Daring Cooks March: Ceviche and Papas Rellenas

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.

Ceviche:

450gm snapper fillet, cubed (1-1.5cm cubes)
1 chilli
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
handful of coriander leaves
salt & pepper
1/2 red onion, finely sliced.

Cut up the fish, mix it in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, and leave until 'cooked' enough for you.  Snapper is a fairly firm fleshed fish, so it took about 40 minutes before I was satisfied.  You can I hear leave it much longer, even overnight, but it would get a bit limey for me, and really, if you don't like raw fish... be more daring.

(The salad in the background is pasta, black tomato, smoked mozzarella and rocket)

Papas Rellenas:

Dough:
2¼ lb (1 kg) russet potatoes
1 large egg

Filling:
2 tablespoons (rice bran for me, but whatever) oil
250 grams lamb mince
6 black olives, pitted and chopped (use more if you love olives)
3 hard boiled large eggs, chopped
1 small onion, finely diced
½ cup raisins, soaked in 1 cup (240 ml) boiling water for 10 minutes, then minced
1 finely diced jalapeno pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (4 gm) (1/8 oz) ground cumin
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) (2 gm) (1/16 oz) sweet paprika
¼ c. white wine, water or beef stock for deglazing
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) all-purpose flour
Dash cayenne pepper
Dash salt
1 cup dry bread crumbs (you can use regular, panko, make your own or use store-bought)

To make the dough, boil potatoes until soft, let cool, skin, and mash thoroughly (or use a potato ricer, they need to be as smooth as possible).  Add egg, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly.

For the filling, brown onion and chili and garlic, and minced lamb and brown for a couple minutes.  Add cumin, paprika, raisins, and cook a few more minutes. Deglaze, add olives, take from heat, add and stir in eggs.  Cool filling.

To assemble, flatten 1/6 of the potato in the palm of your hand, add filling, and fold over to make a potato shaped casing completely around the filling.  Repeat until all potato is gone.  Roll each in flour, then in egg, then in breadcrumbs, and deep fry at 170-190c until golden brown, a few minutes each.  You can do these in batches if you cannot do them all at once.