Senin, 13 Desember 2010

Never The Wrong Day for This!

One of my favorite Peruvian dishes is Causa.  The Herbal Husband usually makes this for my birthday in August.  I could eat this once a week easily.  We had a lot of leftover mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving.  Never a bad thing, but we always try and make something special out of them.  Most of the time a summertime treat.  For those of you in the tropics, this is a really good lunch or even dinner item.  Way off track.  Lots of you are done with your holiday decor.  It may be a lite decorating season here!  It is snowing here and very cold.  Hope you are staying warm wherever you may be.  I'm off to exercise.  Talk to you later.

The photo shows a single portion.  For Lifeshighway and Jim Long:

TUNA FISH WITH COLD MASHED POTATOES
(CAUSA A LA LIMENA)
Serves 12

4 (6oz.) cans of white albacore tuna, packed in water, drained
3 lb. golden potatoes, peeled (about 8 to 10 medium potatoes)
1/4 t. cayenne pepper powder (to taste)
1 t. salt
1/8 t. ground black pepper
Juice of one large lemon
3 T. fresh parsley, chopped
2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 T. light mayonnaise, (not salad dressing)
3 large eggs, hard boiled and chopped
12 large black olives, pitted and chopped

In a large pot, boil and cook peeled potatoes until fork tender (about 20 minutes).  Strain water and mash potatoes by hand.  Let cool.  While potatoes are cooking, hard boil eggs in separate pan.  Let cool, peel and chop and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix tuna fish, chopped onion, chopped egg and mayonnaise to combine.  Refrigerate.  Add olive oil, salt, peppers and parsley to room temperature potatoes.  Mix so all ingredients are well incorporated.  The potato mixture should be smooth not lumpy.  Taste to make sure seasoning is evenly distributed.

In a 9" x 13" pan, spread half of the potato mixture evenly on the bottom.  Then add all of the tuna fish mixture on top spreading evenly.  Use the rest of the potato mixture for the top layer spreading evenly.

Add black olives on top as a garnish.  Chill in refrigerator until it is ready to be served (not less than one hour).   Serve in squares on organic lettuce.