Papa a la huancaína

Cook the potatoes

Put the potatoes, water and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil. Cook 20-25 minutes until a knife slides in easily, then drain, cool, peel and cut into thick slices.

• 800 g potatoes
• 2 L water
• 1 tsp salt

✅ C'est prêt quand : a knife slides easily into the center of a potato

Soften the chillies

Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ají amarillo and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until soft but not browned. If using paste, cook only the onion and garlic, then stir in the paste for 1 minute.

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 ají amarillo

✅ C'est prêt quand : onion and chilli are soft and translucent

Blend the sauce

Put the softened chilli mixture from step 2 in a blender with the queso fresco, evaporated milk, crackers and salt. Blend until completely smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon; add a splash more milk if too thick, or another cracker if too thin.

• 200 g queso fresco
• 150 ml evaporated milk
• 4 crackers
• ½ tsp salt

✅ C'est prêt quand : sauce is smooth and coats the back of a spoon

Serve

Lay the lettuce leaves on a platter and arrange the potato slices from step 1 on top. Pour the sauce from step 3 generously over them and garnish with the egg quarters and olives. Serve cold or at room temperature.

• 4 lettuce leaves
• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 8 black olives