Lima-style fried seafood and cassava medley (jalea limeña)

Use any fresh, flavorsome fish and any type of seafood for this recipe, provided it is very fresh.

Credit: Peru: The Cookbook

• serves

  4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  1:10 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 500 g cassava (yucca root), peeled
• 1 corncob
• 400 g fish fillets, cut into 2 × 3 cm pieces
• 12 prawns, cleaned
• 12 scallops, cleaned
• 200 g octopus, cooked and cut into pieces
• 4 × 120 g squid, cleaned and cut into rings
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• juice of 2 small lemons
• 2¹⁄₃ cups (300 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
• ½ cup (65 g) potato starch
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups (1 litre) vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 cup (250 ml) Creole sauce (see below)
• 1½ tomatoes, skinned, seeded, and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp limo chile, seeded, membrane removed, and thinly sliced
• 1 cup (250 ml) tartare sauce (see below), to serve
• salt and pepper

Creole sauce (salsa Criolla)

• ½ red onion, thinly sliced
• ice cubes
• 1 limo chile, seeded, membrane removed, and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
• juice of 3 small lemons
• salt

Tartare sauce (salsa tártara)

 

• 225 g mayonnaise 
• 1 egg, hard-boiled and chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, chopped
• 40 g small dill pickles (gherkins), chopped
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp chopped parsley leaves
• salt and pepper

To garnish

• 2 cups (120 g) banana chips
• 1 cup (225 g) toasted corn (cancha)
• 1 small handful of coriander leaves

Instructions

To make the Creole sauce, soak the onion slices in iced water for 5 minutes to crisp. Remove from the water, drain, and place in a bowl. Add the sliced chile, coriander and lemon juice to the onion. Season with salt and mix together thoroughly. 

To make the tartare sauce, put the mayonnaise, chopped egg, capers, dill pickles, onion, mustard, and parsley in a bowl. Season with salt and mix together well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a suitable container and keep refrigerated until needed. 

Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the cassava, and cook until tender. Drain and cut into batons. Boil the corncob until tender, then drain and remove the kernels. Set aside. 

Place the fish pieces in a bowl with the prawns, scallops, octopus, and squid. Add the chopped garlic, soy sauce, and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and mix together well. Set aside. 

Mix together the flour and potato starch. Dip the seafood in the beaten egg, drain off any excess, add to the flour mixture, and coat evenly. 

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan or deep fryer to 350°F/180°C, or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Drop the seafood carefully into the oil and cook for 6–8 minutes until crispy and golden. Drain well on paper towels and set aside.  

Add the cassava batons to the oil and fry for 8 minutes until crispy, remove from the pan, and drain on paper towels. Arrange the fried seafood and yucca-root batons on a platter with the seafood in the center and the cassava batons around the edge. Mix the creole sauce with the corn, tomatoes, and limo chile and pour the mixture over the seafood. Top with the banana chips, toasted corn and coriander leaves, and serve with tartare sauce.

Recipe and image from Peru: The Cookbook by Gastón Acurio (Phaidon, $59.95, hbk). View our Readable Feasts review and more recipes from the book here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.