The juggernaut that is nikkei cooking, a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian, continues apace, as does an upscale, modernized version of chifa cooking, a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian. Now, most of that is because of the large Japanese and Chinese descent population in Peru. But now and again (like every week), it occurs to me that Peruvian cooking has such a wide range that it has affinities for many another cuisine on the planet.

So there I was, thinking about making a causa, the classic Peruvian appetizer of chilled mashed potatoes, spiked with chili, lemon, olive oil, and salt, and topped with, most often, a tuna or chicken salad…. And suddenly, unbidden, the thought arrived, “laap gai”.

Now, for those who don’t have a clue, it’s a traditional appetizer from Thai cooking…

… It’s a chilled chicken salad, made of ground or chopped chicken that’s been sauteed in toasted rice flour, and then infused with (at least the way I learned to make it), lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, chilies, mint, and/or cilantro. So, other than the addition of fish sauce, that kind of fits with all those Peruvian flavors, albeit that the chicken salad atop a causa is usually more of a mayo based one. But, let’s go for it anyway!

The potato base is infused with olive oil, lime juice, mint, and green chilies. Then I made the laap gai, using mint, but not cilantro (future iteration – both, I think). I then more or less made a sushi roll out of it – laid out the sushi mat, covered it with plastic wrap, spread out the potato on it, topped it with laap gai, and rolled it up. It occurred to me it might be fun to get the lettuce in there in an unusual fashion, so I made a lettuce puree. Blanched and shocked some butter lettuce, cooked a little white onion in some chicken stock and cream until it reduced down by half, and then pureed those together along with a little salt and white pepper. Garnished with mint leaf and some smoked chili flakes.

Now we just need a name for Thai-Peruvian fusion cooking.