Well I thought I really messed this one up…but it turns out it was supposed to be a quasi-messy disaster! Whoo!
This is supposed to be a pancake of leftover rice and lentils, combined with fat (usually pork butt, like in refried beans), and a handful of spices (again, similar to refried beans). Then you top it with more meat and egg for a wollop of non-vegetarian flavour.
But I did the veggie version and skipped the animal fat, and most of the added fat too. That should only have made a flavour difference, which I didn’t mind, to be honest, because I was going to serve it with hot, hot, hot rocoto chili paste and jalapeno salsa instead. But I thought I couldn’t get the consistency right. You’re supposed to grind half the lentil and bean mixture and then fry it up like a pancake with the un-ground half. It’s supposed to be sort of spreadable, but even with adding water to the food processor and making a thick purée, my tacu tacu remained unspreadable. Mostly it kind of charred on one side and when I tried to flip it over to brown the other side it required some scraping and mushing, so that the browned side got all mixed in to the non-brown mush in the middle of the overly thick pancake. Turns out that’s kind of what’s supposed to happen! But I thought I was just incompetent. I guess one does not negate the other…but it’s really easy to burn instead of brown these guys. Use LOTS of oil to make it easier (easier on your skillet, not on your hips…). In the end I just ended up frying most of it up and it was fine, if a little messy. So tacu tacu sort of kicked my ass, but I still ate well. So really, I win, pig. I win.
Tacu Tacu
- 1 cup dried brown lentils (7 ounces)
- 7 1/4 cups water, divided
- 1/2 tsp turmeric (my addition, for digestion purposes)
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic, divided
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon aji amarillo paste (or 2 hot yellow or red chili peppers blended with 1/2 tsp salt and the juice of half a lime – most paste are just pepper, salt, and oil, but I like the lime kick)
Directions:
Bring the lentils, 5 cups water, the turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a large pot. Skim off the scum with a spoon and discard. Simmer, uncovered, until lentils are just tender, 12 to 25 minutes (if they’re fresher, they take less time). Rinse them under cold water, drain them well, then transfer them to a large bowl.
Cook 1 teaspoon garlic in 1 tablespoon of the oil in the rinsed out large pot over medium heat, stirring(if you need to cook the rice) and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, then cook, covered, over low for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Then stir the rice and mix in the lentils.
While rice stands, sauté the onion and the remaining teaspoon of garlic in 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the onion is golden, about 5 minutes. Make sure it’s soft! Crunchy onion in this dish is gross. Add water 1 tbsp at a time if necessary to keep it from burning. Stir in the chile paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Now add the onion mixture to the rice/lentil mixture. You can eat it like this as rice and lentils, or you can eat some now and the next day used the leftovers to make pancakes like you’re supposed to.
Make pancakes(!): Blend half of the rice/lentil mixture in a food processor or strong blender with 1/2 cup water. Mix it back into the rest of the unprocessed lentils and rice.
Heat remaining tbsp of oil in a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Add the rice mixture and fry, gently flattening with a spatula, until a golden-brown crust forms on the underside, about 3 minutes (this is a stupid instruction since the batter is soggy and doesn’t flatten well with a spatula. Then scrape it all up and slop it back down so other gooey sections can brown. Repeat until it’s dry-ish and a buch of sections are browned (or, inevitably, charred). I ended up doing small individual pancakes and it still didn’t work well. In the end everything just kind of mushed together. Cook about 3 minutes. Repeat with more pancakes if you have the stamina.
Eat with meat (steak or sausage or something braised), and/or hard-boiled or poached egg, and/or a hot salsa (more of the aji amarillo chili paste works well, or any hot pepper blended with a little salt and lime).
Photo: the tacu tacu is in the middle of the picture, topped with a bit of coriander for garnish. It’s not that ugly, right? It was still savoury and satisfying, despite the lack of pig.
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