Recipe: Peruvian stuffed causa (Video)

I love Peruvian stuffed “causa”. This is a typical Peruvian dish that can be described as a kind of pressed potato cake with filled layers. Today I will share its recipe and a video guide.

What I really like about this dish is its versatility. I have seen it stuffed with tuna, crab, squid, octopus, and also vegetarian. I've tried it with and without mayonnaise, and with coloring other than its traditional bright yellow. As an entree or a main course, the causa can be prepared in many ways.

Today's entry is thought for a traditional version with chicken and cooked vegetables. Its filling includes chicken, boiled eggs, peas and carrots. However, feel free to make changes to the filling according to your preferences (ripe avocado goes well with everything). Just remember to press the potatoes well and season them generously with yellow Peruvian pepper.

Ingredients
1 - 1.5 kilos of potatoes (preferably yellow)
Yellow Peruvian pepper
Lemon juice
Oil
Salt and pepper
Filling
1 chicken breast
4 hard boiled eggs
1 - 2 cups of cooked and chopped vegetables - peas and carrots
Mayonnaise (optional)

Preparation
Boil the chicken and shred the meat. Set this aside.

Boil the potatoes, and let them cool a little before you peel them. Press them. I strongly recommend using a potato press.

Blend the yellow pepper* or use paste.The amount of chili depends on you, I used two whole peppers.

(*) Yellow peppers can be prepared by cuttting them open and removing their seeds and veins. You can bring them to a boil to remove all of the spice.

Knead the potato with the yellow pepper, and add salt and pepper. Add lemon juice, depending on your preference. Separate this dough into three parts.

Spread ⅓ of the dough on a greased dish with oil.

Cover the spread dough with chicken. I had previously added some drops of olive oil to the chicken for flavouring. You can also mix it with mayonnaise, that never fails.

Cover with ⅓ of the dough.

Cover with slices of boiled egg, and place the boiled vegetables over them. You can add mayonnaise to this layer if you wish. You can see in the photo I added mayo to one half to test which side I preferred.

Cover with the remaining ⅓ of the dough.

You can garnish with cilantro leaves.

Serves 4-6 people

Comments
- Its recommened to use yellow potatos, which are very tasty, but you can use others. I used russet potatoes.
- I've learned that the most important thing for causas is to press the potatoes well (one time I just used a fork) and also season them well with yellow pepper so that they can have a lot of flavour, and their yellowish coloring.