Aji Charapita Pepper Recipes

On the scoville scale this chili s spice level is similar to cayenne or tabasco.
Aji charapita pepper recipes. A homemade hot sauce recipe made with garden grown aji peppers that have been fermented for 6 weeks then processed with fresh garlic lime juice and vinegar. The word aji is a word that was brought over to peru from the incans in spain and literally means pepper. Put the vinegar and habanero pepper in a blender for 2 minutes. Pour in a glass jar and cover.
Its size is small like an american chiltepin but that small package holds plenty of fire. Place the remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix. Add the vinegar and habanero mix to the bowl and mix well. The plant produces hundreds of very hot 25 inch round tepin like peppers.
Authentic peruvian recipes use many different chili peppers such as aji limo aji charapita and aji panca. My fermentation experimentation continues. How hot is the aji charapita pepper. The ají charapita is a small yellow chili pepper that grows throughout the peruvian jungle.
I grew several aji pepper varieties this year in the garden and you know if you ve ever grown aji peppers that they are very productive. Against our jalapeño reference point the aji charapita is four to twenty times hotter than a jalapeño pepper. Hot and full of flavor it serves as the principal ají in the cuisine of regions such as loreto and san martín. Its a favorite as a.
This recipe would also be happy wrapped up in a tortilla. It is a very hot pepper and not grown commercially. It s one of the reasons i. It hails from the jungles of northern peru and has mainly grown wild only recently being cultivated for commercial use.
However aji amarillo is one of the most common and well loved. These fiery little fellows are pickled in vinegar and served as an accompaniment to classic jungle dishes such as juanes patacones tacacho and patarashca. In the case of the peruvian aji amarillo sauce this yellow chili pepper is the main ingredient. Tiny yet oh so very fiery the aji charapita has wild roots.
Put 3 aji charapita and the 4 chilis in boiling water for 3 4 minutes to get them bleached. The aji charapitas are a cool pepper. Aji charapita essentially grows wild and is only recently being processed and used commercially although it is considered the first of the jungle chile peppers to reach the world market. The charapita is equal to a cayenne pepper on the scoville scale.
They can also replace ají limo. The aji charapita is the epitome of don t judge a chili by its size its scoville heat range is between 30 000 and 50 000 scoville heat units which puts it in line with the cayenne pepper and its fellow peruvian chili the aji amarillo. Another name for the pepper besides aji charapa charapita or wild peruvian chili pepper is the lost incan pepper. It is mostly harvested from wild plants or grown in back yards.