Variations on Causa a la Chiclayana

Alright, well since nobody cares about my sensitive business plan, I’m going to start writing about food. Not to say that this is a “food” blog. It is still a “sensitive person with crazy impossible business ventures” blog. But damn it, food is something I love to prepare and eat and think about. And in fact the more seriously I take the rest of my creative pursuits, the more I recognize that cooking is just another creative outlet. Plus it satisfies the other need of mine, to be of use to people.

So I’m going to start writing down some of my cooking experiences. And I’m not going to take photos yet because I have a camera phobia.

I fall in the improvisational camp when it comes to cooking. I love to read cookbooks and food blogs (my favorites right now are The Pioneer Woman and Bitten -- though Mark Bittman has now been absorbed into the Diner's Journal so we'll see if my love continues). I consult recipes for reference but I can’t bear to cook something exactly the same way twice so I usually start to tinker with them right away.

For instance: I found this 1950s Latin American cookbook which is fascinating (it translates Salsa Cruda as “uncooked spiced tomato sauce”) and actually has a wealth of recipes I’d never encountered before. I found a recipe for Causa a la Chiclayana (seasoned mashed potatoes with fish and vegetables) that intrigued me, because instead of mashing potatoes with milk and butter and serving them with gravy, you mix them with lemon juice, chopped onions and olive oil. I made this meal and was blown away by how simple and mindblowingly delicious the potatoes were – still potatoes, still comforting and starchy and filling, but also light and spicy and piquant.

Now I make them at least once a week, and can’t go back to the regular kind of mashed potatoes. I also can’t help but add in variations. Here’s the recipe from the cookbook, and then some variations:

Causa a la Chiclayana:



And now for the variations:

Variation #1: I like to let the onions sit in lemon juice & salt for a while before adding the olive oil, making them essentially into lightly pickled onions.

Variation #2: I started using dried chipotles instead of fresh chiles. You know what, you should go find dried chipotles and start using them in everything. You can chop them up and cook them in butter for fried eggs, or add them to chili or any beans you’re cooking… anyway I won’t go on and on about it, just understand that they are divine.

Variation #3: I started adding in fresh parsley from our garden, which is the only thing that keeps on growing through the winter.

Variation #4: I realized if you didn’t mash the potatoes and instead roughly chopped them you’d have an incredible potato salad. I am waiting for the right summer party to appear so I can bring this. I bet it would be awesome with hard boiled eggs too, and maybe even chopped pickles.

Variation #5: This week I was boiling the potatoes and had made the lemon onion mixture, and I decided to also make a kale salad my friend Judy showed me how to make (using raw kale, but you massage it with your hands so it breaks down almost like it’s been steamed). While I was massaging the kale I had a flash – I should mix it in with the potatoes! So I did! And it was awesome. Kind of like colcannon but less hearty & creamy, and sprightlier because of the lemon and chiles.

Variation #6: my favorite variation: you can fry up the leftover potatoes (if there are any) in the morning for breakfast.

Look at all those variations! Basically that one recipe opened my eyes up to a huge revelation: that mashed potatoes are incredibly versatile. My favorite thing to serve with these potatoes is a big pot of beans, with fresh tomatoes chopped up and spooned on top (when they’re in season). Imagine that! Before I encountered this cookbook I would have thought lemony mashed potatoes topped with fresh tomatoes was the wierdest dish ever.

Anyway. So that’s my cooking lesson for today. A very sensitive cooking lesson. Let me know if you end up cooking this and come up with variations of your own!