Ceviche and Papa Rellenas - Daring Cook March 2011

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.

I made this challenge when we had friends over for dinner. These friends in fact gave me my first ever taste of ceviche many years ago, so I knew they would not baulk at the raw fish. Also as a half-Chilean family, they were good critics of the papas rellenas, which seem to be common in a number of South American countries.

I followed the challenge recipes to the letter, and also made the suggested accompaniment, salsa criolla. You can find the recipes in the Daring Kitchen archives here.

The papas rellenas took me a long time to make. So many steps, so many pans, so much mess! I had particular trouble putting the potato through my mouli and I may have taken the name of the Daring Kitchen in vain at one point. But all was forgiven when the lovely golden orbs came out of the frying pan. They simply delicious. Our guests gave them the thumbs up, but suggested they could be improved with a slightly more saucy filling.

After my adventures with the papas, I was relieved that the ceviche was so quick and easy to make. Unfortunately it came out a bit tasteless and the texture was a little rubbery. I am clueless when it comes to buying fish, so I probably didn't make a good choice there.

I was sceptical about the salsa crilloa, but it was delicious and matched perfectly with the papas.

Thank you to our host Kathlyn - I really enjoyed this challenge and I hope I will get to sample more Peruvian delicacies in the future.

It was lovely to share this meal with friends, but it did mean that any hope of decent food photography went out the window. The picture above is the best I got and it doesn't even show the lovely interior of the papa! So to make up for that I will share a picture of the cutest of our dinner guests. She ate a whole papa, what a star.