Peruvian Causa

Peruvian Causa Rellena

Causa is a potato dish serves in every corner of Peru. It has been referred to as the best mashed potatoes you've never had.  Causa is spiced with Aji Amarillo and plenty of lime juice. Rellena means stuffed.  What better place for such an awesome potato dish to arise than in the land of potatoes. 

Peruvian causa is made from small intensely yellow potatoes that can be found here but I wasn't in the mood to pay $32.00 for five pounds of potatoes + shipping.  So I used Yukon Golds.

Causa can be layered in a large rectangular dish to serve a crowd or rolled with a sushi mat and sliced for individual appetizers.
 
Served at room temperature or cold, this causa rellena pictured below is large enough to be an individual serving of a light meal.  The cooks in Peru have cheffied individual serving up so I followed suit

I shredded some leftover pollo a la brassa and made chicken salad for a classic causa stuffing.

From the ground up - Causa, chicken salad, avocado, causa, garnishes.  Served with spicy Huancaína sauce (the yellow squiggly lookin stuff)
Yum!

The following is from 196 Flavors.com:

History tells us that this dish was born during the Pacific War in 1879 when Chili fought against Peru and Bolivia . The Peruvian army had so much trouble getting food that women were collecting potatoes and other foods in all cities. So they created the meal they offered to soldiers “for the cause” (of defending their territory). Hence “causa”!

However, the origins of this preparation appear to be older, and there are three of them:

Pre-Columbian version
According to Peruvian food historian Rodolfo Tafur, the word causa comes from the words quechua kausay, which means “life” or “sustenance for life.” In their most essential Columbian origin, potatoes were simply boiled and eaten with ají.

Colonial version
It was limeña causa! To pre-Hispanic dish kausay, people incorporated other ingredients to mashed potato depending on what was available: fish, seafood, meat, black olives, avocado, etc.

Republican version
One story says that causa was invented by a woman from Lima who had to feed a battalion of soldiers celebrating Independence Day. All she had on hand were potatoes that she cooked, mashed and seasoned with some sliced ​​hard-boiled eggs, and a few black olives.