Tacu tacu
Day-old rice and canary beans mashed together and pan-fried into a browned oval with ají amarillo, served with salsa criolla.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Method
- Rinse the sliced onion under cold water, then toss it with the lime juice, chilli, a pinch of salt and the coriander. Chill this salsa criolla.
- Fry the diced onion and garlic in 3 tbsp oil for 6 minutes.
- Add the ají amarillo paste and stir for 2 minutes, until the oil takes on an orange tint.
- Tip in the beans and mash them with a potato masher right in the pan, leaving some whole.
- Add the cold rice and the salt, then work the mixture with a spatula until it holds together as one mass.
- Gather it into an oval in the pan, run the remaining oil around the edge and let it set for 6 minutes untouched.
- Flip the cake using a plate and brown the second side for 5 minutes. Serve with the salsa criolla.
Day-old rice matters here: the grains have given up water, so they bind without turning gluey. Tacu tacu came out of Afro-Peruvian kitchens in Lima, where yesterday’s rice and beans were put back to work.
