Getting in touch with my Roots

Over the Thanksgiving break I had taken my brothers Peruvian cook book called The Art of Peruvian Cuisine back to school with me. My dad also has a copy of the book and always cooks up storms in my moms kitchen. Whenever I visit Peru I try to squeeze in all my favorite meals on short trips. My dad grew up in Peru and one of his passions is cooking. Our entire family and friends knows this about him and loves coming over on the weekends to see what he is stirring up. I don't own any cook books, whenever I want to know how something is made I resort to the internet or a quick phone call to my parents.

With the combination of missing my favorite Peruvian dishes and not knowing how to create my favorite Peruvian cuisines that was enough reason to snatch my brothers cook book over my Thanksgiving break. I decided to make a popular summer meal called Causa. Causa can be made with a variety of fillings and I choose to make it with Tuna. Some may use chicken, fish, and even octopus. It is really up to the cook. With the combination of my own ideas and the instructions from the cook book, I'm not going to lie, but my Causa was DELICIOUS!!! Be jealous.

The ingredients:
2lbs of yellow potatoes (gold potatoes is okay too)
1/2 cub of olive oil
1 can of tuna
1 white onion diced
1/4 of vinegar
Aji amarillo powder
1 key lime
salt
2 avocado
2 tablespoons of mayo
2 boiled eggs
Peruvian olives

Here is the low down...
First, peel the potatoes and then boil the potatoes until soft (for about 20 minutes). Also, boil 2 eggs ( for about 15 minutes).While the potatoes boil cut up your onions and marinate the onions in vinegar. Slice the avocado. Open the can of tuna and mix two tablespoons of mayo, mix well. To give the tuna extra flavor I mixed just a tad of the marinated onions in with the tuna. Once the eggs are boiled slice them like a wedge. Strain the potatoes well and begin to mash them. Add the olive oil, sprinkle ahi amarillo powder and squeeze the lime. Mix throughly until all ingredients are well blended.

The fun begins when you start to layer. I layered my Causa on a simple plate but others have different techniques.

First, I spread a thin rectangular layer of the mash potato mix. Make sure the sides and top are smooth with each layer you add before adding a new layer. The second layer I laid the avocado slices down and made sure their were no missing gaps. Spread another thin layer of potato, then the tuna mixture, potato, avocado and finally potato. Remember to smooth the edges and top.

I garnished the Causa with the boiled eggs and peruvian olives on top, with salsa on the side.

To make my salsa. You mix the marinated onions, olives, dice the leftover avocado, and dice one tomato.

Bon Appetit!

Study Breaks

Midterms and finals are overwhelming and stressful, luckily for me I'm not a biology major. According to the bio majors I took the easy route. I am a communications major. Even as a communication major I too have had to pull all nighters, wake up extra early to cram for an exam that contains everything I learned from an entire semester which is pretty close to impossible.

While cramming I always get distracted wither it's a notification on Facebook, a text message from a friend to meet a group of friends at the bar, or my stomach growling. My normal fix for a growling stomach during studying would be a bag of Munchies chips from 7/11, but I was craving Panera Bread. Since high school my girlfriends and I would always have lunch and we'd all get the "You Pick Two" where you pick two items from a soup, salad or sandwich. In my case I couldn't find a friend available to eat and distract me from studying, and going out to eat really isn't in my budget. I decided to make my own version of the "You Pick Two.

I used Chicago style bread. (thinner then normal white bread) 

Cheddar Cheese

Tomatoes

Horseradish

Honey Smoked Ham

and for the salad...

Romaine Letus

Tomatoes 

Parmesan Cheese 

Creamy Caesar Dressing

Bye the way, this post is a distraction. 

Bon Appetit!