Tacu Tacu

Name: Tacu Tacu
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Afro-Peruvian
Ingredients: 500 g Cooked white rice, cold; 400 g Cooked canary beans or pinto beans, with a little of their liquid; 3 tbsp Ají amarillo paste; 1 Red onion, finely chopped; 4 Garlic cloves, minced; 1 tsp Ground cumin; 5 tbsp Neutral oil; 1 tsp Salt and black pepper; 4 Sirloin or rump steaks; 4 Eggs; 1 bowl Salsa criolla: 1 red onion sliced paper-thin, juice of 2 limes, 1 ají limo sliced, coriander, salt

Yesterday's rice and yesterday's beans mashed together with a fried ají amarillo base, pressed into a flat oval in a hot pan and fried until a crust forms on both sides. A steak or a fried egg goes on top, salsa criolla on the side. Lima's answer to leftovers, and better than either thing was the day before.

Source

Recipe by Peruvian criollo kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Lima's home cooking — Spanish technique, Andean potatoes and chillies, and whatever the port brought in, cooked together for four hundred years.

Peru · the leftovers that became a classic — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms tacu-tacu as a Peruvian dish of rice and beans that is fried, formed into a flat oval shape and set under toppings such as steak or fried eggs, eaten as a breakfast or a second course. The aderezo, the no-stir crust rule, the salsa criolla, timings and quantities are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Llama Kitchen Cravings Journal PATRICIA LOPEZ

⏱ 30 min🍽 4 servings🔥 520 kcal🇵🇪 Peru🌶️

Dairy-freeNut-free

Steps

Salsa criolla first: rinse the sliced onion under cold water 1 minute, drain hard, then toss with lime juice, chilli, coriander and salt. Leave it while you cook.
Fry the onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat 6 minutes until soft. Add the ají amarillo paste and cumin and fry 3 minutes more until the oil turns orange — this is the aderezo, the base of half of Peruvian cooking.
Add the beans with a splash of their liquid and mash roughly with a wooden spoon, leaving some whole. Add the rice and salt and mix until it holds together in one mass.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. Press a quarter of the mixture into a flat oval and fry 4 minutes without touching it, until a brown crust forms underneath. Flip with the pan or a plate and fry 3 minutes more.
💡 Do not stir it, and do not flip it early. The crust is the dish; a tacu tacu you kept moving is just rice and beans in a pan.
Fry the steaks and the eggs separately. Plate the tacu tacu, lay the steak over, slide the egg on top and pile the salsa criolla beside it.

💡 Tips

Tacu tacu con mariscos swaps the steak for prawns in a chilli sauce; tacu tacu a lo pobre adds a fried plantain. The cake underneath never changes.
Ají amarillo paste is sold frozen or in jars at Latin grocers. There is no real substitute — it is fruity rather than hot, and it is the colour and the smell of Peruvian food.