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Aji Amarillo hot sauce

J

jhc

I thought it might be interesting to make a sauce with these peppers even though I have no experience with them. So I've acquired dried pods (aka aji mirasol) and a small jar of the paste. Fresh pods are impossible right now and I'm not totally sure if I could get them in the summer locally (maybe by mail?)
 
But I've also noticed there are precious few commercial hot sauces with this pepper. I've seen exactly 2 and both of them combine aji amarillo with habanero and fruits/spices that seem to be more Caribbean in style. Might be delicious but 1) I just made a topical/Caribbean habanero sauce and want to try a different profile and 2) this method would seem to make it unusable in any kind of traditional Peruvian cuisine except maybe a non-traditional version of ceviche. 
 
So I'm wondering... has anyone made an actual hot sauce with these? Should I even try? My current thoughts are: if I do, keep it as simple as possible. Either wait for fresh pods (if I'm lucky) or use the paste and/or dried pods. If the latter, maybe add a few fire roasted yellow bells to bring back some of the freshness? Then maybe garlic and little else to preserve the aji flavor and keep it as versatile as possible. Another possibility would be an aji amarillo citrus (I really like the idea of mandarins/tangerines to complement the description I keep seeing as "liquids sunshine) but again I think I'd be limited to ceviche/escabeche type dishes if I went that route.
 
If anyone uses these peppers I'd greatly appreciate some guidance. Thanks.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
If you've ever been to a Peruvian joint, the orange/yellow hot sauce is what you need to make. Goes excellent with grilled chicken, fish, etc.
 
I trust Thegreenchilemonster when he says, this is a good recipe:
 
(for when you get fresh pods, or you can rehydrate the dried)
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:( :stop: AAArrggg my eyes. Cant stand anything that is related to mayonnaise, had my fill of the stuff in the work place where i used to work in...
 
 
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Well this sucked.
 
Opened the jar of paste yesterday - tasted fresher than I expected. Good sign I thought. I also have 3x3oz packs dried aji amarillo so opened one of those up and tried a tiny bite of the dried pepper. Tasted good, decent heat. Rehydrated it in water. tasted the water: nice chili flavor but not bitter, so I saved it. Bought 3 yellow bells and tasted one of those - a lot sweeter than I expected. Everything was looking promising. Roasted the bells and a half a yellow onion, threw them into the pot with the rehydrated chilis, added the jar of paste, then more water to thin things out and cooked it for another 30 minutes or so. Blended it with an immersion blender. One thing I wasn't expecting is that some of the dried chilis were more brown than straw yellow so when I blended it up the result was kind of a gross yellow-brown color. But the worst was the flavor: it tasted like the worst possible bell pepper except hotter. No sweetness, no fruity or raisiny flavors. Just vegetal bordering on soapy. Not knowing what to do, I added salt and vinegar and tasted again. Now it was more like a finished hot sauce: salt level - good. Acidity - good. Heat level - really nice medium, maybe a 4-5/10? Flavor - garbage.
 
Since I had mail ordered the dried peppers and paste I wasn't inclined to immediately toss it all so into the fridge it went. Maybe by some miracle the flavor will improve after a few days. Was considering getting some scotch bonnets and adding them with some mustard and spices and make a Bajan style sauce but will I be polishing a turd here?
 
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jhc said:
Was considering getting some scotch bonnets and adding them with some mustard and spices and make a Bajan style sauce but will I be polishing a turd here?
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Damn, that sucks. Couldn't hurt to try, I guess. Worst case scenario, you'll be out a few Bonnets too. What do you have to lose?
 
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You need some yellow or Jamaican curry powder. It stays within the theme as is used in Caribbean, and heck if it hides the taste of rancid meat on ships, it should work lol.
 
Second suggestion would be roasted garlic mixed with fresh garlic added to the pot. It will add a garlic profile and the roasted will add sweet, the raw will add a garlic bite, the combo works nice. Cook it some more and taste.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
You need some yellow or Jamaican curry powder. It stays within the theme as is used in Caribbean, and heck if it hides the taste of rancid meat on ships, it should work lol.
 
Second suggestion would be roasted garlic mixed with fresh garlic added to the pot. It will add a garlic profile and the roasted will add sweet, the raw will add a garlic bite, the combo works nice. Cook it some more and taste.
Click to expand...
 
Garlic was planned but the peeled cloves I had in my fridge were moldy and I don't want any mycotoxins  :tear:
 
Today I finally made it to the latin grocery in town - kicking myself for not getting there earlier. The place is awesome. Among other things, I bought a couple pounds of frozen, whole aji amarillo (labeled aji escabeche). Probably going to puree them up, see how they taste, and either add them to the existing sauce or just start over. They also have the paste there too.
 
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