Colombian Style Stuffed Potatoes Papas Rellenas Colombianas Recipes

COLOMBIAN PAPAS RELLENAS (STUFFED POTATO BALLS)

Steps:

• In a 2 quart soup pot, place the unpeeled, whole potatoes. Cover them with water and bring the potatoes to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, 25-30 minutes.
• While the potatoes are cooking, heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onion and sauté over medium-high heat until softened, 2-3 minutes. Add the ground beef and garlic and continue to cook until the beef has browned, 6-7 min. Add the tomatoes, cumin, and salt. Mix well. Add the cooked white rice and hardboiled egg. Mix well and cook, stirring often, until most of the moisture has been absorbed. 2-3 min. Remove the skillet from the heat.
• When the potatoes are tender, drain them. Fill the pot with a couple of changes of cold water, until the potatoes are cool to the touch.
• Peel the potatoes by hand and place them in a large bowl. Add the salt and mash the potatoes with a fork or potato masher, until they are smooth and no lumps remain. Set the potatoes aside.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper and generously flour it. Set it aside.
• Generously flour your hands and scoop roughly 1/3 cup of the potatoes into your hand. (You may want to flour your measuring cup, if using one, to keep the dough from sticking. Or, just scoop roughly 1/3 cup using a rubber spatula.)
• Dust the dough in your hand with more flour and shape it into a ball, using as much flour as you need to keep it from sticking.
• Pat the ball into a 3-4 inch disc. (Again, adding flour as necessary.)
• Place 1 heaping tablespoon full of filling onto the center of the disc. Gently bring the edges of the dough up around the filling to seal the filling inside of the potato dough. Make sure the seam is well sealed. Place the finished ball onto the lined and floured baking sheet, seam side down.
• Continue with the remaining dough.
• Once all the potato dough has been used, place the baking sheet with the shaped Papas Rellenas into the refrigerator and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. (If you are in a time crunch, you could place them into the freezer for 30 minutes.)
• Remove the Papas Rellenas from the refrigerator.
• Fill a small saucepan with 1 ½ inches of oil. Heat the oil to 375F, checking the temperature with a thermometer.
• While the oil is heating, beat together the egg, milk, and flour in a small, deep bowl.
• When the oil is ready, carefully remove a shaped Papa Rellena from the baking sheet and dip it into the egg mixture. Once it is coated, immediately drop it into the hot oil and fry for 2-3 minutes on the first side. Turn it and fry for an additional 2-3 minutes on the second side, until it is completely golden brown. Remove the Papa Rellena from the hot oil and place it on a paper towel-lined plate.
• Repeat with the remaining Papa Rellenas. If you're up to it, you can fry more than one at a time, just be sure not to crowd the oil in your pot.
• Serve immediately with a fresh salsa.

STUFFED POTATOES - PAPAS RELLENAS, COLOMBIA

Steps:

• 1) Boil the whole potatoes in a pot filled with enough water to completely cover the potatoes. About 30 to 45 minutes.
• 2) Once the potatoes are cooked, take them out of the pot and set them aside on a plate to cool for about one hour.
• 3) While the potatoes are cooling, chop the green onions and tomato into small chunks and saute these in the butter (or olive oil) adding the garlic, cumin, 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper. We call this the "Hogao".
• 4) Cook the hamburger meat in a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil until it is no longer pink. Do not overcook. While the meat is cooking, add the corn starch, the remaining salt and more cumin if you wish. Make sure that the meat turns out crumbly with no large chunks.
• 5) Thoroughly mix the "hogao" and cooked hamburger meat in a bowl and set aside to cool.
• 6) Cut the potatoes in half. Now we come to the tricky part. In other countries, they mash the potatoes and simply make round balls out of them. We do it the hard way in Colombia. Take each potato half and scoop the middle of it out with a spoon so that you end up with a small "potato bowl". Be careful not too scoop too much out as you may accidentally go through the skin and the potato may fall apart on you.
• 7) Now, take the scooped out potato "meat" and cut through it with a sharp knife. Don't use a fork because it may turn into "mashed potatoes" and the texture will be much better the coarser it is.
• 8) Place the potato "meat" in the bowl with the hamburger and hogao and mix thoroughly, making sure that there are no really large chunks of potato in the mixture.
• 9) Add the cooked rice to the mixture and mix thoroughly once more.
• 10) With your fingers, take some of the meat/rice mixture and fill the middle of the potato bowls with enough mixture to form a dome. In other words, shape the mixture so that it now looks like you have a whole potato again.
• 11) Heat your oil to frying temperature.
• 12) Beat together the large eggs, milk and the flour until smooth. (I add a little salt, pepper and cumin to my batter but it is up to your taste).
• 13) Roll each stuffed potato in the batter until well covered and drop into the hot oil using a slotted spoon. Cook until golden on one side, roll over and cook the other side.
• 14) Remove potatoes from the oil and drain on a plate or platter lined with a thick layer of paper towels on the bottom.
• 15) Enjoy! I like to use squeezed lemon or a mild salsa on my papas rellenas but they are delicious just by themselves.
• Hint: Sometimes, as you deep-fry the potatoes, you may notice that the batter may slide off leaving a blank spot on your potato. What I do, is that I use a teaspoon to pour some of the raw batter over the spot, carefully "slosh" some of the hot oil over it with the slotted spoon to set the batter and roll it over once more to cook the spot.