Ají Criollo
Ají criollo is the emulsified chilli sauce that sits on every table in a Peruvian chicken house and next to every charcoal grill in Lima. Fresh ají amarillo is deveined and softened, fried with onion and garlic, then blended with fresh cheese and evaporated milk while oil is streamed in to build a thick, glossy emulsion, with huacatay and coriander folded in at the end for the herbal edge. It is a condiment rather than a cooking sauce: nothing is simmered in it, and it goes onto roast chicken, anticuchos, boiled potatoes and fried cassava after they leave the fire. Ají amarillo itself carries far more fruit than heat, so the sharpness in a good version comes from the ají limo added separately.
Ingredients
- 6 piecesfresh ají amarillo
- 1 pieceají limo
- 1 piecered onion
- 3 clovesgarlic
- 20 ghuacatay leaves
- 20 gcoriander leaves
- 70 gqueso fresco
- 100 mlevaporated milk
- 120 mlvegetable oil
- 2 tbsplime juice
- 1 tspfine sea salt
Method
- Halve the ají amarillo lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and the pale ribs with a teaspoon. The ribs hold most of the heat and nearly all of the bitterness, so leaving them in gives a sauce that fights back rather than one you can spoon freely.
- Boil the cleaned chillies in water for 5 minutes, drain, and repeat once in fresh water if you want the sauce mild. Two changes of water take out most of the burn while the fruity aroma stays, which is the point of the technique.
- Fry the chopped onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes until translucent without colouring, then add the drained chillies and cook 3 minutes more so their raw edge cooks off.
- Tip the fried base into a blender with the queso fresco, evaporated milk, the whole ají limo and the salt, and blend 1 to 2 minutes until completely smooth with no flecks of cheese left.
- With the blender running at medium speed, pour in the remaining oil in a thin steady stream over about a minute. The sauce shifts from thin and dull to thick and glossy as it emulsifies; pouring faster than this splits it.
- Add the huacatay and coriander leaves and pulse for 10 seconds only. Longer blending warms the leaves and dulls the sauce to a khaki colour instead of the clean yellow-green it should be.
- Stir in the lime juice, check the salt and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. It is served cold, and the flavour tightens and settles as it chills.
FAQ
The oil went in too fast or the blender was stopped when it was added. Emulsions form only when oil enters a moving liquid in a thin stream. To rescue it, put a spoonful of queso fresco and a splash of evaporated milk in a clean blender and pour the split sauce into that slowly while it runs.
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