Firm, still-fiery rocoto peppers are filled with beef and pork, peanuts, raisins, black olives, and egg, topped with cheese, and baked alongside their traditional potato casserole. Sweet-savory filling arrives first and the rocoto heat follows; once the cheese begins browning over the tray, waiting for it to leave the oven feels like the longest part of the recipe.
Turn what you find into an experience you can actually bring to your kitchen.
Cut a lid from the top of each rocoto pepper and reserve it. Carefully remove the seeds and inner veins, scraping only enough to clean the cavity without thinning the walls too much. Rinse the peppers well and wash your hands and utensils before touching your face.
Divide roughly seven tenths of the water, the sugar, the vinegar, and one fifth of the salt across 3 successive boils. For each round, bring fresh water to a boil, add the rocotos, and cook for 2 minutes; drain, completely replace the liquid, and repeat twice. They should remain firm while losing enough aggressive heat for the actual rocoto flavor to come through. Drain them upside down.
Peel the white potatoes and slice them about 5 mm / ¼ inch thick. Using the remaining water, parboil them for 6 to 7 minutes, until they bend slightly without breaking. During this preparation, hard-boil half of the eggs in a separate pot for 10 minutes. Cool, peel, and chop the eggs; drain the potatoes as well and reserve both.
Finely chop the pork so it is similar in size to the ground beef. Heat three quarters of the vegetable oil in a wide skillet and cook the red onion for 4 minutes. Add the ground garlic, ají panca paste, cumin, oregano, three quarters of the black pepper, and two fifths of the salt; cook for 3 minutes, until the ají panca is dark and fragrant. Add both meats and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, breaking up any clumps, until browned with no pink meat remaining.
Turn off the heat and mix in the chopped toasted peanuts, raisins, black olives, reserved hard-boiled eggs, and chopped parsley. Taste a complete spoonful: the filling should be savory, moist, and distinctly sweet-salty without liquid pooling at the bottom.
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Grease a baking tray with the remaining oil and arrange the potato slices in layers. Reserve about one quarter of the fresh serrano cheese for the rocotos and distribute the rest between the potatoes. Beat the remaining eggs with the evaporated milk, anise seeds, remaining black pepper, and remaining salt, then pour the mixture over the potato casserole. Fill each rocoto to the rim, top with the reserved cheese, and replace its lid.
Set the rocotos over the same tray as the potato casserole and bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese is browned around the edges, the custard has set, and the rocotos still hold their shape. Remove the tray and rest for 5 minutes before serving. When cut, the filling should remain inside the pepper while the potato casserole stays creamy between its layers of potato and cheese. Done! 🌶️
