt and pepper.

Causa Limena
This was the masterpiece of the meal and I was proud of my success since it was something I had never actually eaten or even seen before.  I did a few google searches and after looking at lots of photos and a few recipes I created my own variation.  There are hundreds of varieties of potatoes in Peru, they originate form the Andes Mountains.  The Cause Limena seems to always be made by a variety of potato that is very yellow so I used a combination of 6 yukon gold and 2 sweet potatoes to get a pretty color.  Mine turned out a bit more sherbet orange and not the bright yellow I was seeing.  I read of many different variations of fillings such as tuna, chicken, egg, and crab and choose a combination of crab and bay shrimp for my lovely salad loaf!  I started with boiling my potatoes till soft.  After they cooled off I peeled them and mashed them till smooth with a big scoop of greek yogurt, a little olive oil and some salt.  For the filling I combined a can of crab from Trader Joe's, a quarter pound of Oregon Bay Shrimp from El Pescador, a small scoop of mayonnaise, a big squirt of thousand island dressing, a teaspoon of diced jalapeño, a tablespoon of diced white onion, salt, pepper and probably a secret ingredient or two I can't remember now.  To assemble the Causa, I lined a loaf pan with saran wrap and then placed the sliced olives and avocados carefully on the bottom.  Next went half the potatoes, another layer of thinly sliced avocados, the crab filling and then the rest of the potatoes.  I chilled it and then carefully flipped it out of the pan onto a dish for serving.  It was beautiful and delicious!