Purple and Yellow Causa with Salmon

We had left-over ingredients from the purple potato causa we made yesterday, so I decided to buy some Yukon gold potatoes and try another variation of causa. The bottom potato layer would be purple, using our leftover purple mashed potatoes, and the top layer yellow, using our Yukon golds. I dubbed this "Laker" causa in honor of the purple and yellow uniforms worn by the Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team. We had some salmon in the refrigerator that needed to be cooked so I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 18 minutes. This leaves the salmon still very moist. I set aside a little over a pound of salmon and added one-half cup of diced celery, one-half cup of diced red onion and three-quarters cup of mayonnaise. This was mixed together and put in the refrigerator to chill. After boiling the Yukon gold potatoes, I peeled and mashed them, then set-aside three cups of the mashed potatoes. I added one-quarter cup of aji amarillo paste left-over from yesterday, one-half cup of canola oil and one-quarter cup of key lime juice (this time I used the full double-strength). Using the ring mold, I put a first layer of purple potato mix, putting much less this time and doing a better job of packing it down. I added the chilled salmon mixture next, putting much more in the second layer and patting it down. Finally, I added a much smaller third, yellow potato mixture layer. After letting them sit the night in the refrigerator, I pulled them out of the ring mold. I added a cut-up top layer of garnish consisting of avocado and hard-boiled egg.

Compared to yesterday's causa, you can see that the middle layer is much thicker. When I do it again, I still need to pat down the layers tighter to remove any space and I need to level off the top layer with a knife, over the ring mold, so that it is completely smooth.

It is a little bit of a trick to remove the bottom portion of the ring mold. This causa was very good. The proportion of middle mixture to outer potato mixture was about right and the salmon was more flavorful than the octopus, although we did have significantly less octopus in yesterday's version. Having done it twice now, I think I can make it much quicker and I think it would work fine to use a more readily available chili.

Later in the day we had Dave and Kathy Haimson try both the octopus and salmon causa. Surprisingly, they both preferred the octopus. Apparently, neither are salmon fans. They scored points in my book just for being willing to try.

I took out the rest of the garnish (egg and avocado) and dropped it on the salmon causa and got the best looking one yet. It was good.