Papas Rellenas with Huancaína sauce

The theme of this month's Daring Kitchen challenge was Peru. Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

I made the Papas Rellenas as suggested by Kathlyn, but instead of the Salsa Criolla she recommends, I went with a Huancaína sauce that my mother-in-law got from her co-worker who is from Peru. She's been telling me how great it is on potato dishes, so I've been meaning to make it for awhile now. So it was a perfect time to try it out when a Peruvian challenge came up that featured potatoes! 

Source

• Daring Cooks March 2011 Challenge

Yield

• 6 Papas rellenas, really 1 per person was enough - they're very filling!

Ingredients

Papas Rellenas

• 2 1/4 lbs. Russet potatoes
• 5 large eggs - 3 hard-boiled and chopped, 1 for the potato dough, and 1 to roll the finished papas in before rolling in breadcrumbs and frying.
• 2 tbsp. Canola oil
• 1/2 lb. Ground beef
• 6 Black olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 small Onion, finely diced
• 1 Banana pepper, finely diced (original recipe recommends aji pepper, but most varieties of peppers are so hard to come by around here)
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 cup White wine for deglazing (I used vermouth, you could also use beef stock or just water)
• To taste, Salt and Pepper
• 1 cup All-purpose flour
• Dash Cayenne pepper
• 1 cup dry Breadcrumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying - enough to have at least 2 inches in the pan

Huancaína Sauce

• 1 Hard-boiled egg
• Evaporated milk, enough to make it creamy (I probably used a tablespoon)
• 6 Saltine crackers
• 4 oz. Queso fresco (I couldn't find it, so I used feta instead)
• 4 oz. Cream cheese
• 1 Amarillo pepper (again with the lack of peppers in this area - Come on, Albany! - so I used banana peppers)

Directions

Start by boiling the potatos, as that will take the longest, and you can't even start working with them until they've cooled. In the mean time, make the filling.

Saute the onions and garlic in the canola oil until just brown

Add the diced pepper

and saute another couple of minutes.

Add the ground beef and brown

then add the cumin and paprika.

Cook for a few more seconds to meld all the flavors. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

Add in the olives

then, off the heat, gently fold in the hard-boiled eggs.

and set aside to cool.

By now your potatoes should be cooked (make sure they're easily pierced with a fork). Let them cool. In the meantime, you can make the Huancaína sauce.

In a food processor, blend 1 hard boiled egg with enough evaporated milk to make it creamy.

Add the saltines

and blend thoroughly.

Add both cheeses, and it helps to break up the feta or queso fresco if it's hard, as mine was.

and puree until smooth.

Add in the peppers, little by little until you've got the heat that you want.

Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

Now your potatoes should be sufficiently cooled.

Pass them through a potato ricer, or mash really (really) well.

Add 1 egg, salt and pepper, 

and knead well. It's going to be very sticky - not at all like a pizza dough or even a gnocchi dough.

Now comes the hard part. I honestly thought at every turn here I was going to screw it up and they were all going to fall apart. But somehow it worked, with no disasters.

Set up 3 shallow bowls (I actually switched to plates shortly after the first try, because the papas had to bend to fit in the bowl, which wasn't working), the first with flour, the second with a beaten egg, and the third with breadcrumbs.

To make sure I had enough dough at the end, I divided up the dough into 6 even balls. You should also save just a little bit extra for patching holes. Now would be a good time to start heating up the oil - it should be about 350º to fry well.

Take one of the balls and flatten it out in your hand (trust me, this is the only way. It's too sticky to work on anything else). 

Add 1/6th of the mixture

and carefully fold up, pinching the edges to seal and using the reserved extra dough to patch any holes.

Roll in the flour, then the egg, then breadcrumbs.

Once the oil is good and hot, fry them one at a time - or more if you can fit it spaciously.

If the oil doesn't completely cover it, you'll have to turn it over once during frying. Fry until it's golden brown.

As each is finished, place it in an oven-safe dish in the oven set at the lowest temperature.

Serve with the Huancaína sauce.

The sauce I thought was absolutely crucial to the dish. While very delicious, the papas rellenas really did need that bit of cool creaminess to round it out. The papas were fried perfectly, much to my astonishment, and the flavors of the filling worked great together. The sauce is definitely something I'll be making often, although I think it's supposed to be a bit thinner, so maybe more evaporated milk next time. My sister - a mashed potatoes fiend - went nuts over them, and said it was like a deep-fried shepherd's pie. Which is a brilliant idea that I'm now going to have to make sometime soon.