Tacu Tacu — Crispy Bean & Rice Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked rice, day-old
• 1½ cups cooked beans (canned is fine), lightly mashed
• ½ onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ají amarillo paste or a pinch of cayenne
• 3 tbsp oil
• Fried eggs and salsa criolla (sliced onion + lime + cilantro), to serve

Method

1. Soften the onion, garlic, and ají in 1 tablespoon of oil until sweet, 4 minutes.
2. Add the beans and rice and mash them together in the pan into a rough, cohesive dough — leave some texture; this is rustic engineering.
3. Wipe the pan, add the remaining oil, and press the mixture into a thick oval pancake. Fry over medium-high WITHOUT touching, 5–6 minutes, until the underside crackles deep golden.
4. The Peruvian flip: slide it out, invert, and crisp the second side 4–5 minutes.
5. Slide onto a plate, top with fried eggs, and pile salsa criolla over. Leftovers have never been promoted this hard.