Vegetarian Papa Rellena with Salsa Criolla

Today I bring you two recipes. Papa Rellena is a dish from Peru that is usually served with Salsa Criolla. I am always looking for something new to cook and the web is such a big resource for recipes from all over the world! I am lucky because where I live most ingredients are readily available. When I found this recipe, it sounded like something my family would love. There was potato and a lot of other ingredients that I thought would work well together. I was right, everyone loved it.

I found the recipe on the blog Peru Delights. Check out their page, they have some delightful Peruvian recipes. The original recipe is not vegetarian. I used paneer to make it vegetarian. The original recipe also calls for the prepared balls of potato to be rolled in eggs and all purpose flour to be pan fried in oil. As nobody in my house eats dishes fried in oil I decided to use my trusty appe / aebleskiver pan. With a few drops of oil I was able to get a lovely golden crust around the potato. I skipped the eggs and all purpose flour completely.

You will need
2 large Yukon potatoes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 small red onion, diced finely
1 pod garlic, crushed and diced
1/2 hot yellow pepper, diced
1 tbsp. tomato paste or 3 cherry tomatoes blended to paste
3 oz Paneer, shredded

1 egg

2 tbsp. raisins

6-7 olives, sliced

salt and black pepper

Boil the potatoes. I used a pressure cooker but you could boil them in a pan of water over the stove top. While they cook boil the eggs. Place the eggs in a pan of water and heat it. Do not let the water boil. Keep it at a simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and run the eggs under cold water. Shell them right away. Keep aside until needed. Peel the boiled potatoes and shred them. Keep covered until needed.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and saute for a couple minutes. Add the ginger and the hot yellow pepper. Saute for a couple minutes and add the tomato paste.

Next add the shredded paneer.

Saute for 5-8 minutes until the paneer is cooked. Dice the boiled eggs. Add the eggs, olives and raisins to the paneer.

Add salt and pepper to taste and turn off the heat.

Using your fingers gently mash the potato to bring it together. Do not overdo it or the potato with get sticky. Divide the potato mixture into 10 small portions. Divide the filling into 10 small portions.

Take one portion of the potato and flatten it on the palm of your hand. Place the filling in the center and press it down. bring the sides of the potato up to the top and make a ball with the filling inside. Repeat for all the portions.

Heat the aebleskiver pan and a drop a couple drops of oil in each well. When the oil is heated pick up the pan and swirl it a little to allow the heated oil to coated the well. You do not need to add more oil, the heated pan will keep the potato from sticking to it. Drop a ball of the stuffed potato in each of the wells.

Allow it to brown. Using a skewer turn it around until it is completely brown on all sides.

Repeat for the remaining portions. Serve hot.

Enjoy with Salsa Criolla!

Salsa Criolla

You will need
1 small red onion
1/2 hot yellow pepper
a few slivers of red bell pepper
juice of half a lime
5-10 springs cilantro
salt and pepper

Cut the onion into thin slices. Put it in ice water for 5-10 minutes to crisp it up and lose its pungent odor. Meanwhile, cut thin slices of the hot pepper and the red pepper. Dice the cilantro. Drain the onion until all the water is removed. Mix in the other ingredients and server immediately.

Enjoy!

This is my entry for week four, day one of BM #57 for the theme bookmarked. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#57.