Tacu-Tacu

Tacu tacu combines beans and rice into a pan-fried portion with a golden outside and creamy centre. Lorena Salinas makes her Peruvian version from separately cooked Canary beans and rice, and serves it with salsa criolla, pan-fried banana and egg.

The beans soak overnight, then drain. Optional bacon is browned and reserved before olive oil, red onion and garlic cook in the pot. Beans, fresh water and the selected bacon simmer under a cover until tender; half the beans are blended and the mixture is seasoned with salt and pepper.

Long-grain rice cooks separately with olive oil, salt and optional garlic, then is fluffed and dried briefly. Another onion-and-garlic sofrito with ají amarillo paste is mixed into the beans, followed by the cooked rice and a seasoning adjustment.

A thin coating of olive oil is brushed over the pan before a portion of the mixture is flipped and shaped into a pointed oval. Both sides cook until golden. The salsa combines sliced fresh ají amarillo, rinsed red onion, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and marinates for at least two hours.

Banana halves brown in butter, and eggs fry in the same pan with seasoning. The tacu tacu goes in the centre of the plate, with half a banana alongside, the fried egg on top and salsa criolla to finish.