Papa a la huancaína is a popular Peruvian dish of cold sliced boiled potatoes drenched in a cheesy aji chile pepper sauce. The combination of the starchy potatoes and the salty rich sauce is unbeatable - it's one of the most well-loved Peruvian dishes.
This delicious potato salad may look like traditional North American-style potato salad, but the potatoes have been dressed with slightly spicy huancaína sauce instead of the usual vinegar and mayonnaise. Red pepper, green onions, chopped hard boiled eggs, and bits of crisy bacon give the salad extra color and flavor.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds yellow potatoes
- 2-3 aji amarillo peppers, or 2-3 tablespoons aji amarillo paste
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 cup crumbled queso fresco (or farmer's cheese, or feta)
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1/4- 1/2 cups milk
- 4-6 saltine crackers
- 4 slices of bacon
- 3 hard boiled eggs
- 5 scallions
- 1 red bell pepper
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
- Scrub potatoes and cook them in a large pot of boiling water until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and cool.
- Clean aji peppers of seed and roughly chop. Cook peppers, onions, and garlic in the oil until everything is soft and the onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
- Place the cooked onion mixture, the cream cheese, the queso fresco, and the 4 saltine crackers in a blender or food processor.
- Process the mixture until smooth, and add a little milk at a time until mixture has the consistency of a milkshake, or a very thick cream. If mixture is too liquid, thicken with a few more saltine crackers.
- Peel and cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces. Peel and chop the hard boiled eggs. Chop white and green parts of scallions. Set green parts aside.
- Gently toss the potatoes with the chopeed eggs, the white parts of the scallions, and the cheese sauce. Chill potato mixture.
- Sauté bacon until crispy. Drain on a paper towel, and crumble when cool.
- When ready to serve potato salad, garnish with crumbled bacon and green onions.
Serves 6 as a side dish, or 4 as a main course.
