Aji

Peruvian restaurants serve a sauce, usually in a plastic ketchup bottle, that can be squeezed over whatever you are eating. The sauce is green in color, though I have seen Aji a pale orange color. Aji has a different taste with a bit of a bite to it. At different Peruvian restaurants we have asked for the recipe but it seems as if it is a big secret. No one seems to want to part with how to make Aji.  For the Christmas holidays, I was in California and we ate at Inca Mamas and between three of us, we used up the whole container of the green sauce.


My son-in-law asked how Aji was made and the Peruvian waiter said, "Very easy. Iceberg lettuce, garlic, Serrano chile,and salt. My daughter tried making it and her comment was, "You need to add some mayonnaise. We made it, but the consistency wasn't quite right."

I decided to give it a try. I used a small head of iceberg lettuce a bit larger than a grape fruit, two cloves of garlic, 2 large globs of mayo, Serrano pepper cut in pieces and sprinkled some salt, pepper, and Adobo into the blender. It was difficult trying to blend everything so I added about one cup of water. My result is tasty.
It may not be quite like the Peruvian sauce but it will go great with any thing I want to put it on. The color is the same and once I put it in plastic ketchup bottle my experiment will be a success!

Looking on the Internet, I found some recipes where jalapeno peppers were used instead of Serrano peppers, and cilantro and onion were added to the mix. Next time I make Aji, I will add the cilantro and onion to see if it makes a difference!

I also learned that Aji had been used in Peru by the Incas and that other Latin countries also make a similar sauce. My thought is that here in the United States we will never have an authentic Aji because we do not have the Aji peppers. For me, it does not matter because I ended up with a tasty sauce which I will call Aji!