Sweet Potato Dumpling, Leche de Tigre

STEP 1: BLEND THE LECHE DE TIGRE

Combine the lime juice, raw fish, cold fish stock, red onion, celery, garlic, ginger, cilantro stems, aji limo paste, salt and ice cubes in an upright blender. Blend on high for 30 to 40 seconds — long enough to break the fish down completely, short enough that the mixture stays cold. It should turn opaque and slightly viscous. That opacity is the point: the fish is the thickener, not a flavouring.

STEP 2: STRAIN AND CHILL

Pass through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing gently, and discard the solids. Taste for salt and acid — it should be sharp enough to make you blink, with the heat arriving a beat later. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes and up to 4 hours. Do not make it a day ahead; the lime turns bitter.

STEP 3: BAKE THE SWEET POTATOES

Heat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Prick the whole unpeeled sweet potatoes and bake them directly on the rack for 50 to 60 minutes, until entirely soft. Baking rather than boiling is what keeps the flesh dry, and dry flesh is what lets you use less flour later.

STEP 4: RICE AND DRY THE FLESH

Split the potatoes and scoop out the flesh while it is still hot. Pass it through a potato ricer onto a wide, shallow pan. Set the pan over low heat and turn the flesh gently with a spatula for 3 to 4 minutes, until it looks matte and stops giving off moisture. You want roughly 400 g of dry flesh. Spread it thin on a tray and cool to room temperature — warm puree gelatinises starch the moment it meets flour.

STEP 5: BIND THE DOUGH

Scatter the potato starch, plain flour and salt over the cooled flesh. Add the cold egg yolk and the aji amarillo paste. Fold with a bench scraper, cutting through and turning over, about 12 to 15 times, and stop the moment it coheres. It should feel soft, slightly tacky and reluctant — not smooth, not elastic, not kneadable. If it will not hold, add flour a tablespoon at a time and no more than twice.

STEP 6: PORTION TO A UNIFORM SIZE

Using a measured tablespoon scoop, portion the dough into about 24 pieces of roughly 20 g each, rolling each one lightly between wet palms into a rounded quenelle. Uniform size matters: dumplings of different sizes given the same time in the water will not cook through together. Rest them on a lightly oiled tray, not touching.

STEP 7: TEST ONE DUMPLING

Bring a wide pan of well-salted water to a bare tremble — lazy bubbles at the base, never a rolling boil, which would batter the dumplings apart. Poach a single dumpling for 4 minutes from the moment it rises, then cut it open. The centre should be tender and floury-soft, not dense or translucent. Set the timing for the batch from that one test.

STEP 8: POACH IN TWO BATCHES

Cook 12 dumplings at a time so the water temperature does not crash. They will sink, then rise after about 2 minutes; give them the time your test established after they rise. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto the oiled tray and toss with a little of the olive oil.

STEP 9: MAKE THE SALSA CRIOLLA

Rinse the shaved red onion in cold water for 2 minutes and dry it well. Toss with the aji limo julienne, lime juice, cilantro leaves and salt. Leave for 10 minutes and no longer — it should stay crisp and raw.

STEP 10: WARM THE CHOCLO AND CANCHA

Warm the cooked choclo kernels briefly in a dry pan with a few drops of the olive oil. Keep the cancha completely dry and at room temperature; its whole job is to stay hard and loud against everything else on the plate.

STEP 11: PLATE

Spoon 3 to 4 tablespoons of the cold leche de tigre into the base of each shallow bowl — enough to pool, not enough to submerge. Set 6 warm dumplings into the sauce. Scatter the choclo between them, drape the salsa criolla over the top, and finish with the cancha and cilantro leaves. The sauce, the corn, the cured onion and the toasted corn nut are what place the dish before it is tasted.

STEP 12: SERVE IMMEDIATELY

Cold sauce against warm dumplings is the intended contrast and it holds for about two minutes. Take the bowls to the table as soon as the cancha is on.